broad-leafed tree 2

This tree has much more faces (30 for the trunk and 180 for the leaves). The branches and leaves are displayed on the single surfaces.

This time we will create the trunk classically out of a 5-sided cylinder. You can automatically apply the mapping coordinates in this step, but if you don't want you can also do this later. For this kind of tree we need only two segments for the height, because the tree is going to grow straight to the top. The proportion of intersection to height will be 1:5.

Make the upper part of the trunk smaller using the modifier TAPER. Now it looks more realistic. You can achieve the same with selecting the vertices at the top in Milkshape and scale the distance between them smaller. Then switch do VERTEX mode under the EDIT MESH modifier and select the middle vertices to move them down. You have just created the base for the trunk.

Now we can attach a texture to the trunk (check out the more detailed instructions in the first tree tutorial). After that the trunk is ready and can be exported using the MAX - MDL plugin. If you want to see the texture in the viewports, select the blue-white icon shown in the next picture.

Let's go on with the creation of the leaves. Create a quadratic surface. It consists of 4 faces. The size is based on the proportions of the trunk. We will use this later for the texture of a big branch or many small branches. That's why you should take care that the surface is not too small. After checking the size, you can apply the texture. You could now select GENERATE MAPPING COORDS, but this has not much sense because we will do some minor changes to the geometry and would have to reapply the coordinates then again.

Keep in mind to deform the surface symmetrically. To do this it is important to know how the faces (of which the surface consists) are located in the quadrat. Select the faces by clicking the right mouse button and apply the red marked settings you can see below. Notice how the triangles are aligned: The two on the left are in the same formation like the ones at the right side. But they have to look mirrored. Go to the EDIT MESH modifier, to FACE mode and select the two surfaces. Then delete them using the DEL key. It is important that the vertices remain, so answer the question if they should be deleted with no.

The result should look like the next picture. The vertices are still there. Now we have to create the two faces again, this time in the right formation. Go to the EDIT MESH modifier, FACES mode should be still selected. Select under EDIT GEOMETRY the option CREATE. You now have to select three vertices in a sequence. A line shows up and indicates the connected vertices. If three vertices are selected, you have your new face. create the second one with the same method. If the surfaces are not visible like in the below right picture their normals are flipped. That is because the texture is always only on one side visible. If you look at the face from the opposite side it would be invisible. If the faces are not visible, delete them again and create them the second time, but connect them this time in the opposite order. So if you connected them clockwise, you would now have to connect them counterclockwise. The result is a surface consisting of 4 faces and the borders of these faces are meeting in the top middle.

Like I told you before, the mapping coordinates are trash now. But we'll fix that very fast with using the modifier UVW MAP. Select PLANAR mapping, if it's not automatically checked. The branch is filling the space now.

We now have to deform the branch surface a bit to make it better visible from different sides. Select the EDIT MESH modifier in VERTEX mode, now click on the two upper-outer (on the from the trunk turned side) and move them a bit down. The selection is easy to make in the top view. Moving the vertices down should be done in the side view. It should look like in the next right picture.

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