The TomsDesk Method for 2.5D Trees

Hi All,

Tomsdesk, our local 2.5D tree specialist has developed a very elegant process for producing wonderful looking trees. It's one on those things that after seeing the process you say 'Why didn't I think of that !' Well you didn't Tom did, so its now called the TomsDesk Method or TDM for short.

The following is Tom's Tutorial which should be viewed, followed while exploring the SketchUp file supplied.

Mike

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Hey All:

Mike (Lucey) thought if I did a more detailed explanation of how to quickly produce a 2.5d stylized tree, we might get a bunch of them made and posted by others frustrated by the lack of variety of low-poly available...so hoping to make it so, here ya go:

FYI...this tree took me less than an hour, would have been less without all the "stage of construction" copying, more if I were to fuss with it until "perfect".

These a, b, c's relate to same in "treetoot.skp", attached...

a...started with an SU out-of-the-box 2d for my base shape.

b...grouped the green and set it aside.

c...filled in the branches, cut some trunk geometry shapes and smoothed them.

d...moved the center portion of the trunk bottom edge (with the alt key down).

e...rotated some of the branches forward 15deg, some back, left some vertical (I also extended trunk bumps further up, but usually don't).

f...brought the foliage back and moved it forward a bit to be in front of the vertical branches.

g...copy-rotated the foliage back 45deg, fliped it on the red, then started looking top view and front view to position as I felt it worked.

h...made a copy of the sloping faces and rotated those around their flat (i.e. put the protractor on that face so they would stay in the same plane) to move/vary the edge configuration some more, then moved it up and back till looked good front and top (the birdseye shape of the tree is starting to develop here.

i...here's where I start adding shaped faces until the tree looks like a tree...hiding the fact that it is made up of flat faces as much as I can. On this one I merely copied the two 45's and scaled them down (more often I will start rotating to different slopes too, which helps fool the eye if you are using solid rather than transparent...different shading at each angle), then moved them up and out, and again, and again, shifting my view back and forth...and also now watching the rotation between the two (front and top) with the orbit tool, looking for "uckies".

j...rotated the original vertical foliage back 5deg trying to get rid of the horizontal line I just noticed (and more fussing with the location of the different faces...also started redrawing some of the edges to meet my fancy).

k...rotated the vertical back 10deg more (where it usually ends up anyway...15deg) and did the final fussing. Happy with it now.

l...made the 2d face-me: hit front view, selected all, made component and selected "shadows face sun". Then changed the component axis to a point centered between the back edges of the trunk (keeps the trunk shadow mostly behind the trunk).

From here I checked the tree shadow by running through the times of day and year, and rotating around with the orbit tool so it would "flip" and back cast. This one has an anomoly (on my video card at least), jumping to a funny rectangular shadow off one of the branches, that I would normally fix but left it for you to see. You can also spend another hour making the trunk shadow stay completely behind the trunk (by making some of the trunk faces non-casting) and opening up the foliage shadow to be more realistic and sexy by making some of those faces non-casting as well, and adding some holes here and there.

FYI: once the component is made, you can adjust the transparency down below 70 and it will still cast...this one looks pretty good at 45.

Okay, there ya go...now get busy!

Best, Tom.

treetoot.skp

treetoottree.skp