How to make trees

# 1 15-01-2018 , 12:18 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2015

Posts: 31

Hey Folks,
Learning how to make environments, vegetation and rocks and terrain. For use in both Maya and Unreal. Rocks and terrain i've been making in Zbrush. And have made some vegetation in maya by hand and today looked at Speedtree. Awesome program but the version I could afford is for Unreal and would like to also be able to use what I make in Maya. texturing the body of the tree, the bark, i've tested both textures and texturing in Substance Painter to good effect.
Ok here is what I need to know. Do studios just use a software like Speedtree or an inhouse software or do people still create by hand? Seems to me the best way is to model the trunk and big branches in maya and take into zbrush or just create the base in zbrush and then add bark in Z. It's a bit of modelling but then whatever it takes. Leaves and branches are created by cards with transparency. I got back in to Pluralsight and am browsing there but not finding much and hitting Google. Any thoughts or advice would be very welcome. Bad thing about not being able to take classes is instead of being taught effectively you're wasting time searching for it. user added image

Thanks for your time,
Scott

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# 2 15-01-2018 , 04:42 PM

SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

Paint effects can be used to good effect if you know what you're doing, especially for just creating the base tree shape.

As to studios, it depends I've seen Speedtree used for background type stuff as to hero elements I have a friend that worked on a tree for I think it was the new jungle book movie and that was all done by hand I believe.

Personally, I like paint effects -> polygons for the base then I use a multi-tile UV on the leaves to get different leaf shapes and shades of colour. From there it's into ZBrush or Mudbox to do the detailing on the trunk and large branches. The benefit of this is you can create a lot of different tree shapes quickly.

Using paint effects well and getting a good result though is not easy. Very easy to produce something that looks awful user added image

Below is an image of a base tree done in pfx then converted to a poly object, this is just the base from here it would need detailing. Took an hour or so to put together and using this as a base I can make many trees very quickly

Dave

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# 3 15-01-2018 , 05:37 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2015

Posts: 31

Thx Dave,
Hadnt thought of using the efx trees as a base to take into Zbrush, that sounds good. Always wanted to do those ancient gnarled trees, full of character and story. Will be studying trees so I know just how to make em. We look at things but not 'AT' things I think. Just need a way to do the smaller branches without creating and meticulously placing a hundred of em lol. Branch cards instead of leaves maybe.
In any case thanks again
Scott

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How to make trees

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