Just brute modeling or looking for scripts to help? Brute modeling: Polyboost/graphite modeling tools > Branch tool Or, Sketchxtrude http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/sketchxtrude-0-95-beta Scripts and separate apps: Or, TreeMaker script http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/tree-maker Or, Branchy…
Some of those are stand-alone apps, SpeedTree, Dryad, XFrog, TreeGenerator. You can also check creativecrash.com for scripts I'm sure they're around but I have never used any of them. http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/c/search?search=tree&x=33&y=15
1+ for ZShperes. I do that too, it's just so perfect for making trees. Very easy. For really realistic, or very detailed ones though, I would have to agree that your best bet is third party soft or scripts. My personal favorite was Treestorm, very realistic branching and dynamics.
For the trees I'll be making, I need to have them animated in a realistic fashion. I agree that 3rd party plugins or scripts would help. But I've tried tree'd, branchy, and various other programs and nothing truly gets the results I want. I had the chance to test out Speedtree with UDK, but since this is going into Max and…