Stylized Trees !

Week 11

 This week is the last week of term so really I’ve just been finishing up projects and sort of winding down to get ready for the next term after Christmas.  For my critical studies module I’ve been sifting through my blogs correcting grammar, tidying up things and making sure I’m updated.  For my visual design module I sketched out some trees which I think really helped with my Stylized tree project.

One of my last projects to hand in the end of this term was my to concept and create 2 different trees that fit within the provided village style guide, using a maximum of 2000 tris per each tree model. To texture each tree a maximum of one 512x512 24bit Targa for the tileable map of the main trunk, one 512x512 32bit Targa with an alpha channel each for the tree's foliage. Two additional 256x256 32bit Targa with an alpha channel can be used for any bushes, grasses and flowers if needed.”

To start of the concepting part of this project I firstly began to collect images of various trees that I have found on the Internet, took on my trip to Bradegate or where I have gone out myself and taken pictures of interesting trees. Once I felt I had a fair amount of reference to refer to and inspire me I then began selecting some images and creating various mood boards. I really wanted the trees to reflect my village witch house I completed and for them to all kind of work together as on the witch house lot behind and in front of it there are some large plots of grass.  Once I had played around with getting a final design for my trees I then began to model and texture it.

                                     

                                     

                                      

                                     

This project I feel that I did pretty well of course there is and always will be improvements to be done but in general I am happy with the end outcome of the project.  I feel that my knowledge on alpha maps which was not a strong point for me has defiantly improved and I am more confident with them. I also think that even though my painting skills are still not fully good enough but they too are improving with all the practice and don’t turn out half as bad as before and expected. I am pretty happy with the work flow and time scale of this project to.
Some things I think that I could definitely improve on is firstly looking back now I would possibly change my foliage alpha maps as the initial small branch on them is a little too long I think for the type of stylized tree I was going for. I would also like to go back and really spend some more time going over of the placement of my alpha maps which some could be better placed. I think that my bark texture is not too bad considering my still lack of skills but I would definitely go back and create more time to really refine it and make it a little more believable and add more depth to it.