All images are presented in three sizes: 100%, 66%, 33% - most textures in large format are 1600x1200 on this 2-CD set.
66 digitized trees at resolutions near 1600x1200. These are in high quality JPG and, 32-bit TGA files.
20 hedges
45 plants (shrubs, flowers, and houseplants.)
15 short grass, long grass (shot at eye level)
56 branches, barks, and leaves
202 bump (elevation) maps for all Trees and Foliage, in all three sizes (606 total)
202 alpha (clip map) images for all Trees and Foliage, in all three sizes (606 total)
10 panoramic skies and backgrounds (6000x1200... That's BIG.)
202 planar objects (.lwo and .dxf) fitted to size with each texture, which saves wasted set up time.
20 interesting landscape meshes (.lwo and .dxf)
7 logical tree and foliage categories
HTML Browser make it easy finding textures, bump maps and photos
Features
All textures created from high-resolution digital photos.
Created by 3D artist/animator David Campbell.
All textures and bumps tested for functionality in graphics programs
Convenient maximum-quality, 24-bit JPG format for lower file sizes and use on most platforms, and 32-bit TGA files for Alpha channel clip maps.
Textures may be used royalty free in other graphics images
Applications
General-purpose 2D and 3D computer art and animation
Architectural visualizations
2D and 3D computer games
Web content development
Film industry CGI
2D Print Media Applications
Video/TV Productions
Engineering/product design and visualizations
Legal animations and renderings
System Requirements
Any PC supporting computer graphics
CD Player
PC-Windows/Mac/Unix/Amiga/DEC platforms
SOME NOTES ABOUT THIS TEXTURE LIBRARY
by Tom Marlin
President, Marlin Studios
Several years ago, I saw the need for a texture library with a wide selection of trees and foliage, all presented with alpha channel transparency. There was nothing of significance in this area on the market at the time, and even today the few products available are not what I'd been looking for.
I began the project back then, but that's about the same time Marlin Studios began to grow. Somehow, this project sat on the back burner for awhile, mainly because it was my personal project and my time was being stretched with other projects. So, along came David Campbell, who had been creating eye-popping cover art for our CD-Roms since our first product came out.
Among other things, David is a landscape artist, so he was a natural to continue on with the project. I won't go into all he went through to create this texture library, because he does that himself in the Online Docs on Disc 2 of this collection. However, I will say I'm personally thrilled that we now have Virtual Trees & Foliage. I can now call up any of 66 tree textures or 140 or so plants, flowers, shrubs, grasses, barks, leaves, etc. and instantly add them to my 3D scenes, and all this can be done with very little use of polygons. I've also already begun using them in my 2D work for web site design, advertising and other projects.
Like many of our other texture libraries, we wanted one done the way we, as practicing graphics artists, defined it. We came up with a very large resource library that we know you'll find useful.
Our goal for all our texture libraries is creating solid content you can use, that will save you money and man-hours, whether you're a graphics hobbyist or the person responsible for a large commercial production. We truly hope you enjoy using this texture libary and will continue to collect Marlin Studios products. We have several additional texture libraries in the works, so stay tuned for upcoming releases!
SO, HOW DO I USE THIS LIBRARY?
INDEX
The HTML Browser Index for all files is located on Disc 2.
CD-ROMS
This texture library is divided into two CD-Roms:
DISC 1 - Targa Files
DISC 2 - JPG Files and Goodies
Disc 1 is composed of 202 32-bit alpha channel clip maps, with 202 matching bump maps. Both clip maps and bump maps come are presented in three sizes. Because of CD-Rom storage size limitations, these textures are slightly smaller in size than their companion JPG versions on Disc 2.
Disc 2 is composed of 202 JPG files, with matching alpha maps and bump maps. All three file types are stored in three sizes. In addition, this CD-Rom includes:
1. 202 planar object meshes, sized proportionally to fit the textures, presented in DXF and LWO object format
2. 5 landscape meshes, presented in DXF and LWO formats.
3. 20 panoramic background images, in three sizes.
4. Two detailed Viewpoint Digital meshes, a palm tree and a Joshua tree. All are presented in DXF, LWO, 3DS and COB formats.
5. An index with 10 printable thumbnail pages
6. A gallery of images created with the textures in this library.
7. Online Docs:
A. Introduction
B. Examples
C. Tutorials
D. Photos
E. Contact
F. Credits
G. Extra
A FEW WORDS ABOUT CLIP MAPS
You may hear different terminology for clip maps, such as opacity maps, billboards, transparency maps, and alpha channel textures. We selected opacity maps as our term, because it seems to have more industry wide acceptance and is used in both the 2D and 3D graphics worlds. Clip maps, by our definition, are textures that contain transparency. These can be presented in one file as a 32-bit Targa, where the transparency is stored in the 4th 8-bit channel. They can also be presented in two 24-bit JPG files, where the texture is stored in one file and the transparency stored in an additional JPG transparency map.
TARGA VS. JPG FORMATS
Why present two formats for these clip maps? Because of program requirements and personal preferences. Some programs accept only 32-bit alpha channel TGAs for clip maps, while some programs don't accept TGAs. For programs that accept both formats, the personal preference of the user is taken into consideration. Both formats have their upsides and downsides. TGAs, for example, contain no artifacting in the transparency area, while some JPG clip maps do. JPGs, on the other hand are about 80% smaller in physical size, due to their compression algorithm, and are therefore more manageable on your hard drive. Rather than attempt to address every situation in the graphics world, we decided to include both formats. As stated above, the TGA files are slightly smaller in pixel area than the JPGs, because of their large physical size.
BASICS OF USING THESE CLIP MAPS IN YOUR 3D WORK
For 3D work, applying a clip map texture is simple.
1. Select a texture, either in TGA or JPG format
2. Load the corresponding Planar Object into your scene.
3. For TGAs, apply the TGA image in both your texture map and transparency image mask area.
4. For JPGs, apply the JPG texture image in your texture map area, and apply the correspondingly numbered alpha map in your transparency image mask area.
5. Apply the correspondingly numbered bump map if you want an enhanced textured look.
The above procedure varies considerably from program to program, so check your 3D program's documentation for specific instructions.
INDEX
For your convenience, we've provided 10 pages (JPG images) with thumbnails of all textures, arranged according to the categories in the index (trees, leaves, branches, etc.). Note that these are easily printable for your convenience. As you'll notice, there are three sizes for each texture. The thumbnails list the Large versions, for sake of convenience. These thumbnails are also representative of the Medium and Small versions.
Some notes about our file naming:
FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
Limited to eight characters, for compatibility on all platforms.
A. First three or four characters -- lower-case alpha description of the texture. Examples: "plnt" for plants, "gras" for grass, etc.
B. Next Two Character Positions -- numeric representation of the texture in its class. For example, "plnt01, plnt02, etc."
C. Next Character Position -- This is either an upper case L, M or S for large, medium or small resolution. The reason for uppercase is so the "L" doesn't look like the number "one." Example: "plnt01S, gras05L, etc."
D. Next Character Position -- For textures, this is blank. For bump maps, a lower case "b" is added. For example, a plant texture could be "plnt04M.jpg" and the corresponding bump map is "plnt04Mb.jpg"
E. Extension -- "jpg" or "tga" in lower case
GET OUT OF THE CAR AND LET'S SEE YOUR . . .
License -- read the licensing agreement carefully. These textures are royalty-free when used within a work of art (this means you can't copy them as-is and distribute them in any way). Feel free to modify them for your own use -- change the colors, sharpness, crop, etc. -- but remember, that is still a derivative work of the original and cannot be distributed as a new texture, only used within your art work. I hope that helps you understand all that legal stuff.
I GOT BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (AGAIN!)
Special thanks go to my very good friends and cohorts, David Campbell and his gal Jen! Also a very special thanks to my gal, Etta Hawkes, who puts up with a temperamental artist, provides constant support, works diligently and offers great artistic input.
.
David Campbell - Motionart AAI
email: david@motionart.com
Web: http://www.motionart.com
ADD YOUR TWO CENTS WORTH . . .
Would you like to see more of these textures? We have plans to release more textures collections and would love your feedback. Or, is there a related product you'd like to see? Are there maybe some tips and tricks you'd like to share with others? Also, we'd love to see the images you create with this collection of textures. Send us an email at:
feedback@marlinstudios.com
Or, you can always pop onto the web at the Marlin Studios web site:
http://www.marlinstudios.com
. . . Tom Marlin
All material on these 2 CD-Roms (c) Copyright 2002, MARLIN STUDIOS
