Miriel Enfield

Hello, SLU! Some of you people are familiar with forests, right? If so, you can help me.

See, I'm trying to make oak trees that look like they're from a forest. But I don't live around forests or oak trees, and not easy to find good reference photos.

So far, this is what I've got:


It's not done, so I know it doesn't look too great right now. I'm interested in two things, though:

1. The general shape. Ignore the overall scale and just focus on the proportions. Is too wide? Are the lowest branches too low? Should I lower the top a bit? That kind of thing. Remember, it's supposed to be surrounded by other trees, not standing on its own.

2. The size. Too big? It seems a bit too large, when zoomed out like that, but I want it to look okay from normal viewing angles, too.

Thanks!

Kristian

The leaves should obscure the trunk more. They might, depending on how you're putting it all together. Other than that, looks good to my eye.

Miriel Enfield

Yeah, I need to fill it out more. I'm more interested in the tree's basic outline at the moment, though I'll keep that in mind as I finish it.

Kristian

Ping me when these are available in world? I have a tree, ahem, problem.

Cincia Singh

I'm from Chicago and we have oak trees and acorns everywhere, so here goes:
1. Your tree looks like a really good start. I suggest making it shorter and broaderl oak trees here tend to have broader foliage areas. And the branches of an oak tree lay more horizontal, not so upright. Oak trees are the kinds of trees that start a forest by being hardy and strong and providing shade on an open space for other less hardy trees to get a start. For this reason oak trees tend to be spaced out, not tightly grouped, with other types of trees like pines and maples and aspens filling the spaces between.

2. Oak trees in RL here are usually 40-50 ft tall and have pieces missing (branches break off in storms). in the pic your tree looks to be about 1/3 too tall for an oak. Also, oaks usually have a "Y" at about 8-10 feet which might account for their broadness.

good luck and let us know how this creation turns out; you're so energetic and skilled!

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Raindrop Drinkwater

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow.

Our European oaks tend to look sturdier than that (thick trunk, low branches). I don't know about the American ones.

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Miriel Enfield

Will do, Kristian.

I hadn't thought of your first point, Cincia. I just knew that forest trees tended to not be so wide, because of the other trees.

Wow, thanks, Raindrop! I'm definitely trying to make something that looks European, but I figure I'll be fortunate if the end result is even recognizable as any kind of oak.

Ayu Sura

I like this old one



The foliage looks a little denser in this pic, I think? They all seem to have a sort of ice cream cone shape.

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Cincia Singh

You know, one of the things about SL trees that's always mystified me is how "upright" they are, and then the vendor is selling a tire on a rope right next to the tree to use as a swing, but the branches on the tree aren't at the right angle to tie the rope to! Just a thought and to push my idea about horizontal branches hehe!

Miriel Enfield

I'm looking at pictures of oaks in forests right now. A lot of them don't appear to be very wide at all (like these or this), but there are exceptions (and of course, those pictures don't show the tops of the trees). I guess it depends on the individual tree?

And bleah to dividing branches. Do you know what a pain that'll be to make with sculpties?

Humps

Most of the oak trees I ever came across in the north of England are thick and low (not unike many of the men I dated )

Your 'start' looks cool though. Can't wait to see it finished.

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Miriel Enfield

I'm using my tree generation program to make models that I'll base my SL trees off of, because anything more complicated than "stick branches to a tapering trunk" is too complex for me to do without planning.

How's this one look? No leaves, cause I couldn't get those to look right, and figured I didn't need to bother. I know it's sort of... angular... in places, but I'm interested in the general shape.

Cristalle

That looks good, Miriel, and will look great with foliage. The bark texture will obscure the angles somewhat anyway.

Siyu Suen

I think for the original one you posted, I think there should be a little less taper, or not as sudden a taper at the top. Maybe making the branch texture at the top stretched so it's a bit thicker. I think for the majority of the trees you should think very thin and like an angular line, and most of them when they're young are pretty much the same thickness almost all the way up. Keep the little flare for the roots I'd say, but yeah, lose some of the taper.

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Raindrop Drinkwater

Meep, I haven't been able to go to the forest this week (I had a cold).

Siyu Suen

Oh, you know, I'll get a chance this weekend actually. I'll take some pictures of the woods around my mother's house, and you'll get to see some of why it's so crazy and why your forest looks so beautifully controlled I also am going renn fairing so I think I'll be able to take pictures of the woods in the nature reserve

Atia

Our oaks (we have over 20 on our property) are very, very tall. They tend not to have branches too close to the ground as others have mentioned. Depending on the type of oak, the leaves can get pretty big.



The other thing is the tallest ones all lean toward the sun (we live in a forest setting). It's sort of scary to look up at a 100 foot oak and wonder how far it can lean before it decides to snap in a storm. We've had enough branches hit the roof already.



It's very interesting to see all the straight pines and cedars on our plot growing straight up between bent oaks - trunks sometimes practically touching. Makes the oaks appear even more angled.

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Miriel Enfield

Thank you so much again to those of you who've offered to take pictures. (And feel better, Raindrop!) You guys are great.

Thanks! I don't think I'll have my oaks lean much, if it all. Seems like that might make it difficult to landscape with them.

I know what you mean about leaning trees, though. We've got some badly tilted peppermint willows near the house, and even those make me nervous.

Eirik

The middle one is an oak of nearly 1000 years old. The smaller trees, no clue.

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Eirik

Those are leaves of the American Oak. I believe this kind of oak was imported across Europe in the early 19th century.

The European oak has leaves like this:



Much more rounded (this is the summer oak, the most common one is north-west Europe - there's also the winter oak, with smaller gaps in the leaves, but also rounded)

Another pic (of a rarer form of branching though)

Miriel Enfield

Oh. My. God.

I decided to work on some beech trees, because those are a little more straightfoward, shape wise. I sculpted a trunk yesterday and logged in to SL to test it today. It needs some refinement, so I opened up Blender to try to fix it...

And it's corrupt for Blender 2.47. I try to open it, and Blender crashes. I try to open the backup file, same thing. Jesus. Could this program possibly be any more horrible?

Wait, I take that back. It'll probably take it as a challenge and figure out some way to kill my dog or something.

Humps

Awww. Sending you a big hug cos stuff like that sux.

Miriel Enfield

Finally, something that doesn't suck horribly.

Okay, this isn't done yet. Most of the textures aren't final (you can see how some are stretched and some are cut off, and I think the foliage is just a smidgen too dense at the top), the prims need more alignment, and the trunk and branches need textures. This is just a mockup, to make sure the sculpted stuff looks okay and to figure out the leaf prim configuration. Still, I think it's off to a decent start. This is my forest beech:



I based on it images I found here, so I think it looks reasonably accurate?

Envoy Costagravas

Miriel, I've finally got a decent sized piece of land that is crying out for trees, and I'd love the opportunity to have some that are different from the others. Please let us know when these are ready, I think they'll be great.

Are you going to make any of the other foliage/plantlife from your sim available for sale?

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Miriel Enfield

I'm planning on opening a little landscaping store on my Nouveau plot, as soon as I have:

* One batch of trees (i.e., these beech trees I'm working on now)
* Two kinds of bushes
* Grass
* Some rocks
* Some cliffs

The cliffs and grass will be directly adapted from the stuff on my sim, but the rest is getting remade and improved. I'm doing the trees first because they're the most difficult.