Collab2021 – WIP – wardred

I like where that was going, but I ran into some problems with it.

It was really tricky for me to get the leave alignment right with the sapling tree generator.

Also, when I zoomed in on the project image the leaves aren’t maple leaves, they’re just hexagonal leaves.  I should honor that, and it’ll save a fair number of vertexes.

I’m going to play with the geometry nodes and see if I can’t come up with something I like better.

Thank you @yukinoh1989.

As much as I like what was going on with the sapling tree generator, it’s a little too random.

Compare the sapling generated tree on the left to ones on the right.

The ones on the right are  hand modeled with the skin modifier.  They’re much easier to control.

Now I just need to get leaves applied.  (Not sure if I’ll need a lot of smaller branches or not.)

@vincav81  – I need to go back to the project guidelines a little.  You’re correct, from the perspective of the photo, I could probably reduce the number of limbs significantly and have leaves floating with no attachment to branches at all, and one wouldn’t be able to tell because they’re so far away.

If the goal is to be able to “fly” through the model, and be able to take good photos of it from other perspectives, it’s possible one of the mid ground trees could become in focus, in which case having leaves obviously floating away from the limbs would be problematic.

Homework Submission – Week 1 – MG Trees

@theluthier – Finally got to a spot where I could link you directly to this homework assignment.

The trees in the first image on the right are the most complete.  I really like their branching.  I’m still not quite as happy as I could be with the leaves themselves.

The tree in the middle with the huge maple leaf under it was the sapling generated tree.  I like the shadows from that tree better than what’s happening with the leaves on the right.

In the first image on the far right and left are some skeletal trees.  Not sure if I should actually be doing anything with those or not, but it kinda looks like they’d be there from the reference photo.

I asked a question about the second image.  I wasn’t sure if I should be trying to recreate something that would look good if you walked up to it, which would end up being the middle tree, or if I should focus on just what one can see from the photo, like the two outer trees.

@artifact – Thanks for pointing that out.  I emailed Kent earlier while I was at work, and finally got to a spot where I could actually add him to the specific homework post.

The dangers of turning things in so close to Midnight!

Hi Kent,

   Thank you!

   I agree.  The shell I created. . . feels like a shell.  There isn’t enough interior volume which makes it look like a balloon with a loose covering of leaves and doesn’t create any interesting shadows.

   Leaves are definitely something I’ll be working on for this week.