Identifying the elements
Dissecting the environment is a core part of understanding how it’s built, and ensuring we capture all the necessary elements required to rebuild it in an efficient and modular way.
In this case, we will be primarily looking at dissecting a tree species we created as an internal workflow study, and how we can effectively use and re-purpose the captured elements.
Trunks
We capture a wide range of shapes and sizes when creating a species, as in most cases our goal is to more or less encompass its complete growth cycle, from adult to sapling.
Include both easily re-usable shapes and more unique ones to break up the repetition. Try to also look for some interesting color & pattern variations.
We capture all necessary elements of the tree using mostly photogrammetry. Using these unique, scan-based elements will help create more grounded authenticity compared to strictly using tileable textures.
In general, we would focus on using these elements in places that will be more visible to the camera, while relying on tileables to do the heavy lifting in less important areas.
Elements
Surfaces
Species: Pinus halepensis
Finding the right surface with the right features to match with the trunk scans is important. The goal is to be able to blend the unique trunks and the surface tileables not only seamlessly, but with relatively matching features.
Sometimes this can be tricky, and you may need multiple if you’re being thorough.
The tileable surfaces are derived from the trunk scans and are baked onto mapped cylindrical meshes. Doing this gives us natural horizontal tiling.
Besides being used to build the tree, from an environment creation POV many of these elements are the foundation of a forest, and will be used as ground scatter.
That is also why we make sure to capture closed meshes, as we at times use simulation to create a volumetric and layered forest base.
Assemblies
It’s always better to remove small, lose objects from the subject you are scanning (ie. needles, twiglets etc), as it will create a cleaner output.
We will then use the scatter elements to help re-introduce the lost details in a cleaner, more flexible and efficient way using simulation tools.
01
Scatter
Next up
In part 2, we will explore the foliage creation pipeline to better understand the techniques used to combine all the different elements we have talked about into a coherent asset.
Planning a project involving foliage? Let's have a chat!
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