basic palm tree

nightshade

here's a basic palm tree i'm working on. for the moment i just have the colors blocked in i'm going to move on to texturing next.
any crits are welcome, i plan to put this into cryengine when i figure it out





anyway, thanks for looking.

Jessica Dinh

Needs coconuts!

marq4porsche

Before you get into engines and all that you should focus on the modeling. Right now your palm leaves are very flat and don't droop properly. Palm leaves grow up from the center before gravity brings the ends back down. I would look at real palms as reference and see how the leaves work.

DrunkShaman

Jessica Dinh wrote: »

Needs coconuts!

This

re.wind

Preferably two large ones?

Its a good start, but using reference images you will improve your modelling skills faster and get better results.

nightshade

it has two large(ish) coconuts already, they are in the 1st image, i'll make them bigger


it has two large(ish) coconuts already, they are in the 1st image, i'll make them bigger

ok i made some changes, hows this look?



p.s. made the coconuts bigger

Jessica Dinh

Better, the gravity is working better now, although you could probably droop the tips down a little more. And maybe make the base a bit wider to provide a better sense of support for the rest of the tree.

Also, I still only see one coconut. MORE COCONUTS!

Steppenwolf

It's way easier to make the textures first for a prop like this unless you want some very stylized and unique geometry (thats difficult to use on other variations).

nightshade

the other coconut is hiding behind the on you see. as for textures, i'm having some trouble finding a nice clear image of a palm branch i can work with. texturing is my weakest skill.

Jessica Dinh

I googled 'palm frond' and found some really high res images. Try flickr too for ref searches.

nightshade

Awesome, thanks. i tried palm leaf and all sorts of stuff but not frond. that's exactly what i need

jmt

You need less edge loops going down the length of the fronds and more going across. It looks like you made the geo suit the original shape of the fronds, then when you increased the bend in them, you didn't increase the geo to match. Also, the coconut doesn't really look spherical.

Ben Apuna

You need more branches that point upward at the top of the tree. The upward pointing branches would be the youngest. As the tree grows they are moved from the tip of the trunk to the sides and begin to fan out and droop downward. At the end of it's life the branch will be drooping nearly straight down until it detaches from the trunk and falls to the ground.

This one's a bit windblown but I think you will get the idea:



You might want to model the palm tree with a straight trunk at first. Then use deformers, or a skeletal rig to "pose" the trunk. That way you can create many variations very easily.

Toast

I see you are using Maya, have you tried PFX?



Try these preset here, once converted from pfx to polygons you could tweak it even further.

http://www.mayzie.net/wp-content/downloads/paintfx/mayzie_treePalm.mel