Tree asset creation?

[two_larsens]

Hi,

Being rather new to UDK, but not modeling, I was though wondering what the norm is for making trees to be used in UDK - as an asset. Do anyone know of a tutorial of the workflow for this - industry standard, normal amount of polygons and the like?

Thanks for any help.

HL

[Crusha K. Rool]

UDK comes with SpeedTree (in the Binaries folder). There are some unofficial video tutorials about how to use it but I still find it rather complicated.

The amount of polygons depends completely on the usage. If you only have a few trees around your map they can be of pretty normal to high detail. If you want to plant a whole forest on mountains in the distance or even somewhere where the player needs to interact with them, you should try to keep them pretty low-poly without looking bad. And make heavy use of LODs. SpeedTree offers the ability to use billboards from a certain distance instead leafs or instead the whole tree, making it possible to create those huge forests in the distance that consist of nothing but an image of the tree on a sheet.

[two_larsens]

All right. So is that how it's done in the industry, as far as speed tree goes or do they always do custom trees? The reason I'm asking is that I'm making a scene for my portfolio, as an environment artist, and I don't want to appear to be cutting any corners since I'm perfectly willing to model the whole thing out; just not, of course, if it's considered a waste of time.

Thanks,

HL

[TorQueMoD]

I think it really depends on the company. Lots of development studios use speedtree with their games the same way they use Havok for Physics. That said, its always good to be able to make a few models by hand just in case you need to.

[two_larsens]

Do you know of any tutorials that point to how a tree otherwise is made - to fit within the norm? It's something I haven't seen much about - most likely because there's a lot to it, I guess. For instance: how are all the little branches and sideshots made? The same way leaves are made?

Thanks,

HL

[Hboybowen]

zbrush. just use zspheres

[two_larsens]

Well, that I know; it's just that the poly count gets abysmally high for a game asset - with the branches, that is.