Hey hey hey,

I am very new to modeling (I literally just started haha) so I am trying to learn the basics. I would like to be able to create some simple small plants like those : http://prntscr.com/gcxbh2 to put them in my first scene.

After doing some researches, I realised that a lot of 3D models of plants I find on websites like Sketchfab are actually created by using a technique called "photogrammetry". Apparently all you have to do is take in real life pictures from the plant you want to have in your scene and some sort of software turns your pictures into a 3D model (At least, it's what I understood from it). From what I saw the results are absolutly amazing!

Now that I know that I am starting to wonder if games with realistic plants like Pikmin are using this technique instead of modeling their plants ? (Here is a pic of a plant from the latest Pikmin game so you guys can see what I mean : http://prntscr.com/gcxeki )

So my question is : Knowing that I am a beginner, would it be better for me to learn how to actually model plants or can I use the photogrammetry technique ? Isn't it better to learn how to model plants the "normal way" first ?

And by the way, is Autodesk Maya a good tool to model plants ? Because I find it pretty hard to make "organic shapes" with Maya, so I don't know if it is a good idea to use it for modeling plants/rocks/animals/... If no, which tool should I use ? Something like Z brush maybe ??

Thanks for reading all of that haha, I hope someone will be able to answer my noob questions !

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I've been extremely busy this month and dealing with some health issues. If you are just starting out, I would always suggest learning how to model the proper way. It is a huge benefit in the long run, although photogrammetry techniques do provide excellent results, you often still need to know how to "clean up" a model later if you plan to use it in any kind of production or animation. Anyway, Maya is a great modeling package, just as capable as any for modeling almost anything from polygons. Of course, Zbrush is the industry standard for just about everything these days, not just sculpting. Zbrush is actually capable of polygonal modeling now as well, although I still feel the poly modeling tools in Zbrush are very inefficient compared to your average polygonal modeling software, you "could" theoretically build an object in Zbrush from start to finish now, not just sculpt or detail base objects.

I wasn't able to turn up too many flower modeling tuts for Maya unfortunately, but perhaps something in these videos can help you get a start on what you are looking to create:

I think that leaves would be very problematic when 3d scanned or when using photogrammetry. Aside from the cleanup that Luxxeon mentioned, these techniques do not produce double sided polygons, so the polygons would have to be converted to double sided. (I am assuming one would not want to represent a leaf as an object having thickness for obvious reasons.) And, one would also have to decide how best to map the leaves from the texture captured in the scan, considering that leaves are usually translucent (Scanning/Photogrammetry techniques do not capture translucency).

@LuxXeon @cjd Thanks a lot for your replies!

So yea I think I will learn how to model plants the "normal way" first as apparently it is better to do it that way when you are a beginner.

I tried to model plants in Maya but I couldn't achieve to do it quickly and to obtain a "natural" look. In all the tutorials I find about plants & flowers in Maya the results always look a bit too geometric to look like believable organic beings. I am trying to learn how to use ZBrush these days and I think I will end up modeling all my organic objects there in the future.

Thanks again for giving me your advices, it was very helpful as I know pretty much nothing at the moment haha