Botany with Animation Master

Tree tutorial by Alain Desrochers

Contact me at: gloss@generation.net

Description
This Tree model has been built in two part,one model for the trunk with poses or action for positioning and another for tree foliage.

The trunk:
Build the first branche intersection.
Start with a five row tube and height circonference cp's
tools menu /option /modeling /lathe cross section set to 8. image#1

***note***
The use of a lower number of circonference cp's like four or six (access setting in option/lathe cross section) can reduce the weight of the file so you will be able to put more trees in your composition.
For those with less powerful computers I recommand making the trunk sections with four or six circonference cp's

-Make a copy of this tube and position it at 90 degre angle with the first one .image#2

Details: Tie both sections together.

Break splines to open the first tube .
...tube #2 and half of left side of tube #1 have been hidden for visibility reasons.

Be vigilant with sline continuity in order to minimize the crease effects at the intersection area.
Detach c.p's (mac shortcut:shift K) before connection be sure to respect sline continuity. image#4 et image #5.

Copy and paste the section and position it above the first one, flip on the x axis.

In upper section, select one point of the bottom ring and use the selection tool "complement spline / edit menu" to select all points of this ring.
After that you can delete, notice that you conserve all points, only the ring spline is deleted.

Now tie the two sections together... image#7

Continue procedure by adding two more sections.
As you go up the straight trunk, scale down and flip (on X axis only) sections .image#8

Add other sections at the sides to complete a branch section.
Once finished, copy/paste this branch section to complete a more complexe branch. image#9

Don't be afraid to use copy/paste in order to save time.
Theoretically, the more you advance the faster you get in this type of modelization.
With more and more sections tied together, soon you will be able to attach an entire branch to the trunk in one copy/paste move.

Consider the top part of the trunk as a branch.

As you model trunk notice that in real life branches reach for the sun even if it started off growing downward.

IMPORTANT

Be sure to always keep your model in the same axis. At this point in time it is not necessary to build your model in the Z axis. It is important to respect this for the next steps. voir image #91