Specialisation Project: Bonsai
The aim of this project was to make a tree, in this case a bonsai tree, by hand without any planet generation software, from photo reference.
Some references images of Bonsai.
Trunk Sculpt:
The trunk was sculpted in ZBrush using Dynamesh and ZRemesher was using to clean up and reduced the mesh.
Adding in the ground and further refinement.
Further work on the branches and roots.
Initial Dynamesh sculpt of the Bonsai trunk.
After feedback from my teacher Heath, the roots were reduced and reworked to fit the trunk better.
The Final sculpt of the Bonsai trunk.
Leaves & Branches:
The leaves were made from photos of leaves from a tree in my back garden, cleaned up and laid out in Photoshop and then modelled and UVed in Maya to match their shape.
The leaves from the Bonsai.
Building Bonsai branches using RIB Archives
The final layout of the bonsai branch and leaves.
Layout:
The branches were turned into Renderman RIB Archives, which are similar to instancing, to make the Bonsai lighter on the resource usage when rendering.
The Initial import into Maya of the Bonsai trunk and ground.
Starting to layout the Bonsai Branches
Further layout of the branch RIB Archives.
More branches laid out.
Final layout of the Bonsai branches.
Feedback:
Feedback from my teacher Heath over the project included:
- That the roots of the trunk could be reduced and made more realistic looking
- Help with the Renderman material for the leaves.
- In the initial final turntable render, the turntable animation was off centre and it was speeding up and slowing down at the start and finish respectively.
Final Look:
A Frame from the final Bonsai turntable render.
The final turntable render.