Apple Tree

Compared to my other trees, the apple tree is more focused upon and is the centre of attention in some shots. Because of this I needed to make sure that the design and make of it was detailed enough and didn't just rely on polygon planes with a texture on like the other two trees. I decided to create on leaf and then duplicate this several times, placing them around a smaller branch. When looking at real apple trees, there are smaller branches which contain the leaves and apples, that grow from the larger branches, I wanted to try and replicate this and it would also provide more depth and detail to the tree. Once each leaf was in place, I added a bend deformer and adjusted the curvature on each to give a different shape and to make it more unique. The image below shows the original leaf and how each smaller branch looks. From this smaller branch I then duplicated it many times and positioned it all around the tree. The colour that is on it at the minute is just for reference purposes, so I could distinguish the leaves from the branches. I will go on to texturing both the leaves and the branches in the same style as I created my other two trees.

My tree design adapted as I went through the modelling stage, I found that the branches needed to be separated more, and by looking at real trees it tends to be a common feature where the main body of the tree branches out into different directions. It's not fully visible with all the leaves on, so I may go back and delete a few in order to expose that area. With the original design I found that it was lacking somewhat but after separating the branches, it seems to have helped it a lot.