Mesh helpers and hero meshes
Learn how Mesh helpers can help you seamlessly integrate a hero mesh to your model, build off of it, and fine-tune its wind rigging.
Note
You can still use Photogrammetry tools as another method to integrate a hero mesh to your model.
Hero meshes in SpeedTree Modeler
A common practice in vegetation modeling is to build a “hero” mesh to capture unique shapes and fine detail that are critical to a shot or the environment. Examples include photogrammetry scans of trunks or models created in sculpting applications.
You can import a hero mesh into the SpeedTree Modeler, but you have to perform a few actions to fully integrate it into your model, primarily:
- Build off of it with procedural generators.
- Make it realistically move with the wind.
Hero mesh integration with mesh helpers
Mesh helpers allow you to provide an imported hero mesh with a spinal structure that follows its shape. With such a structure, the hero mesh mimics the behavior of native SpeedTree Modeler generators, which enables the possibility to build off of it with procedural generators and assign it custom wind properties.
In practice:
- A mesh helper is a scene object that you use to draw a curve along the hero mesh and generate a Branch generator of spine only type from the shape of the curve.
- You can create as many spines as needed for a single hero mesh and organize them in a hierarchy under the hero mesh.
- A mesh helper becomes disposable once the spine is generated, but you can keep it for further use if needed, and you can create as many mesh helpers as needed.