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Making the Tree Base in ZBrush
This tutorial may not be distributed in part
or in whole in any media without the written consent of the author. It is for your
private use only. The TreeDruid objs are distributed under a special licensing
agreement with Zenstar and they may NOT be distributed in any media. The TreeDruid
objs are for your personal use only.
TreeDruid is a Trademark of Zenstar
Zbrush is a Trademark of Pixologic
Bryce is a Trademark of Corel
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Before we Start
A little planning goes a long way. The size of the tree will be determined by the number of branches. Notice that I only put 3 on this stump. Also, the size of the roots and height of the stump is optional and will not add significantly to the size of the completed project. So, make them as large as you like.
I, also, have included the tool of the completed ZSphere in the resources zip file and it is called ZSphereTreeBase.ZTL. You can load it and see the ZSphere model that I created for my tree base.
Important things for you to see on the graphics will be outlined in yellow.
1. Go to the Tools menu and select a ZSphere tool.
2. Draw a sphere at the bottom of the working window.
3. Select Edit from the Transform menu.
4. Roots
a. Choose Radial Symmetry with 4 and draw four small spheres onto the large sphere
b. Draw 4 more on top of the first 4.
c. Draw a large sphere on top of the other large sphere.
Note: Make these as large a you like.
5. While still in Radial Symmetry, grab the outermost root sphere and pull them out.
6. Turn off Radial Symmetry and click select the Draw Pointer. See arrow above.
7. Click on the arms to create more nodes varying the number if you wish.
8. Move the nodes to create bends in your roots and add more nodes varying the size and length.
9. Rotate the model and add a large sphere to the bottom of the trunk. If you don't do this, you will be able to see daylight under your tree if the camera angle is low enough.
10. Rotate the model and grab the end of your roots and pull each of them down a little. This will cause the ends to go into the ground when you position your tree.
11. Under Inventory, Set density to 3 and select Preview.
12. Rotate the model as shown above. Move any spheres in the root system that may give you a bad kink or causes a mesh distortion that you don't want.
13. Rotate the model as shown above and add some spheres for the forking branches. Notice that I added an additional sphere above the root system main node. This is to bend the main trunk a little so it doesn't look so straight. Keep in mind that the angle of the forking branches will determine the spacing of your tree parts. The closer the ends of the fork the tighter the tree horizontal shape.
14. Go back into the preview mode and examine the forks. As you can see above, there are a couple of places that I need to fix. Move the intersecting spheres, switching back and fourth between viewing modes, to clean them up.
15. As you can see, a little moving can get rid of the kinks. Don't go crazy trying to make them really smooth. Trees aren't that perfect. :o)
16. Go to the Preferences menu, if you want, and select Quick 3D Edit and pf to view your mesh a little clearer. It is simply draws the wireframe over the model so that you can see more detail in the mesh.
17. Viewing in this mode makes any bad places more evident. I accepted this mesh as it was.
18. Save your tool! You can use this ZSphere tree base a template for other bases as it is easily modified using ZSpheres.
19. Under the Inventory menu, choose Make Adaptive Skin and export your tree base. We are done here. :o)
