Cheap Trees

Here's an explanation of my spiffy trees. They're not ultra-realistic, but they're easy on memory.

Download Amiga files for this tutorial (It says it's a ZIP file but it's really an LHA file. Save it and un-LHA it.)
Download Intel files for this tutorial (This one really is a ZIP file.)

The leaves are made of three parts. One part is a series of cones with no bottoms that have been jittered. The cones near the bottom open downward and the cones near the top open upward. This fills out the leaves when viewed from above or below. The next part is made up of flat ellipses arranged like an asterisk. This fills out the leaves when viewed from the side. The last part is a blob that fits inside the other parts. This just gives the leaves a little more body.

The trunk is just a tapered cylindar with a little jitter. Some more tapered cylindars can be used as branches if you feel you need them. Make sure that all the branches fit nicely inside the leaves.


The whole tree is 6 meters tall in this example. The leaves must be saved as one object and the bark as another.
Leaves surface:
  • color = 80 160 50
  • luminosity = 0%
  • diffuse = 50%
  • specular = 40%
  • glossiness = LOW
  • reflectivity = 50%
  • transparency = 0%
  • edge transparency NORMAL
  • smoothing ON
  • double sided ON
  • bump map = fractal bumps
    bump map size = 0.1 0.1 0.1
    bump amplitude = 200%
    frequencies = 3
    world coordinates ON
Bark surface:
  • color = 150 130 80
  • color texture = fractal noise
    size = 0.05 0.2 0.05
    color = 90 60 50
    frequencies = 3
    contrast = 2
    world coordinates ON
  • luminosity = 0%
  • diffuse = 80%
  • specular = 30%
  • glossiness = LOW
  • reflectivity = 0%
  • transparency = 0%
  • edge transparency NORMAL
  • smoothing ON
  • double sided ON
Leaves clip map:
  • fractal noise
  • texture value = 200%
  • frequencies = 8
  • contrast = 2
  • size = 0.1 0.1 0.1
  • world coordinates ON
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