Forest Scene [UDK]

Mordin

Just starting a forest scene. ("Not another forest/foliage/nature scene!" I hear you cry). Sorry if you've seen a lot of these lately. I've been told I need to include examples of this stuff in my portfolio. So I need to practice foliage, rocks and organic stuff.

Guess I'll start with the reference. It's not set in stone, just gives me a vague idea of what I'm heading for and the compostion:



Heres what I have so far:



An Oak and a Silver Birch tree. I like the Silver Birch, but not so happy with the oak tree. Dont feel it looks like an Oak tree that much. Not sure if it's the large branch structure, or the twigs and leaves that aren't quite right? Oaks seem to have a lot of space between branches, but when I tried this the tree didnt look right.
Any suggestions? Am I just being too picky?



and a rock. This is a smooth-ish river boulder. Again I'm not sure if they look ok or not. I decimated them down in zbrush to 258 tri's, not sure if thats too low poly? I need to add moss and dirt to it.



Not sure what to do about the ground terrain. Don't know whether to model something quick in maya as it's a small scene, or make something in mudbox and world machine.

So let me know how I'm doing.

DWalker

Both trees are too straight and vertical when compared to the concept. The birch should be vertical overall, but with several bends along the trunk. Also, its branches should begin much higher along the trunk. The oaks should have a 15-20 degree list, which is quite important for the framing of the concept. The main branches should also be thicker - maybe a third of the diameter of the trunk at each branching.

Xendance

Regarding the branch texture, I'd try lowering the amount of individual leaves in the texture. That way the branch mesh usually looks less planar.

Mordin

Heres another attempt at the oak tree:






I lowered the amount of leaves, made them slightly larger too. Still not sure I like it. I think I may have gone from one extreme to the other.

I've been fiddling around with the texture for too long. Does it look any good?

Prtofdacrowd

Yeah looking good Mordin! In my opinion I think the Oak looks better in the second shot, not too sure about the second Birch, but I think I can see the first lurking to the left side so a quick scroll session later its fitting fine!

As for the rocks, take a look a bit more reference, they lack character in their form and silhouette. Andrew Bosolds Halo 4 rocks, well Halo 4 rocks I think is all I need to say:

http://www.bosoldworld.net/BW_Halo4.html

Fozwroth

Oak looks better. I would go bigger with the texture though, bigger branch but try not to have too much leaves in it - too dense = doesn't stack well and you cant build up good volume. try to get more angles and color variations in it - a set of 3 different leaves is usually enough to break it up.

Birch tree look slightly tropical at the moment. trunk looks pretty good but would try to look up some more references for the crown.

looks promising keep going!

Mordin

@ Prtofdacrowd Thanks. Yeah think I'll take another look at the second birch. Its sposed to look more like the one in the painting above. I'll keep the original too and put that in scene as well. I'll get back on the rocks soon. I was going for smooth river rocks rather than chipped hard rocks.

Fozwroth Thanks for the advice. Took another go at the texture and re-doing the oak tree. Trees seem so time comsuming! Again I'll take a look at the second birch. I'm tryin for something like in the painting.


Heres another go at the oak tree. Let me know what you think:

Fozwroth

Looks better! what you need to do though is to spherize your vertex normals of the leaves to get it so shade better also check our 3Dmotives vegetation tutorials they go through how to set up a good vegetation shader that doesn't give black backfaces.

I did a little paintover on how you should approach the vertex normals

Step 1. Spherize all the leaf planes

Step 2. start spherizing individual chunks of leaves.this is to get some fake volume in your tree.

Mordin

Fozwroth- thanks for the help. I have been following the 3D motive tutorial, its very good. I'm a maya user, so not all the techniques apply, but I've been muddling through. I've set the material up so I shouldn't get black back faces now, if i do I guess its through my shadows?
I have been using a sphere to spherise my vertex normals. But I was using only one sphere in the middle of the tree. Never thought to do it in clumps, thats a good tip!

heres another update. I gave up on trying to make the oak tree in clumps and went for something similat to the tree in the 3d motive tutorial.
With grass, do you have cast shadows on or off?



I want to get some terrain in there next. Not sure which way to go about it. Should I create something quick in maya as its only a small scene I want to do? Or should I create something large using world machine, following choco's videos? I'm leaning towards the quick way as I only want a small scene and want to get this finished asap.