How to Create Stunning Trees
Posted on 29. Jun, 2009 by Andrew Price in Tutorials
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In the last tutorial we created killer grass, perfect for any outdoor scene. So why not top it off with some realistic trees? No nature scene is complete without it!
The tutorial will take you approximately 30 minutes to complete.
During the tutorial you will learn how to:
- Efficiently use bezier curves
- Use the curve to tree script to generate complicated twigs
- Create low poly leaves
- Properly texture a tree
- Hand paint displacement onto an object
You will need:
- Bark Texture
- Normal Mapped Bark Texture
- Leaf Texture (Image 1)
- Alpha Masked Leaf Texture
- Tree Reference Photo (If you own this photo please let me know, I have lost the original link)
Ready? Let’s begin…
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Be sure to post your results in the comments section below!
88 Responses to “How to Create Stunning Trees”
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30. Jun, 2009
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03. Jul, 2009
[...] Видеоурок по созданию деревьев в Блендере от Андрю Прайса. 30 минут видео посвященного тонкостям создания дерева,конечный файл прилагаеться. [...]
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13. Nov, 2009
[...] View the tutorial Link [...]
Miguel
31. Aug, 2009
Hi yout tuts are awesome just im stuck :’(
At the 15:43 when u press generate from selection everithing goes good, but when i do the twigs disappear
I hope u can help me
cg4god
07. Sep, 2009
when u press generate material u must have the tree unselected, the, before pressing generate from selection, select the tree again. It hapenned to me too. If u have already done that mistake, came back to a previous version of the file, and then repeat the operation, or else it won’t work. I hope it can help u , bye.
Miguel
07. Sep, 2009
Thank u for u response cg4god But i have the same problem i adjunt an image and the archives if u wanna to check i really apreciate that
The image (if doesn’t admit Html here is the link)
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/26/1884747/problem.gif
And the blend’s
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/26/1884747/Images_
Karim
13. Sep, 2009
hey cg4god i followed your instructions and it didn’t work , every time i generate from material i loose all the twigs . I have applied the material to the mesh withouth using the script and then tried adding the leafs using the script and the twigs dissapeard again .
Can anyone help me please ….!!!
Jami
15. Sep, 2009
Hrm. What’s odd is that I don’t have that script in my library. Newest Blender and all. Haven’t found the script yet but…it would be appreciated if you could point me in a general right direction. Thanks.
Rhali
26. Sep, 2009
thanks for very clear step by step instructions, i just started blender3 wks ago and appreciate it even more.
would it be possible to draw the curves with grease pencil? or import paths from illustrator or corel draw?
Rômulo Jordão
29. Sep, 2009
Hy, this is really a great tool to make good trees, and the tutorial is really good to, but i have a doubt, im following the steps of video and when i try to make the UV and texture, i dont know what happen, but the twigs that i generate before vanish… What i can do to fix it?
Thanks again for the amazing tutorial, and i will wait for some answer.
Rômulo Jordão
29. Sep, 2009
Well, i was making some tests and figured out what was happening… i deleted the shapes that make the branchs,so, when i generate the UV, the script need to generate everting again, so, if you delete some shape to create the leaves or the twigs, they will gone… Well, thats it. Hope this work for other people :p
HolyDiver42
11. Oct, 2009
When i click to add the leaves, it adds them, but it rotates the plane by itself, so i can’t follow the directions when you talk about how to rotate the plane so the leaves look right. When i try to clear the rotation, it does nothing. I guess it will look ok if i render it, but how do i fix this?
Matthew Adams
16. Oct, 2009
Those having problems with twigs disappearing: notice that when he makes this stuff (the twig spheres namely and perhaps the leaves), he names everything, then hides them in other layers without using undo (which closes the wizard on me). Leaving the wizard open with the base generated tree selected, all the values all filled in. This is a requirement, otherwise it regenerates the entire tree without twigs. I had trouble with this at first.
I didn’t want to sign up to download the leaf texture, so I went to Google images and found a free leaf texture (with a green background), used gimp to create a black and white version of the image for the alpha map like you did.
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/8140/tree1j.jpg
(I know it’s not the best. Blender 2.46 (Ubuntu package))
Thanks Andrew for this tutorial! I can now make decent trees if I put more time into making the base better. Now I just need to figure out exporting to md2 or Ogre.
shariff
19. Oct, 2009
nice tutorial i’ll definately be needing this. Thanks a lot this is what i’ve been looking for for a long time regarding easy tree modelling. Probably the best and easy way so far.
DMRankor
27. Oct, 2009
Thanks for providing elightenment on creating trees.
I was sitting there in jaw dropping awe as to how you did it.
Before, I was busy scratching my head on a way to
create trees to add into a scene.
I’ve had Blender a couple months now, but have come along pretty well on the learning curve.
MattMoult
08. Nov, 2009
Thanks for the brilliant tutorial.
this is the tree I produced:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/9286/treem.jpg
I was trying to go for a bit more of a dusty african vibe, so I aimed roughly for a CG acacia tree!
It is for a scene which is currently still in progress but has made use of two of your tutorials so far. Still loads of work to do but here it is:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/8720/africarender24.jpg
Andrew Price
08. Nov, 2009
Fantastic Matt! Your scene reminds me of Far Cry 2. Keep up the good work, and remember to post your final image on blenderartists.org I’m sure they will love it
Dennis
14. Nov, 2009
That was a great tutorial!
There is a problem with my tree, however.
This is the reference image I used:
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8484/deadtree4.jpg
This is my completed tree:
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/4384/tree1.jpg
My problem is with the leaves. I’m seeing the entire plane, and not just the leaf:
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/2410/tree2r.jpg
My leaf texture:
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1176/leaftexture1.jpg
And my leaf alpha mask:
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/6691/leaftexture1alphamask.jpg
I checked the video again to see if I got all the leaf material settings right, but I couldn’t find where I had gone astray. Some help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Dennis
15. Nov, 2009
Nevermind….. I realised that my alpha mask texture was using the original texture coordinates rather than the UV texture coordinates. Silly me!
Dennis
15. Nov, 2009
I set up a scene for my tree:
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/5705/tree7.jpg
Once again, thanks for a great tutorial!
Jacob Olsson
20. Nov, 2009
Hey you can just right click on the picture with the yellow leafs and then press save as i think..
Makers_F
04. Dec, 2009
http://img705.imageshack.us/i/render1ao.jpg/
Great Tutorial!!!
Lord_melvin
16. Dec, 2009
Why the leaves not casting a shadows? only the trunks and twigs are having a shadows?
Lord_melvin
17. Dec, 2009
I already figure it out… it is better to model the leaf instead of just a simple plane. then enable the “traceable” button.
spiderspy
20. Dec, 2009
Thanks a lot! used this and the grass tutorial for the enviroment in my project
heres a still
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5851/collossuswithtree.jpg
Todd McIntosh
10. Jan, 2010
Hi Andrew, thanks for the great tutorial on using the Curves to Tree script. Have you found any way to decrease the UV tiling effect that is apparent on the smaller limbs of the tree. The main trunk on my tree looks ok, but as soon as you get up into the skinnier large branches, the texture tiling is very noticable. Thanks!
http://www.resonancemedia.ca/blender/tree2.png
therealnoz
19. Jan, 2010
When I press “fill twigs” after following all of the steps, it says:
“Select one or more curve objects” What am I doing wrong?
Moody
26. Jan, 2010
Eh, I don’t have any scripts :S .. I have the window. I open it, click on scripts, then add and go to Wizards.. But it’s empty.. so are all the other ones.. Help please
Awesome tutorials by the way
Arno
28. Jan, 2010
Thank you Andrew for your brilliant tuto.
For people who loose twigs for the next generations, I have some answer : when you save blend file and re-open it, you loose tree script parameters. So you have to re-write it in the fields.
Unfortunately, this script in encapsulated in blender, so we cannot change it, for example to save user parameters (twig name, leaf name, …). How can we change it ?
A question : according with your tuto, my leaves are with an Alpha 0, so I have no shadow for them in the soil I created !
Have you an answer ?
Thank you and best regards.
Arno from France
bobo
28. Jan, 2010
Thanks for this great tutorial. I used it to create the following picture.
http://www.yafaray.org/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=2064&mode=view
Andrew Price
29. Jan, 2010
Thats amazing bobo! Just tweeted it!
I love seeing what people create from the tutorials. Thanks for reading and keep up the good work.
Andrew Price
08. Feb, 2010
@Arno
Hi Arno, sorry for the late reply. You need to make sure your plane material has enabled “Transparent Shadows”. That should get it to work
fabianjul
09. Feb, 2010
Where did you get the sky picture of your render from?
Andrew Price
09. Feb, 2010
@ fabianjul
http://www.cgtextures.com/
It’s all you’ll ever need
I think it’s in the forth row down on the Skies Partial category.
fabianjul
09. Feb, 2010
Thanks. I looked there too, but didn’t find anything
Alex
15. Feb, 2010
When I try to extend the bezier curve, it moves the bezier curve back, and not to the top.
Tony
11. Mar, 2010
Can a person download these videos somewhere. I only have dial up. Then I could get it at the Library. The tree look cool.
Thanks
Javi
14. Mar, 2010
Hi!, I need help please.
I don’t understand how to change it to another boxes or something like that from the minute 11:45 to 12:55
Please help me, thanks