How to Create Stunning Trees
Posted on 29. Jun, 2009 by Andrew Price in Tutorials
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
[...] Raksts angļu valodā Rating 3.00 out of 5 You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. [...]
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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 [...]
Gekke Pop
29. Jun, 2009
Omg typed a lot of text, but forgot my e-mail, now it’s gone.
Just wanted to say thnx and keep making these fine tutorials.
Casper
Craigsnedeker
29. Jun, 2009
This looks … stunning! I’ll have to watch this, great work!
Skwerm
29. Jun, 2009
Wonderful tutorial! Keep them coming!
kABHIr
29. Jun, 2009
wow! andrew this is awesome work thank you for the tutorial and great scene too keep doing it
Blndxs
29. Jun, 2009
GREAT TUTORIAL!! thank you for sharing your time and talents with the world. This is a fine blender tutorial. One of the great aspects IMO of the blender community
weilynncg
30. Jun, 2009
Thank you so much for the tutorial and for sharing your .blend.
donya
30. Jun, 2009
great tutorial! tank you.
gerbin
30. Jun, 2009
thanks, man! you’ve indeed share a lot of awesome tutorials in your site. thanks for sharing that great talent of yours. hope to see more!
ROUBAL
30. Jun, 2009
Wow !
Great tutorial ! I have learned many things watching it.
I had never used this script. I will try it as soon as possible !
Tank you very much, Andrew !
Burns
30. Jun, 2009
great tut, many thanks
xsinick
30. Jun, 2009
This video has problems displaying.
It says one moment.
Andrew Price
30. Jun, 2009
@xsinick There was a minor hiccup as I fixed a problem with the video. Should be up now!
Notacet
30. Jun, 2009
I’m gonna see if I can use this technique to create neat lightnings.
I’ll post the results here if I succeed.
André
30. Jun, 2009
Nice scene
Just to let you know I am using it to measure my GSoC progress in optimizing blender’s raytrace.
Val
30. Jun, 2009
Andrew, excellent tutorial, just what I was looking for. Many kudos!! Thanks
Niklas
01. Jul, 2009
thank you!
Traligy
01. Jul, 2009
Really great tutorial thanks.
Nige
01. Jul, 2009
Fantastic tute dude – thanks =)
fabianjul
01. Jul, 2009
great tutorial! thanks.
Harry
01. Jul, 2009
Great tutorial!!!! Thanks! I am in the middle of doing it now. I had never used that scipt but now it seems really great.
lalex parn
01. Jul, 2009
ok i have a problem with reference images. ill put the reference image in and when i try to zoom in on the image it gets cut up into four quadrents. its quite difficult to use reference images if i cant zoom into them and get detail. so if anyone could help me out with that it’d be great
Max Wallner
01. Jul, 2009
I’m very amazed!
Great tutorial!
Arthur
01. Jul, 2009
This is great stuff! A lot of new little tricks and perfectly explained. Thanks a lot!
Notacet
01. Jul, 2009
Ok first render below, tried to use this technique to create lightnings with branches. it’s okay I guess, I have to make the main lightning more wavy and thinner though.
In my scene the only lightsource is the main lightning, I dupliFramed a lamp into the original lightning curve as you tought in the neon sign tutorial. Clouds (which are not looking very good) are done with shaded halos, and trees are done with object based particle system
Thanks for inspiration and information!
http://qha.wippiespace.com/salama.jpg
pfannkuchen_gesicht
01. Jul, 2009
great tutorial.
but I tried it and I think the script is a bit annoying.
I mean I add twigs apply them and if I want to add leaves now the mesh gets reset -.-
Notacet
01. Jul, 2009
@pfannkuchen. I found out that the script settings do not reset unless you undo. so, don’t undo, just press “generate from active” after you’ve made some changes. you can delete the generated tree if it’s in your way, just don’t undo.
RH2
02. Jul, 2009
Great tutorial.
Ive found that using the proportional editing with random falloff can make the twig boundaries a lot more “imperfect”
and its really fast too.
I also try to keep the twig boundary meshes above the branch, when they hang down a lot its very unnatural.
I always ended up with 2.5million vertex trees
Notacet, nice lightning!
Andrew Price
02. Jul, 2009
Really interesting use of the script Notacet! It’s this outside the box thinking that make great artists. I never would have thought to use the script to make lightning. Awesome.
Keep up the good work!
George
03. Jul, 2009
Appreciate your tutorials. Here’s what I made using your totorials:
http://features.cgsociety.org/newgallerycrits/g22/130422/130422_1246633719_large.jpg
FunkyDude
03. Jul, 2009
Thanks again for the quality tutorial. I need to work on the branches a bit and UV mapping for the leafs, but in general, this is a great method for making trees, I was wondering how to do such a thing.
http://www.webkitstudio.com/blender3d/tree1.jpg
Souler
03. Jul, 2009
That was amazing tutorial. I’ve really wanted to learn how to make trees long time ago. Now I can work on my desired project ideas involving trees and such. \o/
Here is what I’ve made from the tutorial:
http://darksouler.deviantart.com/art/Nightfall-128179784
Jacob valenta
03. Jul, 2009
holy… what are your computer specs?
Matt Cronin
04. Jul, 2009
Cool tutorial. However my leaves don’t seem to render. Any clues as to why?
Ashad
04. Jul, 2009
আমি আপনার কাজটির জন্য ধন্যবাদ জানাচ্ছি।
সত্যি খুব ভাল, এবং মারাত্বক হয়েছে।
texturing part টা আমার খুব প্রয়োজন ছিল, পেয়ে গেলাম।
Padmei
04. Jul, 2009
Hey, I have a problem. Everytime I generate from selection ( but the first time), I always lose the twigs. How to fix it? I managed to add twigs after puting the UVs, but when I tried to add leaves, al lthe twigs disapeared and no leaves at all appeared.
Help me please!
Thanks.
Matt Cronin
05. Jul, 2009
My leaves still won’t render
any ideas?
FunkyDude
05. Jul, 2009
Doing things out of order can get you mixed up. Make a curve, make an icosphere named twigs and put it over the curve, make a leaf object and call it leaf, select the curve and run the twigs part of the script with twigs as the obj name, move the original curve to the 2nd layer and select the newly formed curve with the twigs, run the UV part of the script (the twigs part of the script should still be open(not collapsed), run the leaves part of the script and render..
I think something that gets screwy is when you undo or close certain parts of the scripts tabs, if you look at the video try and set it up just as Andrew has it.
ankush chauhan
07. Jul, 2009
great tut sir thank u
Dalai Felinto
07. Jul, 2009
Not only this is a great tutorial. I also liked your sample file.
Indeed I used it to test a fulldome render workaround.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1412941&postcount=7
Thanks for sharing this
renric
08. Jul, 2009
Thanks for your great tutorials, are really useful.
One question:
There’s any way to animate the leafs?
Thanks again,
Enric.
Em
15. Jul, 2009
THanks for sharing this, I just started Blender today and haven’t a clue. Do you think its possible to make a similar animated tree like this with Blender? I really want to do something like it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKFKxfL7tV4&feature=channel
Nixon
18. Jul, 2009
Hey Mr. Price,
thx so much for this huge tutorial and for clearing up the ‘curve to tree’ -script. (and for all your tutorials in general:)
As we can see one can get a strong result with a generic set of features the script provides.
The result is awesome and the explanations are in depth, but still even new users can get decent tree’s by playing around with the settings/ curve detail.
So once again it’S been awesome to learn on this,
your style is very comprehensive and inspirational!
THX a mile:)
@Em
I checked the video u posted,
for a completre starter i guess this kind of animation is fairly complex to be honest,
since I’m quite new to blender aswell I can’t exactly figure how it was made,
my guess is this:
the tree we see looks quite like one made in the tutorial,
but it seems theres some kind of wobbly, water like animated texture wrapped around the features of the tree,
I’m not sure but i think one could make something alike using the a technique wich one would apply for creating water, (theres tutorials for that on the web).
Since I’m a rookie i just tried to think of a way how it COULD have been made.
I’m of course eager to learn better:)
(maybe the whole effect is made using 2d post process)
Pstanward
23. Jul, 2009
When I press ‘generate from selection’ for the twigs it just keeps loading and nothing happens. Just says connecting branches… Any ideas?
George
24. Jul, 2009
I tried the animation trick as well and here’s what I just uploaded:
http://vimeo.com/5744667
fabian
26. Jul, 2009
thumbs up!
best wishes,
f.
George
27. Jul, 2009
Thanks. One thing I noticed about Mr. Price’s grass is that it’s efficiently “baked” to be viewed from the side and never up. So, the lower the angle the more convincing the result becomes.
BRAVO_ZULU
04. Aug, 2009
Thanks! I love the effort that you put into these great tutorials. Being a n00b when it comes to Blender, I love you in depth tutorials. All I have to do is make it my own, and extrapolate ways to use the techniques that you teach.
Once again, thanks!
Alex
11. Aug, 2009
Great tut. I can’t wait other.
Maria
14. Aug, 2009
Hello,
I made the tree see pictures here
http://sarponita.blogspot.com/2009/08/blender-tree-generator_14.html (also tag tree generator)
Thanks
I have to do the displacement | weightpaint part some other day
Bey Maria
Shawn
26. Aug, 2009
Great tutorial, trees are the biggest difficulty I’ve been having in Blender!
It went well untill adding the leaves, upon which the script began to go haywire. Buttons would disappear, becoming only text, and when i clicked to change values they would double over top of each other, creating a jumble of words and nowhere to enter the number…
Obviously the script has a flaw or two… however, The initial “Winterized” tree looked great, and the script certainly seems to have alot of power. I’ll experiment with it a bit…
I look forward to more great tutorials!