Introduction
Have you ever struggled to make a realistic tree in blender? Do you still use trees from asset packs? Do you want to learn how easy it is to make a good looking and optimized tree for your experience?
Then look no further because this tutorial is made for you!
Making trees with TreeIt
So the secret of making realistic trees is inside this app.
Personally, I recommend downloading the zip file, as my antivirus software marked the installer as a potential malware (for some unknown reason), but I’ve been using the application for weeks already and nothing bad happened to my hardware. Also the benefit of zip file is that you can pretty much drop the files wherever you want on your computer. Aside from TreeIt, you’ll need Blender software.
First steps
This is the moment where the fun begins!
After you first open the application, the app will greet you with this interface:
You might be asking now: How am I supposed to make a tree from sliders and buttons? Don’t worry, we’re not gonna be using most of the options this app offers. Instead, we will use trees that are built into the app. To do that, you have to go to: File > Open and select the tree of your choice. Make sure that you’re opening tree file with .tre extension.
For the sake of this tutorial, I’ll be using maple tree as an example. Once you open the tree file, it should automatically load with textures.
Voila! This is all you need to do when it comes to generating a tree in TreeIt. Now I want to introduce you to the features on the right side. These are meant to adjust your tree to your desires.
There are 5 drop-down tabs:
- Tree
- Trunk
- Branch
- Leaf
- Mesh
Features of TreeIt (optional)
"Tree" tab:
All you need to know about this tab is:
- Global Tree Scale - this slider manipulates the tree size in general (like the name says, duh)
- Tree Poly Reduction - helps reducing poly count of trunk and branches
- Leaf Poly Reduction - helps reducing poly count of all the leaves
"Trunk" tab:
This tab contains:
- Split - splits your trunk in half, making two big branches coming from the middle
- Length - manipulates the length of your trunk in vertical axis
- Gravity - bends your tree based on amount of weight (negative values = support from below)
- Trunk Split - calculates the position where trunk splits (works only if you have split value >= 1)
"Branch" tab:
For this tab, the most important features are:
- Branch/Branchlet Count - applies the amout of branches based on value
- Length - manipulates branches length
- Gravity - manipulates the bend of branches
- Position Min/Max - calculates the position from where to where the branches will be generated
"Leaf" tab:
This tab includes:
- Count - amount of generated leaves
- Position Min/Max - calculates the position of generated leaves
Mesh" tab:
This tab is for more experienced creators, but generally it works similarly as Leaf tab.
Importing to Roblox Studio
After you finished working on your tree, it’s time to prepare it for Studio. In order to save it, you need to go to File > Export > Wavefront [obj].
Save your tree wherever you want on your hard drive.
Next thing you need to do, is separation of textures (because Roblox hates multiple layers of textures on one mesh). To do that, open Blender and import your saved tree. Then press Z and go into material preview mode. You can see that there are two textures applied to your tree. Select it and hit Tab key. This will make you go into edit mode. After that press P which will bring separation options. Select separation by material. Go out of edit mode and select all of the parts. Now all you have to do is to export the selection as FBX. Make sure to export it with these settings:
Your next step is to open Studio, enable asset manager and click Bulk Import feature. Select your mesh and import it. Apply two first options. Then, you just gotta click on both models from asset manager. You gonna see this:
Click your leaves, set the transparency to 0.02 (this will allow the leaves to be seen through) and enable option Double Sided (so the texture is applied from both sides of each leaf). Lastly, move and scale the leaves so they fit the branches of your tree. Make sure to group both meshes together.
This is the result:
Summary
This is completely safe way to make your tree assets. It is free of any copyrights and fairly quick to make. Also the more you mess around the settings, the better you’ll get at it, meaning you are going to make more optimized and higher quality trees. Just give yourself some time.
I hope you found my tutorial helpful and entertaining. If you like it, please show some support by replying to this thread, leaving a heart or following for more tutorials in future. I’ve spent nearly a month trying to figure out the best and most convenient way of creating realistic trees in roblox.
If you have issues with any of the steps, let me know by messaging me here or via private message, I’m willing to help anyone.
Cheers!
