#treeit

[majorstudyfinal]

Artefact, Documentation and Presentation (Aryan Raj Adhikari)

Trees

I decided to switch up things and go about accomplishing other phases of my project. The concept art I am focusing on is very abandoned and overgrown with foliage. This also includes the trees and is a pivotal asset in help setting the composition of the scene.

There are different ways you can go about creating trees for your game engine. Blender has a couple of free addons you can make use of to create trees. It can also be created manually and sculpted upon.

However, for this project, I am trying to show my mastery over a plethora of different softwares. My first initial response was to use SpeedTree but I remembered of a free alternative to SpeedTree called TreeIt. It's not an industry standard tool but it does get the job done perfectly.

Figure 1 (TreeIT, (evolved-software, 2023))

It is a procedural tree generator and does the same thing as SpeedTree does, albeit a bit less updated. However, since it would get my job done, I decided to use this software and test it for my project.

Figure 1 (Creating trees in TreeIT)

I wanted to create a couple of variations for the trees so that they look more organic and random. For that purpose, I specifically highlighted a couple of trees and used them as a base reference to build upon. Inside TreeIt, you can control a lot of different parameters pertaining to its leaves, mesh, branches, trunk and the tree itself in general. It is super versatile but it does require a lot of tweaks to get your desired shape.

Figure 2 (Completion of the tree #1)

As observed above, I did my best to create the tree as to the reference image. It required tweaking the number of branchlets, the gravity pull, the bend and the crinkliness and so on. Using the same process, I started working on the other two variations of the trees I wanted to use inside UE.

Figure 2 (Completion of the tree #2)

Its different compared to the first variation of the tree. One major difference you can immediately spot is that the branchlets are not inherting the position of the sun and are sideways. The entire tree also has a slight bend to it for organic deformation.

While working on the trees, I wanted to also check if I could somehow control the parameters of leaves I would populate in those trees. I quickly went inside Photoshop to create leaf cards for the trees. They are very simple to make, I just copied one of the leaves I created initially for my foliage atlas and made an alpha and an albedo card. After the first one was done, I went and did a second variation with another set of leaves.

Figure 3 (Completion of the tree card #1)

Figure 4 (Completion of the tree card #2)

After exporting the alpha cards from Photoshop, I imported it into TreeIt in my current projects. I populated the leaves on the branches of the tree, along with its scale, orientation, map method, count and so on. I have to say I was really impressed with how it turned out to be.

Figure 5 (Final tree with leaves in TreeIt)

I also finally concluded my trees for the environment project. I was a bit hesitant at times believing that the output might not come as expected and I might run into a problem at any time. But, it came out better than I expected. It is also very simple to export it as an fbx file you can use when you want to import it inside UE. Good times!

REFERENCES

evolved-software, 2023. Steam. [Online] Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2386460/Tree_It/ [Accessed 29 June 2025].

[brief2placesofmind]

Brief 2: Places Of Mind (Reflection)

Figure 1 (Render 1, 2024)

Figure 2 (Render 2, 2024)

The second brief was really exhilarating to research on and create upon. I took my first major style towards a stylized approach over the usual realistic approach but I had to dedicate a lot of time to understand the workflow that went behind the creation of stylized assets and importing it into a game engine. In my opinion however, I could have done something more with the roughness of the tree trunk and the flatness of the leaves.

Figure 3 (PureRef references, 2024)

I tried to create the double sided effect that you get that gives you a fuller look rather than a flat one but I couldn't get my vertex painting data to work when I imported the mesh in Unreal Engine 5. Also, I believe I made the assignment more difficult than it should have as I grew a bit too ambitious, however, this time I properly researched the assets and the materials that I was going to create beforehand and I actually completed it. I also believe I could have properly textured the trees and the leaves in Substance Painter like I did with wheat as opposed to just doing it in Unreal Engine solely.

Figure 4 (Stylized landscape created by Konstantinov, 2021)

Figure 5 (Stylized landscape created by GUEST, 2021)

Within this week, I have found myself growing a deeper level of appreciation for artists that focus on a stylized approach. It's one thing texturing it realistically but a whole different game when it comes to stylized texturing with all the high mesh baking to low poly meshes, adding stylized chippings and sculpting, etc. I learnt immensely in this brief and I believe I will be using this assignment and further developing it for my first major semester assignment.

REFERENCES:

Konstantinov, M., 2021. ArtStation. [Online] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/w6l0q6 [Accessed 16 October 2024].

GUEST, T., 2021. ArtStation. [Online] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8e2gVx [Accessed 16 October 2024].

[brief2placesofmind]

Brief 2: Places Of Mind (Modeling)

I decided to use Blender as the main modeling engine for this assignment as there are quite a variety of tips and tricks that you can apply to your workflow to achieve a quality model.

Rock:

An icosphere was added to the scene in blender and was given a 'Displace' modifier from the Modifier tab on the right.

Figure 1 (Displace modifier, 2024)

A voronoi texture was assigned to the displace modifier to the icosphere and the mathematical values of the contrast and the brightness along with the size of it was tweaked.

Figure 2 (Voronoi texture, 2024)

I cleaned all of the dirty faces of the rock model and left a clutter of faces to the edges of the stone to give it a weathered chip stylized look that I want for my scene in Unreal Engine.

Figure 3 (Final rock model, 2024)

Trees:

I had the option to model out the trunk and the branches of the tree itself in Blender but that would have consumed a lot of time and would not turn out really good if you are to use the tree as a foreground asset. Luckily, I found a tree generator program which was free and had most of the attributes and the features of the paid 'SpeedTree' program called 'TreeIt'.

I simply just created a new tree and tweaked the trunk and the branches along with its length, waviness, springiness and much more. This was really helpful and allowed me to control every aspects and properties of the tree from its trunk length to the number of small branches protruding out from the main branches.

Figure 4 (Generating a tree model, 2024)

Grasses:

I created all of the grass mesh itself in Blender. This was quite a challenge to tackle but I somehow manage to create a decent looking grass model. I added a plane to the blender scene and scaled it then. I then added a bunch of edge loops to it and merged the outer vertices of the upper and lower edges to the center.

Figure 5 (Adding and scaling a plane, 2024)

I then duplicated the plane and rotated it 90 degrees to get a two sided plane which was then combined together. I then duplicated it a bunch of times and used proportional editing to shape it around to make it appear more natural than stiff.

I duplicated the entire mesh and reset each of the normals with an enormous value in the Z-axis to correct normals of each mesh. I also vertex painted the grass mesh in black color with a gradient of white in the bottom and a bit of gray in the middle. This will come handy later in Unreal when we add a simple wind simulation to the grass mesh.

Figure 6 (Grass mesh completed, 2024)

[deetstheanimator]

Figuring out a solution for putting trees in my film. Rather than individually hand-modeling every tree, I sought out resources that I could use to create them faster. I found 3 solutions: Tree It (A free standalone program), WebPlant (A free web service), and Modular Tree (a free plug-in for Blender, which I have yet to try). 

I will likely use Tree It, as it seems to be quite powerful and rather intuitive, producing nice results. You can then randomise the seed of the tree you’ve created to get slightly different variations on the model.

[junkspriter]

A marked improvement, from that flat plot I made 2 posts back, I'd say! Added a fence, entrance/exit path, dirt you can see from the sides, and a tree that doesn't suck, lol. Even modified the pathway to reflect sunlight. It might seem like a simple plot, but a lot goes into it. I Used Illustrator, Photoshop, Tree it, blender and Unreal Engine 4 I'm considering using it for a boss rush clicker game. Don't worry, I'm vehemently against micro transactions so if it ever went mobile, I won't nickel and dime you. And sorry for the boxed video. Still not used to OBS.

[vagab]

#TreeIT - An interactive landscape to rehab the Vico's Lake

nITro - New Information Research Office presenta in anteprima il progetto TreeIT nell'ambito del Cubo Festival, 6-8 Dicembre, Ronciglione (VT).  TreeIT - An interactive landscape to rehab the Vico's Lake è il progetto di un paesaggio interattivo che pone l'attenzione sul tema della riqualificazione del Lago di Vico. TreeIT si colloca in Piazza degli Angeli, nel Borgo Medievale. La piazza si trasforma in uno spazio sensibile che si presta a molteplici fruizioni e che risponde alle sollecitazioni dei corpi che lo attraversano.