Bonsai/Mangrove -WIP

Cole.soryy

Hi! I consider myself new to 3d modeling/texturing and wanted to know what you guys think of a little project i did this month and to get some input.


-Work done in zbrush using zspheres trying to get overall shape of the tree.


-Me setting up the scene and trying to figure out how to place the leaves.


-Final Render in Max.

Time for my ugly texturing!\\\ This is what i need help with.


So my uvw's i believe are extremely ugly. If i try rendering with normal maps and not use my displacement maps i get ugly seams and overall crappy looking model. How would you go about uvw'ing a model like mine? To get my normals i just baked my hp and lp in xnormal. Yet in the xnormal 3d previewer i get nice looking seams?!?

vincentvangeel

First of all, the overall feeling is quite alright for the first time. Getting a shape that looks natural in a tree is not simple. Personally I wouldn't do it with zspheres and just model it, but it's a way. But if you do it this way, do collapse the endings, now they are very round.

As for the polycount, the main is alright but the branches are having way to much poly's. You might want to reduce the amount there, if you do this the unwrapping will become a little bit easier aswell.

For the leaves, currently they are to much aligned, don't be afraid to stick some through each other. And make 'bushes' with it.

The best way to unwrap a tree is with pelt mapping, you can do it in max but I recommend a program called 'roadkill', it's really easy to use and free. http://animium.com/2008/09/roadkill-uvw-tool/

As for the normals, I think it's because the normals you bake out are fading a little bit, wich causing the seams. The new unwrap will help alot of that already, but you can also play a bit with the settings in xnormal.
If possible could you post your normal maps while they are spread out? I might be able to see the problem better then.

Don't give up and keep practising, and someday you will be able to make some really beautifull models.

Mr Significant

The Zpsheres are fine, there is also a video on YouTube which is speedart of sculpting from scratch the bonsai tree. Just search it on YT.

+1 what vincentvangeel says: the Uv mapping is bad, very bad. Even when you don't wan't to use roadkill, In max is very easy, but technical and boring technique of mapping. If you wan't a tutorial about UV mapping in Max there is tutorial on Cgtutsplus. Search in Max tutorials.

And you have tooo much planes on the trees.As vincentvangeel says: make them bushes. Less palanar looking.

Hope that helps

Cole.soryy

tabtoxin

your leaves don't feel quite right to me - i think it's the alpha. the leaf textures shouldn't just be a glob of stuff in the middle. i don't really know how best to explain it so here's a picture