cgtextures.com also has lots of leaf masks you can use ;)

Laurie

@LaurieA, thanks but I got most of the nice ones ;-) but theres just not that many out there, my "plan" is to have as many dif textures as I can to use with particle sys, I think if there is more variation in the leaf textures (20+) then the tree will look more "real". The biggest prob I have with that at the mo is all the leaves are falling so I'm getting lots of red browns an yellows but green is a bit rare rofl

@RV thanks for the "method" will have a go at that! once you got the groups did you try duplivets for leaves?? (blender has so many ways to do this stuff its hard to know which way is best), I tried dupliverts(trees(50 thou polys)) on a terrain but I missed an 0 so got 10,000 instead of 1,000 :-( blender STOPPED I swore then went shopping! was suprised to see I had all my trees when I got back ~hooray~ then blender crashed when I moved the cam, blender really does test my vocabulary lol

Concerning the modeling of trees: It appears that this process is a somewhat complex one requiring several steps and operations. It also appears that the realism is dependent upon how many leaf textures can be used in the process.

Now before I make the suggestions I have in mind, I need everyone to understand that I have no experience with this at all. These are things that I thought of as I read the last few posts in this thread, so my ideas may not have any merit. Anyway the following are a few suggestions I came up with.

Suggestion 1. Create a simple tree model with few branches. Duplicate this tree several times. Change the branch positions on many of the duplicates. Give one tree a small amount of leaves distributed sparsely among the branches with one leaf texture assigned. Do the same for the duplicates but change the leaf positions and assign a different leaf texture for each one. Bring all of the different trees together in the center of the modeling grid in the 3D view window. Join them to make a single group. I don't know if this would work, but it seems like a logical approach to reach the goal of realism. Of course there would most likely be the need to ensure that certain parts of each tree do not overlap, (you wouldn't want the final result to have oversized or weirdly shaped branches, etc.).

Suggestion 2. Once you have created your tree but before doing the leaves, divide the branches up by means of selecting series of verts, hitting [P], then choosing selected in the dropdown menu. (This will effectively make separate objects each time you do this.) You only want to do this where you plan to "grow leaves", and each branch should be divided into several sections. You can make individual sections of every branch together into one separated object, (a process I call "Mat Zone Creation"). Now go to Object mode [Tab] and select one of the new separated objects. Return to Edit mode [Tab]. You should now have a series of branch sections from all branches of the tree in vertex mode. Assuming you have already modeled your leaves with separate leaf textures, use the method that grows a leaf for each vertex of the currently selected object. Now go to Object mode again and select another of the separated objects. Return to Edit mode, and repeat the leaf growing process, but assigning a leaf with a different texture from the first. Repeat this process for each of the remaining separated objects, making sure you are using a different leaf texture for each one until you have done all of the ones you want. Finally, return to Object mode, select all objects (excluding the camera and the lamp), and then Join them together into one group. You should now have a tree that has leaves with several different textures. I don't know if this will work, but if my way of "Mat Zone Creation" works for the models I create (in which I create paint schemes for my models), I don't see why it wouldn't work for this purpose as well.

As I say, I have virtually no experience with creating trees in Blender. The above are just some suggestions that I thought of that may or may not work. If anybody tries them, let us know the results here in this thread. It would also be nice to see a render if one of my suggestions works. I am not as advanced in my skills as others in the use of Blender, so it will be some time before I can do certain operations that would be required for success in creating a fair looking tree. I am still studying the process that converts verts into objects such as leaves.

Stay awesome!

Agent 0013.

method 1 may work but as you said have to be carefull and sometimes having 2 or more polys in pretty much the same place will cause artifacts in render

method 2 is pretty much what I am doing, just I'm weight painting the vertex groups then using a particle system to place the leaves, using groups in the particles means you can have loads of random leaves ;-) I haven't found a way to use groups or weight painting using dupliverts

**@ Heddheld: **Method 1 was my first idea, and like first ideas it undoubtably has flaws. I think perhaps Blender's ability to eliminate duplicate verts might help in that method, but there would probably still be other things that needed to be corrected.

Method 2: I suspected that you probably would like this one more. I have been using it for other purposes, such as creating material zones for my vehicle models and the like. It  makes it easier to create a paint scheme for the model. I'm sure you know that I use Blender as my main modeler, and I export those models to other applications such as Bryce. Because of the way I create my material zones in Blender, When the model is imported into another application, it becomes a simple task to assign materials and textures to each zone. This is because each material zone is its own object. I have folks like you to thank for helping me figure out how to do this. It has allowed me to come up with an alternative to the UV map way of  doing things; although I am still working at doing it that way as well.

As for creating things such as trees, chainmail, and so forth; I think it will be a while before I can get the hang of it. My last attempt, (a simple sphere made of chainmail) was nothing short of a big disaster. It did not look anything like what I wanted. I think that either I missed a step or two, or something was left out of the tutorial I was following that should have been in it, (it was a video tutorial). That is why I like document style tutorials rather than videos. I know that you do as well.

Anyway, thank you for confirming my thoughts on the second method idea.

Stay awesome!

Agent 0013.

ow mate you DONT have to split an object up to make new mats on it, just select the polys you want a dif mat on click the new material button then click asssign (need to load one mat first sorta as a base) that works in both BI and cycles but from BI you can bake a texture map. Not gonna say uv mapping is the best way to do stuff but does give pretty much the same result whatever app you render in

I only split it up if I want to import it into an application like Bryce. I found that some materials from other programs don't load into Bryce properly. When I create split up models it is so that I can use the materials I have made myself in Bryce. That application does not have a UV mapping feature, and only recognizes certain ones from certain other programs. I don't know why that is, but it is what I have experienced. So to get around the problem I came up with making the model in a split up form and exporting it without materials applied. I always join all the split off parts back into the main model before exporting it, but the exporter still recognizes them as separate parts, just like I want them. Not saying your suggestion isn't good. I use it too when I am modeling and creating my scene in Blender alone. But hey, it's about what works best for each of us, right? That is what makes us unique unto ourselves. It is good to have a network of friends that can help each other with advice and how to. Still, when the work is done, the artist uses the best of what he or she has knowledge of. At least that is how I work.

Stay awesome!

Agent 0013.

no worries mate, didnt know if you knew lol, if I had a penny for every time etc etc

Thanks to you and the others many times over.

Here is a model I did using my "Mat Zone Creation" Method. I exported it into Bryce, where I assigned materials and textures, created the back drop, and rendered the scene. It is my Zephyr Class Star Scout. This one does not have text decals.

Let me know what you think, everyone.

Stay awesome!

Agent 0013.