I knew from the concept stages, even before I decided on the Witch's house that I wanted a scene with lots of foliage in it. Not just that, but learning how to create plant life is a very important key skill for a modeller. I haven't done much organic modelling before either, so all the more reason to include it in this project. I looked up some tutorials using the internet and the book "Maya Studio Projects: Game Environments and Props". I also had a good look at tree models, in games like "Hitman: Absolution". I noticed how the leaves in particular were on single planes and were made to look individual through using the alpha channels in the texture.
The base of the tree is made from a cylinder which I have pulled and stretched to create roots which will be submerged into the ground. The branches are made by creating additional cyliners which have been extruded into crooked forms and slotted into one another to appear like a real branch does. I noticed that in real trees the branches are formed as they split and continue splitting along to the tips, so I tried to replicate that. I also tried to follow closely to the original design I drew in my concept artwork.
Making took a little while to get through, I basically had to use cylindrical mapping on each branch and unravel them so that there were no wrong facing faces.
I used the plane technique to create a section of leaves that I then duplicated and stuck at various angles on every branch to end up with a full leafy tree.
For the pine trees, I attempted a similar technique. I decided to use conical planes which I could then add the pine branch textures to. As with the other tree, I painted by pine branches in Photoshop and used a transparent background and saved as a PNG to retain the alpha channels. I layered the pattern a few times to create a full-looking texture.
I used the exact same process to create some bushes, at the base they have the same type of branch construction as the purple-leaf trees, which I modelled and textured in the same way. I created two different types of leaf texture, a second one with flowers and slightly differently coloured leaves, so that there would be a little variety in the scene.
Thinking about other additional assets I could include in this scene, I created a fairly simple tulip-looking flower which I could resize and duplicate around the environment.
I consulted Sean Oxspring (3rd Year Games Computing) who I have worked with on several of his own developed games, about what other assets are generally needed in a game level. "Rocks!" was the answer, "Lots of rocks." So I went back in Maya and started with a cube with about 10 subdivisions. I then used the sculpt geometry tool to push and pull the faces into a more organic form. The texture I made to be sort of seemless apart from adding some moss at the bottom, just because I knew the rock would be a little tricky to properly UV map.
