For external visualization projects, you will need assets to compose the background of your scene and probably some trees and vegetation. A fast and reliable way to add trees to any architectural exterior is with cutout textures. Those textures offer a combination of realism and lightweight performance.
They won’t add much computational load to the render process, which is great for large scenes. Today, you can download a collection with 16 free cutout trees for exteriors with a reasonable resolution.
The collection is an offering from Artur Adamczyk and the guys of aa .textures. How to get the textures? Visit the Behance profile of aa .textures that has a link to the shared folder with all textures. They are all in PNG format with an alpha map.
That makes it incredibly easy to use those textures with Blender.
What is the best way to use those textures with Blender? The easiest way is with an Add-on called Import Images as Planes. By using the Add-on you can turn any image file into a 3D plane for a scene with all necessary Nodes to make it use a transparent background.
Here is one of the textures in Blender.
How to get the Add-on? You don’t have to install the Import Images as Planes in Blender, because it is part of the default Add-ons for a long time. Go to the Edit → Preferences menu and open your Add-ons tab.
There you can search for the Add-on and enable it.
A new option appears at the File → Import menu.
Pick the texture you want and the Add-on will handle all Nodes and settings for you! Even the 3D Plane appears using the same proportions of your texture.
Do you want even more cutout trees? Check those other collections:
- 15 Free trees and brushes cutout textures
- 6 free cutout tree textures for external renders
- 10 free cutout textures from vegetation and trees
Using Blender for architecture
Do you want to use Blender for architecture or render your projects using Cycles or Eevee? We have three books available that could help you!
They cover the use of Blender for producing architectural content and also all information you need to render projects in real-time:
- Blender 2.9 for architecture: Modeling and rendering with Eevee and Cycles
- Blender 2.8 parametric modeling: Drivers, Custom Properties, and Shape Keys for 3D modeling
- Blender 3.0: The beginner's guide
- Blender 2.8 for technical drawing
- Blender Eevee: The guide to real-time rendering with Blender 2.8
You can get them in both digital and paperback formats. By ordering those books, you will not only improve your skills with Blender for architecture but also support Blender 3D Architect.
It is ver useful set, Thanks a lot