Current Gen Tree Workflow?

oxygencube

Hey all,

I am working on my Abandoned Swamp Environment and I am ready to try and tackle some trees. I've done some searching for info and digging in the wiki but most of the info there is 5+ years old. I am trying to stick with a Naughty Dog like workflow and make textures from scratch using as little photo-sourcing as possible using Zbrush and NDO for texture creation. I know I could use SpeedTree but I am convinced there is value in showing I can do these from scratch.

I'm having a hard time getting started. For example, I have the idea to base trees with rigged branches, roots, and trunk then duplicate and make variations off of that master tree. Is this a viable workflow?

Would appreciate some insight here.

..oxy..

Deadly Nightshade

I get a couple of reference images and turn them into image planes in Maya. Then I create NURBS for the trunk and the branches and extrude polygon cylinders along these and sew/bool together the geometry. Now you have a basemesh that you can sculpt from.

You could also just use zSpheres in zBrush and model these along a reference picture. That's probably faster. For the foliage, sculpt small leaves and create 1-3 smaller branches that you then use to create an alpha texture with.

oxygencube

Thanks for the reply. I got that much figured out, I'm looking more so at how I create textures and how I UV the tree. Do I make a tiling texture for the trunk and modeled branches or do I texture it 1 to 1 as a hero asset?

Eric Chadwick

Depends on the tree. If it's a small hero asset, the 1:1 mapping. But if it's a forest, then tiling textures.