Palmetto's leaf has a very complicate shape. However, just as all other plants, its structure can be separated into several repeating pattern. It is natural for one to think about using multiple duplicate function in Maya when modeling the feather-like part.

However, here I find it is actually easier to create one thin leaf first, and then duplicate one by one until the one side of the feather leaf is done. This seems to take more time but by this way, palmetto leaf's unique V shape curve can be done perfectly.

I choose to keep a relatively low-poly modeling because I realize that since palmetto leaf is more stiff than usual leaves, it is unnecessary to make it too smooth. If it gets too smooth, when animated, it may become too smooth and soft.

The trunk of a palmetto tree can mainly be divided into two parts. The upper part is covered by old stem, and the bottom is pure trunk. How long should the upper part be varied in each case.

Because I want to make taller palmetto trees, I thus make four different kinds of pre-baked models, which are the tree trunk, trunk top, branch, and the leaf. I also make three different kinds of pre-baked leaf shaders, because this makes leaves movement more nature.

By this way, in my scene I am able to combine palmetto trees with a great freedom. It is easy for me to make one tree with very long trunk, or one with long dead branches attached.

Top: pre-baked parts.
Bottom: example of combined look.

How to simulate a palmetto leaf's movement confused me. Since it has a feather structure, its movement couldn't be done by simply rotate the branch. After tried several different methods but fail, The final solution I came out is to use Maya soft body.

By creating a soft body and make the original leaf as a sample, I can then paint the end of the leaf softer. As the end become softer, it will move more when I set a gentle rotate to the branch. It will also reacts to dynamic fields such as air and turbulence.

Top: Result after paint weight.
2nd: Result after add dynamic wind.
Bottom: Test animation of the whole tree.

04/15, 2008

When putting texture on the palmetto tree, UV becomes a problem. Luckily, Maya has a very powerful solution for this situation -- the 3D material. 3D material actually allows user to put materials without considering present UVs setting. No matter the UV is spread perfectly or even in a mass, the texture can be generated without problem. Therefore in my case, to use procedure texture can save me a lot of work.

In addition to add more variety, I made three leaf shaders with slightly different settings.

I have the palmetto trees on a beach.Over all I am very satisfied with what pre-baked models can do. It allows users to work on what is way too heavy for Maya.

However, there are still some problems bothering me.

First, when I tried to use depth field in my camera, the render result I got is very rough.This problem is later solved by increasing the global render shading rate.

Second, renderman seems unable to recognize Maya water shader. This makes me unable to use water shader to create gentle bumps in my ground plane. This surprised me because Renderman works well with most Maya shading nodes, and also responds to Maya 3D texture.

At the end I still couldn't figure out why this problem will happen. The way I tried is to use other shading nodes to create similiar result. Thus it may be better for one to test shaders in the beginning, just see if the nodes can work.

Here is the final animation of my palmetto trees.

Top: actual work area in Maya.
Bottom: Rendered result.