WeightLifter add-on: new feature

Version 201509040905 adds a new option to the view from camera mode: a height offset. It add allows you to add weight to vertices even if they are in a valley on not directly visible from the camera. A tree for example might have a top that is visible if it is longer than the valley is deep at that point. Using this feature when populating an area with tree particles still reduces the number of particles needed but adds an extra bit of realism, especially on ridges seen side-on. This is illustrated in the image below:

In the bottom image you can see that the tiips of some trees peak above the ridge. The generated weight maps used are shown below, with the default on the left and the one with a slight height offset to the right:

The new version is of course available free of charge to people who have already purchased the add-on. Check the BlenderMarket page for more details.

WeightLifter - Vertex Group Tool, bugfix release

Recently I published my first commercial addon on BlenderMarket and I am very pleased with the reactions I got so far. A big thank you to all those people who purchased the addon!

Of course, no serious piece of software is completely without bugs so I updated the addon a few hours ago. Version 20141018 contains a few small bugfixes and removes a limitation that could lead to crashes when assigning random weights to groups of connected vertices on large meshes (Thank you Wybren for reporting this).

WeightLifter - My first BlenderMarket addon

I am quite proud to announce my first addon that's available on BlenderMarket!

The addon combines a lot functionality in a single comprehensive addon. There's a tutorial online as well, demoing the most eyecatching features and I hope it will be useful to not just ArchViz people!

Update: there is now an update available that fixes a crash that could happen when assiging random weights to groups of connected vertices in large meshes.