The saddest tree you've ever seen

MBauer17

I'm not going to say this is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, but it's the most beautiful thing I've ever made. Which is the second thing I ever made, making it the best. I am learning Maya and made this low poly tree in what little I managed to gather from YouTube videos. I used planes and haphapzardly connected branches together to create a trunk. 


It's beautiful. 




I realized that I needed to separate out the foliage from the tree trunk, which explains the double foliage.






 I can always use any and all advice that anyone is willing to give me. 

brettmarshalltucker

Your hand painted textures are really nice for this style of an asset. You should include a wireframe of the tree so that we can comment on your topology and it's structure, as I think that's where your problems may lie. I would also look at trees from games like Firewatch to get a good idea of how the branches are arranged. Making believable trees is all in finding that point where it's good enough but not so busy that it looks too close to reality. Tree's are complicated but you're off to a good start!

MBauer17

@brettmarshalltucker I agree! I think  I have one part of the equation down with the painting. Once I can nail down Maya I strongly believe that I can be too legit to quit!

brettmarshalltucker

Faith in yourself is key! Keep on keepin' on.

WadeWT

One piece of advice for your textures (which look nice by the way) instead of a white background put them on a background that is roughly the same colour as your foliage.  Sometimes, depending on your alpha, you might end up seeing a white border around your foliage otherwise.  This is more noticeable in video games where the textures get mip mapped.  

MBauer17

@WadeWT
yep! I learned that too! I am doing exactly that in my next sad tree that hopefully will be a folorn tree than sad.

carvuliero

Just to add something to what WadeWT said , you can fill your background with blend average color using solidify plungin for photoshop or 3dcoat do that automatic when you export textures 
Solidify plugin : http://flamingpear.com/free-trials.html#freebies