This tutorial explains some techniques for creating effective looking trees using 3D Studio Max. We create modified cylinders for the trunk and branches, and use Max's bomb space warp to create the leaves.

We show you a variety of mapping techniques including noise maps and speckle maps for foliage and bark. Don't be put off if you don't have Max: you can probably use the same principles to create similar effects with your own software. Be prepared to experiment to get the effect you want.

The tree trunk In the top viewport, create a cylinder: Create | Geometry | Standard Primitives | Cylinder: in the rollout, Height segments 5, Sides 8 and tick mapping coordinates. Click and drag to set a suitable diameter and similarly, set the height. Name it Trunk.
Front viewport, Modifier panel, with the Trunk selected: Modify | Taper: with rollout Primary Z, Effect XY, Amount -0.6, Curve -0.8 (vary to suit yourself) to give the trunk a tapered, slightly curved appearance.

The branches Top viewport, create another cylinder with a diameter about the same size as the top of the tapered trunk, and with a smaller height. Name this cylinder Branch. To give it a more natural look: Modify | Taper: Amount -0.8, Curve -0.7 | Bend: Angle 30 (approximate settings - suit yourself).

You'll now create a crown of branches at the top of the tree trunk. These will begin life as humble cylinders like that for the tree trunk. Create one, and clone it (copies, not instances should be used so you can make variations to each branch). You then adjust the height of each. Taper and bend each one a little differently, before rotating and moving each of them into place at the top of the trunk (figs.4, 5 and 6).

If you aim to make a forrest by duplicating your tree all over the place, beware of creating a very distinctive original or your forrest of clones would look exceedingly strange!

Attaching the branches to the trunk Select the trunk, Modify | More | Edit Mesh | (Sub-Object remains off) scroll down to Attach and click on each branch, one by one. Now you have one complete tree, minus the leaves but it still looks rather unnatural, so . . .

bend the trunk and add some noise to make it look a bit more real (figs 6 & 7): Modify | Bend | Angle 12. Then add Noise to make the mesh a bit more 'random' looking: Modify | More | Noise and in the Noise rollout: X 100, y 75, z 100 (adjust to suit the look you want). The noise modifier is great for giving objects a more natural look. At higher settings, or with Fractal on, it is good for making your mesh look like something that's gone through a car-crusher! Save your file and call it Tree.

Creating the bark material Click on the Material Editor in the toolbar. The Material type is Standard (the default) Fig 8.
Scroll down and open the Maps rollout.
Click the None bar next to the Diffuse Colour slot and double click on Noise from the resulting pop up list.
On the noise parameters click Fractal, make Size 25 (the number will depend on the size of your tree and your personal preference as to its bark). I made Colour 1 a light warm brown (R 232, G 197, B 104) and Colour 2 a deep olive green (R119, G 102, B 7).

Now, to give it a rough look, you'll add some Bump, so
Go to Parent to get back to the Map menu and drag the noise map to the Bump slot, copying (not instancing).
Increase the bump to 500.
Because my treetrunk is quite narrow, I decreased the noise size down to 0.2 (fig.9). Experiment to gain the look you want.

Select the tree trunk (with its attached branches) and click Assign Material to Selection. Render and Save again.

The leaves Max provides a great spacewarp for simulating the random, yet elusively ordered structure of leaf distribution on a tree. Basically, you'll create a geosphere, add some noise (fig. 10) and bomb-blast it into little pieces that will become the leaves of your tree:

Front viewport | Create | geosphere | Segments 8, tick mapping coordinates. Click and drag a sphere that fits just inside the branches and move it so that it sits centrally. Name it 'leaves'. Modify | Noise, x 150, y 150, z 150. This gives it a more random shape. Now, you'll bomb that geosphere (fig. 11):

Create | Spacewarps | bomb: click in the top viewport in the centre of the geosphere - a yellow pyramid appears. Use the left viewport to move the pyramid into position to centre within the geosphere. Click the Bind to Spacewarp icon, click on the bomb pyramid and drag to the geosphere which will flash briefly. The bomb parameters:

Modify | Strength 5, Fragment Size Max 2, Chaos 3.

When you move the frame slider, the geosphere disintegrates into little pieces that fly further apart as you move the slider (fig. 11). Stop when the size and overall shape of the leaf canopy suits you. To freeze the 'leaves' at that point:

Select the leaves (blasted particles), then choose Tools | snapshot | mesh | OK (fig. 12).Now your leaves are fixed and won't expand as you move the frame slider. If the leaf canopy isn't thick enough, you can either clone and move it near to the first canopy to double the leaf effect, or create another geosphere with more segments thus creating more particles when you bomb it.

Creating the leaf material Tools | Material Editor | Shininess 5, Shin Strength 35 | Get material icon | select Standard, double click on the Standard bar, scroll down to the Diffuse bar and click None | Speckle | parameters: Size 250 | colour one: make it dark green from the palette and make colour two a mid to light green, Go to Parent (to get back to where you were)| Opacity, click None, choose Noise | Fractal: High 0.8, Size 20, Go to Parent, name your material 'leaves' or 'foliage' and assign to your Selection (the leaves) (fig. 13). The colours and settings given here, as with the bark, are only a suggestion. You will want to experiment to suit yourself.

Move the leaves into position around the crown of branches and group them with the trunk and branches to form a single object, which you'll name 'tree'.

Well done! Now, how about planting that tree in the ground?

Planting your tree in the ground A Noise Modifier was added to a plane to give a slightly bumpy appearance to the general terrain and to create a more realistic horizon line. The same speckle material that was used for the leaves, was also used for the ground. Create | plane | 30 segs width, 30 segs height | overall size to suit (I used 214 units length, 315 units width). If you don't create enough segments, you can't control the bumpiness of the surface. (Another way to give an undulating surface is the use of a displacement map - but that's for another tutorial.) Figs. 14 & 15.

When you're happy with your ground, stick that tree down into it. I lit the scene with two omni lights and a spot casting shadow to give the leaves a glint, trying to match the sun-through-cloud effect of the sky.

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Fig 1 Rendered image of final tree.

Fig 2 Basic cylinder for tree trunk - choose radius and height to suit your scene.

Fig 3 The tree trunk: a tapered cylinder


Fig 4 Crown of branches.


Fig 5 Adjust the height of each branch (cylinder), and taper and bend each a little differently. This example shows one branch.


Figs 6 & 7 bent treetrunk and branches with noise added.

Fig 8 Material Editor for tree bark showing different Noise Sizes for Diffuse and Bump slots. To get to the Noise parameters as shown below, click on the relevant slot: Diffuse or Bump. Note that Bump has been upped to 500.

Fig 9 After clicking on the Bump map slot (which was a Copy, not Instance, of the Noise map used for the Diffuse slot) you get to this level where you can adjust the parameters of the noise map.


Fig 10 geosphere with noise (unexploded)


Fig 11 Geosphere - bombed. The pieces explode moving further apart as you slide the frame slider.


Fig 12 Make a 'snapshot' of the leaves; choose Mesh.

Fig 13 Material Editor for the leaves. Speckle maps have been used.


Figs 14 & 15 Plane created with sufficent segments to give an undulated effect when noise was added.