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Hey guys, in this tutorial we will learn how to create a palm plant using its pot, first we will model the pot and then set the leaves and texture, I found the texture from a google search and this is a perfect By the end of this tutorial you will be able to create any type of opacity based foliage, to start this tutorial you should have an intermediate knowledge of 3ds Max and you will need these textures or you are more than welcome to use your own Textures, download textures from here so let's get started.
1- Start 3ds max and start with a cylinder setup as shown in the image below, you will need additional edges to shape this vase.
2- Now convert the cylinder to an editable poly and then shape it as shown in the image below.
3- Select the top face and give it thickness using inset operation.
4- Now use the bevel operation to shape it like the image shows.
5- To create the mud side of the pot, still select the top face keep the shift and move it up on the z axis, then select the clone to object action hit ok, this will give you a separate polygon that we can use as the pot Outer mud surface, scaling it to fit the gap.
6- Now that we have our pots done, it's time to create the leaves, open the diffuse map provided in Photoshop or any other photo editing software to get the dimensions of the overall leaf size as shown in the image below.
7- Now that we got the exact dimensions of the leaf size, it's time to create it in 3ds Max, so once we fix the texture, we can scale the size of the leaf for different sizes.
8- Now apply the texture I gave you in the link on the first page, later I will briefly show you how to create the texture I created here. If you apply a texture, you can see that the branches are very small, unlike what we see on real life plants, we will fix this next.
9- Convert the plane to an editable poly, then go into vertex mode and start pushing the vertices on top as shown in the image below to create the desired shape, then add some extra edges along the way indicated in red, this will help for us to bend the leaves smoothly.
10- Deselect it and you should now have something similar to the image below.
11- Before bending the leaf it is necessary to move its pivot point to the bottom to keep the branch in one place, nice and neat.
NOTE: In the image below, the pivot point is not at the bottom, you should move the lower right of the leaf branch to the bottom.
12- Select the 2 side vertices and move them forward to achieve the curved shape as shown in the image below.
13- Once done, select the leaves and apply a Bend modifier, working along the image.
14- Time to clone the leaves, go to >> Array Tool.
15- Select the setting you want from the options box, set the number of leaves you want, when I do this array operation, I'm in the top viewport, as you can see, I indicate the Z axis and the Increment value 90, make sure you are arraying in the correct viewport or have the correct option selected before doing this.
16- Now you should have something like this.
17- Now use your scaling tool and start scaling them into different shapes as shown in the image below.
18- Let's import the vase or planter and see how it looks inside.
19- Merge the flowerpot with the existing scene and group them together, you should have something like this.
20- With all this setup it's time to start working on the textures, first I would like to start with the now popular normal map and its widely used alternative to bump maps because of its awesome detail, to create the normal map , we have 2 options.
1- Nvidia Common Filter plugin for Photoshop, it's free and you can download it from the Nvidia website.
2- GIMP, it's also a great and free cool software, you can download it when you download GIMP at www.gimp.org , don't forget to download their normal map plugin on their website, it's also free.
Now you might be wondering which one to use, basically I like GIMP because it gives me sharper results than Nvidia filters, if you want to create smoother bump maps, use Nvidia if you want to have sharper maps filter, then use GIMP, in this case I'm going to use GIPM for the normal map and Photoshop for the other maps like opacity, specular etc.
21- Open the GIMP that came with this tut to import the diffuse image, or you can use your own image, then apply the normal map filter from the filter list.
22 - Use these settings in the image below, or you can try your own.
23- Export the map from the file menu and save, here is the comparison between the 2 filters.
24- We are done with the normal map, it's time to create the other maps, open your version of Photoshop and import the diffuse map provided in this tutorial, use the magic tool to select all the white backgrounds and hit delete.
25- Fill the background with white by adding a new layer below using the paint bucket tool, and then fill the leaf shape with white as you did with the background, save it with opacity.
26- Let's create the specular map, again using the same diffuse map from Photoshop's image menu, choose the black and white option, and follow the image below.
27- Delete the background and fill it with a lighter color of the same color as shown in the image below.
28- Set the texture to the appropriate slot and apply it to the leaves, you should now have something similar to the image below.
29- Select the flowerpot, add a texture, then add a UVW map set it to the box Add a MeshSmooth modifier with Iteration 2 at the end, currently you should have something similar to the image below.
So here is the final render.
final wired frame
final 1
final 2
Here we have completed the tutorial and now you will be able to use your own plants.
Original Link: 3ds Max Modeling Basic Tutorial: Creating Palm Plants (mvrlink.com)