Well I would make the base in maya. Make the trunk and make 1 or 2 nubby bits with their pivots near their base then make the tree trunk a live object. Then just place the objects on the trunk one by one. If I was using max I would probably do an array via rotation of the lumpy bits around the tree trunk. Then offset them…
yeah its a palm tree trunk.. the ref isnt exactly what im going for, but it gives an idea. I ended up sculpting one of the little nubs, grabbed a custom alpha from that, then applied the alpha evenly across the surface using the radial symmetry tool.. currently im looking at my sculpt and realizing it looks utterly shit..…