ArtVisualizer Press Media | Archie Visual Design & Art Review

ONYX TREE and subsequently ONYX TREE PAINTER and ONYX TREE PROFESSIONAL are the first parametric modelers for Macintosh platform that model and render photorealistic trees and palms. Once a tree has been generated, you can save it as a ONYX TREE file in a custom library of tree parameters, the tree image can be saved as a BMP file, and the tree model as a 3D DXF file (ONYX TREE PROFESSIONAL only).


Those who inquire about ONYX TREE are very often confused in thinking that ONYX TREE is a library of trees. It is very important to clarify this misconception. Although, the software package comes with extensive libraries of pre-modeled broadleaf and conifer trees, palms and bushes, this program is neither a data library nor a procedural library of trees.

ONYX TREE is a true tree modeler that allows you to model virtually any kind of tree thanks to the powerful parametric modeling technique that the program implements. The beauty of parametric modeling lies in the presence of precoded knowledge about the anatomy and growth of a tree you are going to model so that you do not have to start from scratch as is the case with conventional modeling.

With ONYX TREE, you model a tree by simply manipulating its essential characteristics (parameters) such as the height, the curvature and density of branches, the type and color of foliage, and many more. By adjusting the values of parameters, you can model a broad range of broadleaf and conifer trees, palms, and bushes: different species, variations of the same species, trees in different stages of growth, trees in different seasons.

Each parameter adjustment is recorded on the model instantly so that you have full awareness of the changes during the modeling process.

User Interface
In spite of numerous parameters, it is very easy to command ONYX TREE because of its extremely well thought user interface. The parameters are logically grouped and can be easily accessed on different levels of modeling detail. The levels of modeling detail (or abstraction) allow you to concentrate on one class of tree elements at a time which, taking into account an inherent complexity of the tree, helps tremendously in the modeling process.



The user interface is structured to reflect clearly the ONYX TREE's internally encoded principles of modeling so that you can get an understanding of these processes and achieve easily complete control. For all these years of ONYX TREE development, we have striven to make the communication between the user and ONYX TREE so fluent so that, in the user's mind, the interface almost disappears.



Meet the Current Technology
A good program is distinguished not only by its features, but also by how well does the program balance its performance with the current technology. This is of particular importance for modeling and rendering trees since high demands on processing power and memory space tend to push a computer to its limits. We have invested tremendous amounts of time and energy in research to achieve this balance and to make ONYX TREE truly functional and useful. ONYX TREE can save created tree as a parametric model, as a rendered image, and as a 3D geometric model depending on the way you wish to use the data. In a parametric model, the tree is described by a set of parameters whose values determine the characteristics of particular tree.
The trees saved in a parametric form will take the least space thus making it the ideal format for creating your own library of trees. Besides its compact size, the parametric format allows you to create infinite variations of a master tree that will depart slightly or substantially from its original, or you may show the same tree in different seasons. If you wish to use a tree in 2D imaging work, or as a background tree in a complex 3D scene, you would want to use our rendering engine to create the tree image and then save this image as a BMP file. By implementing innovative approaches to modeling and rendering, we have substantially speeded up tree generation and lowered memory requirements for both, tree generation and tree storage, and achieved exceptional quality of rendered trees. It takes ONYX TREE seconds to render a tree of average size, and 375 kB of memory space on average to store the image as
a BMP file.



For animation work, you would want to use the ONYX TREE's 3D polygonal models that are exported in a DXF format. When creating a 3D model, ONYX TREE gives you complete control over the size of the model. For a given tree, the number of polygons can be adjusted, so that you can achieve the best compromise between the model's size and the level of detail shown without sacrificing the tree's look and feel. Even with the small number of polygons, our models preserve graciousness of natural trees. The combination of parametric modeling, powerful rendering, and the three different formats for saving the trees makes ONYX TREE the ultimate tree modeler which successfully balances today's constraints of the computer processing power, and, in the same time, reaches far beyond the current state of technology into the future.

Background
Among many, many comments that we have been receiving from our customers, prospective customers, and curious bystanders on the shows where we have exhibited ONYX TREE, the most memorable ones are always those spontaneous words: "This tree looks like the one in my garden!" or "Yes, I have seen this tree before!" or "Is this a scanned tree?" How did we achieve such photo realism? The impressive visual quality of trees together with high speed of tree generation and low memory requirements are the results of years of heavy, ongoing research.
The history of ONYX TREE goes twelve years back when Bojana Bosanac, the president of Onyx Computing and the principal designer and developer of ONYX TREE began her doctoral research at the Harvard's Graduate School of Design. While at Harvard, Dr. Bosanac was deeply involved in the research and development of knowledge-based systems for computer modeling of plant forms. Her wide knowledge in botany, visual arts, design, and computer graphics, and the ability to merge this different fields together has been crucially important in giving ONYX TREE a solid theoretical base upon which the modeler is built. One of the most important, truly unique technique that we have developed and that has contributed immensely to the quality and speed of our renderings is the Direct Image Synthesis.



The Direct Image Synthesis is a procedural approach to tree image generation that does not distinguish modeling and rendering as two separate processes as is the case with conventional modelers and renderers. The modeling and rendering are merged into a single tree generation process which is governed by a complex system of rules devised from the knowledge about the anatomy and growth of trees, and the principles of painting. The Direct Image Synthesis has enormous advantages to standard modeling and rendering methods because it allows much faster tree generation and it brings
superior quality to rendered trees.

Epilogue
The design and development of ONYX TREE has been enriching process in which we have discovered multi faceted beauty and dignity of trees that otherwise we would have just passed by as most of us do. These discoveries have changed the way we look at the trees and the way we feel about trees. With ONYX TREE, our goal has been not only to give you a useful tool that allows you to finish a task with satisfaction, but also to open up your creative worlds to the discoveries that have enriched us.

System Requirements
Intel Pentium, Pentium Pro processor
4.5 megabytes of RAM
640 x 480 pixels or larger color display
8-bit or better color display support
Windows NT, Windows 95 operating system

Customer Support
If you need help, or have any comments about ONYX TREE, contact Onyx Computing. You can reach us by:
- Telephone: 1.617.876.3876
- Telefax: 1.617.868.8033
- E-mail: info@OnyxTree.com
Web: http://www.OnyxTree.com
Mail:Onyx Computing, 10 Avon Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.