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Modeling and Texturing Foliage for Games in 3ds Max & Unreal
Rating: 4.3 out of 5(47 ratings)
733 students

Modeling and Texturing Foliage for Games in 3ds Max & Unreal

Learn to model and texture trees and foliage using 3ds Max - and set up Master Foliage materials in the UDK game engine!
Created by3dmotive LLC
Last updated 4/2017
English
English [Auto],

What you'll learn

  • Learn the basics of creating grass, brush, and trees for use in games from start to finish
  • Learn to implement foliage properly into UDK and make it come alive
  • Learn how to create master shaders for similar types of assets
  • Learn to model and texture foliage of different types

Course content

2 sections • 26 lectures • 4h 32m total length

  • Introduction0:52

    Source files for the course

  • Importing Textures17:44

    Create a blade of grass, bend and shape it with modifiers, duplicate via instances to build clumps on a plane, then prepare materials and texture maps for rendering.

  • Material and Baking of Grass18:35

    Learn to create and bake grass materials in 3ds Max and Unreal, using a three-color gradient diffuse map, object-space mapping, and render-to-texture workflow.

  • Texturing the Grass13:23
  • Creating a Low Poly Grass Plane16:47

    Create a low poly grass plane for games by building a 64 by 64 plane, applying grass textures with alpha transparency, and using vertex color masks to drive wind movement.

  • Arranging Grass Patches10:54

    Learn to build natural patches of grass by duplicating and arranging plane blades, adjusting normals and rotations, aligning to the ground, and exporting three patch sizes for reusable foliage.

  • Introducing Tree Branches1:01

    Learn techniques to texture and model a tree branch using polygon tools, then apply materials, lighting, and normal maps for the final branch texture in 3ds Max and Unreal.

  • Making the Tree Branch12:08

    Model a tree branch in 3ds Max from a box, use the branches tool and extrude methods, add segments and fractal noise, then paint leaves with object paint.

  • Creating High Poly Leaves8:57

    Create high-poly leaves by sculpting a leaf mesh from a plane, adjusting the leaf texture (160x256), refining topology, adding thickness, and shaping curvature with subdivision and chamfered edges.

  • Arranging the Leaves on the Branch8:39

    Paint foliage on a branch in 3ds Max and Unreal by resetting transforms, painting with leaf objects in random order, and tuning spacing and scale for a natural silhouette.

  • Materials and Baking of a Branch19:07
  • Texturing the Branch16:18

    Texturing the branch fuses maps with masks and alpha channels to build a texture. Extract color and brightness, apply specular highlights, and create cavity maps from normals.

  • Intro to Creating a Tree0:57

    Build a reusable tree template by assembling trunk, branches, and canopy from grouped elements and planes, enabling quick variations through replication, with instances and splines for easy adjustment.

  • Making a Tree Trunk16:22

    Model the trunk in 3ds Max with a cylinder and spline twist, apply a multistep trunk/branch material, and add tiling back textures and a normal map for Unreal export.

  • Adding Branch Geo to the Trunk12:38
  • Creating Leaf Groups6:59
  • Making the Tree Canopy8:55

    Attach groups to branches and clone along splines to build a natural tree canopy, adjusting rotation, scale, and spacing for depth from multiple angles.

  • Optimizing and Leaf Normals9:19

Requirements

  • 3ds Max, the latest version of UDK, Photoshop

Description

This in-depth tutorial covers everything you need to know about creating foliage! We’ll show how to make realistic looking grass, branches, and a full tree from the ground up! Then, we'll head into UDK and setup a master shader with parameters that can be easily tweaked, as well as make your leaves and grass move in the wind! If you've ever wanted to master the ins-and-outs of creating foliage for your games, this is the course for you!

 

About the Instructor:

Damian Lazarski has been working in the games industry since graduating from a Games Design course at Northumbria University in 2012. He is currently working as a Junior Artist at Crytek UK.

Who this course is for:

  • Beginners to Intermediate game artists looking to master the art of modeling and texturing foliage
  • Intermediate 3ds Max users

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