Bionatics Grows Virtual Plants
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Bionatics Grows Virtual Plants
Bionatics, (formerly JMG Graphics), is launching three
market-specific plant creation applications that are based on AMAP
technology, which has been developed over the last quarter of a
century by the French government's agronomy and biology agency,
CIRAD. The three applications offer strikingly realistic plants for
modeling and animation, simulation, and architecture. Using virtual
"seeds" from a large database, users can create botanically accurate
plants, with each plant seed capable of producing tens of thousands of
individually distinct plants.
natFX, launching at this year's Siggraph, is a plug-in designed for modeling and animating 3D plants.
Real-time plant-tuning functionality allows users to specify the age, season, and scale of each plant.
Animation is possible either as a realistic effect (with botanical constraints) or as a cartoon effect
(bypassing the constraints), using natFX's built-in plant skeletons. All natFX trees and plants are fully
textured, based on scans of actual leaves, stems, and bark.
natFX is currently available as a plug-in for Alias|Wavefront's Maya. A plug-in for Discreet's 3ds max is
planned for December 2001. Pierre Kueny, application engineer at Alias|Wavefront, worked with
Bionatics to develop the natFX plug-in for Maya "The realism of the trees is extremely good," says Kueny,
"with animation that ap pears natural and an image database of leaf and trunk scans that are exceptional.
natFX is well integrated into Maya, so users can modify plant shape and color even after they have been
imported, and is a good complement to the existing Maya tools for hyper-realistic trees and plants." Chris
Ford, senior project manager for Maya at Alias|Wavefront, agrees: "NatFX for Maya is certainly one of the
most sophisticated plant modeling and animation solutions I have seen."
Two other new Bionatics applications are Realnat, a plant modeler optimized for real-time visual
simulation, and Easynat, a plant modeler created for architectural applications. Bionatics has more than
350 plants from five continents in its database. The plants can be purchased by region or theme, and the
company is developing an online seed store so that users can buy virtual plants for specific needs.
The Maya plug-in version of natFX costs $2500, and additional plants at the online store are available for
$100 to $300 apiece, depending on the type of plant. The Realnat product, launched early this summer,
costs $7500. Easynat, which will be a plug-in for Discreet's 3d studioviz, is scheduled for October 2002
availability at a cost of $1000. (Bionatics; www.bionatics.com) -Katherine Tyrka
Computer Graphics World August, 2001
14/09/2001 18:34