Trees, what are some techniques that you use?

Hello! I’m Matt, I mostly do building and animating. But I figured that I would reach out to you guys for some help, and possibly techniques that others along with myself can use. I had an inquiry about how you guys structure your trees? I am hooked on using the large stump, to small stump technique where you can grow out the tree in a more natural way. This is really the only technique I know, and it would be great if you guys could share some of your examples, of how you structure your trees.
Thanks!

Summary

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I tend to make low poly meshes for trees because that is what I find easiest. They don’t look that bad either tbh


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If you do this through blender is there a simple way to make these? They look so complicated, if there’s a video or something that would be great!

They are incredibly simple to make. Here’s the video

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Thank you so much!

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No problem. :smile:

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So I ran into a problem when exporting. When I export the colors don’t show up once the mesh is imported to studio. How do I fix this?

The colours in blender don’t export with the mesh unfortunately. I exported the trunk and leaves separately and just changed the brick colour.

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Oh alright thank you!

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As this topic was just posted, I would hate to clog up the feed with another post about trees, so I’m hoping that this is allowed:

I have a somewhat realistic-oriented building style. I’ve seen some really cool realistic and efficient trees, but I don’t have a clue on how to make them. I mean, I have an idea, but I don’t know how to execute it. I’d send some images, but I’m on mobile right now. When I’m on a computer, I’ll add some images.

For now, to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, there is a guy who’s making a game currently (can’t remember his name), and it’s about trains. It has extremely good looking trees, and they are each only about 500-ish triangles. That’s what I’m aiming to “replicate,” if you will.

If you know what I’m talking about, and know how to do it, then I’d be very thankful. Videos are appreciated. Thanks!

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@RedDuck765 It’s not a very common practice but it is possible to export meshes with vertex colors. It allows you to upload meshes with not just multiple solid colors, but color gradients between vertices as well.

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Whenever I make trees, for ‘low poly’ settings, I usually use a hexagonal prism mesh and finish with brick leaves. It takes a little bit of time to build out all of the branches, and its not the most optimized you can get of course, but the end result always fills my maps with very rich and cozy vibes. [ Also very first post! ]

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This is definitely an underrated question. I’ve had issues with trees myself, however, I started practicing and experimenting with them a lot until I picked up a few things to consistently make a decent tree.

I make my trees out of meshes, but the following tips still apply to any execution of constructing a tree.

Kinda stupid but; think like a tree.
I always start at the bottom and work my way up/out: I focus on making natural looking shapes first, and then I move on to --what i believe to be-- the most important part.

Think in 3D.
Trees are a 3D object, the entire function of a tree is based on the leaves branching out to capture sunlight. The important correlation here is that games are 3D as well so as a developer, I try to make it feel like a tree from any angle a player may see it at.

Once I get some branches done that’s when I think about placement. I’ll just take a branch and start adjusting it to fill up the most space. Usually I’ll look at it from the top, front, and side to ensure there’s no bland sides of the tree.

tl;dr: bottom bigger, think tree, make appealing in every direction

Quick example:

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Did not know that. Thanks for the insight! :smile:

Very helpful! Thank you very much!

Amazing! Thank you so much.

Here’s one of my ideas! :smiley:

And here’s a really good essay about trees, and how to build them professionally.

(You must open that mini essay.)

Good luck! :slight_smile:

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image
I always make the branches and the trunk in this pattern with a large block on the bottom and gradually make it more thin
image Then I rotate them around slightly and attach them together

Then I add a few green blocks on the top to make it look like leaves
image

Very simple , I have been doing them like this ever since I started and they still look cool ( In my opinion )

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There are ways to make really amazing trees on blender less than 1k Triangles or Polygons, its just way too time expensive, the usual way to make trees the realistic way is to make the leafs with a built in plugin in blender, import it to Studio and then apply a leaf texture on it.

You will have mixed results due to the leaf textures on studio usually clip over each other like decals this can be easily solved by changing the weight on the leaf meshes but its really time expensive.

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Thats a very nice Tree Mesh