Original subtitles

We'll now proceed and create a super stylized tree with very simple geometry and

Just using some cubes and stuff

So first of all, I will move the cursor in place where I want to create a tree

So shift right click here to place the cursor there and now we'll press shift a and add a single vertex

So go to the mesh options single word and add single word

If you don't see this option here, remember you have to enable extra objects add-on

I've talked about this in the introduction episode so you can go check it out

If you don't see it here, and now let's add a single word

You might notice we are right now in the edit mode after adding a single vertex so that happened automatically for us

But before you start extruding that vertex remember you need to be in the vertex select mode

So let's switch to the vertex select mode here or press 1 and now we can go to the front view by pressing 1

Press E then Z and extrude a first part of the tree like this and now we can start extruding these branches

But I want to distribute them

kind of geometrically

In certain angles so we can help ourselves by rotating the orthographic view

So first of all, let's press 6 on an armpit

You will notice that this will rotate our view in one step, but it switched to the perspective

So right now we can press 5 on an armpit to switch to the orthographic

But angle will stay in place and now let's just press 6 two more times

so we are basically now looking from I think 30 degree angle and we can start extruding our branch and

We'll use the shortcut ctrl right click that we used on the bridge as well. So let's just click right here

so ctrl right click here and

Here as well now select this vertex with the left mouse button and extrude

One more time right here. So this will be our first branch and we can continue rotating

around our scene and we can press 6 1 2 3 times so we are looking from the side here and

3 more so

Something like this and we can go to the local view so the rest of the scene doesn't get in the way

So let's press slash on an armpit to isolate this

And you can see this is the vertex from which we extruded the first branch

So let's select that one and I want to extrude it up a little bit. So let's press E

Then Z and extrude it tiny bit and now we can ctrl right click here and extrude a similar shape like before

and we can now exit local view by pressing slash again and

Press 3 on an armpit. So we look from the side. We want one other branch right here

So let's select this vertex there. We can zoom in a little bit. Press E Z

Extruded like this and now we can extrude a similar shape

like before and

Now one more here

And we can now give it some volume and I like to use skin modifier for that

So let's add a new modifier and let's add skin modifier. This doesn't look like much right now, but we can fix that right away

So let's tab in

Press A to select all and we can scale the radius of these vertices that the skin modifier takes into account by ctrl A

It's a little bit unintuitive

Shortcut, but you just need to get used to it and let's press ctrl A and scale this down

Like that, okay

and right now I want to select the bottom vertex and press ctrl A and scale it up like this and

Since I want to use a subdivision modifier later and the bottom would be rounded

Let me look from the front and I want to extrude it down. So let's enable x-ray press E Z and extrude it down

Into the ground like this

So we have some base there

Okay toggle the x-ray back and now we can check our model for some issues because if you use skin modifier

Sometimes you can have weird angles that would create holes and stuff like that

So you would need to fix that and let's enable wireframe view

So we better see the vertices and I think here we might have that problem. So let's move this down and you will see how

this gets

Reorganized sometimes all you need to do is to just move

Some of these vertices more apart

So the new geometry is created there and we can see we have some hole here

So we can push this up a tiny bit

this down

Maybe move the angle so

Sometimes only thing you can do here is to just try to fix these issues by moving the geometry around basically

Okay, I think this would work maybe we can move this down a little bit so it has a more breathing space there

And it really depends on the radius as well

So you need to kind of balance those two things out

and now if we tap out we can press ctrl 2 to enable that subdivision modifier with two levels of subdivision and

Here you can see those issues much better

And one thing you can do is make the radius on these joints a little bit smaller

So let's enable x-ray going to the edit mode. We can still edit these vertices alone and let's scale these down

And remember we are we are doing this with ctrl a and you can see how some of these issues get fixed right away

You

Okay, I think this works so let's talk about the x-ray again no issues there no holes nothing like that

So this is not strictly geometrical, but there is a little bit of that

Geometric layout there with the angles of these branches

So I really like how this looks and right now we can just enable smooth shading here on the skin modifier

You can just click and enable shade smooth. You need to do this in the skin modifier and

This is our base for the tree and right now we can continue with the crown and they'll be really easy to do

We'll just use some cubes with bevels

So let's shift right click here press shift a and add the cube there and we can press s and scale it down and

Apply the scale so we don't have any issues later

So press ctrl a and apply scale

Right now we can go to the modifiers tab and add a bevel modifier and I want to do three segments again with 0.1

that's okay and

Basically, we're done with it

We just need to enable harden normals go into the object data properties enable that auto smooth and enable smooth shading

so this will serve as

Our cube for the tree and now we can rotate this into place. So let's just press R and

Match the angle with the branch with multiple sides

And now the only thing left to do is to duplicate this cube all over the tree

To create that nice stylized look and we can start with these endpoints and see where that gets us

so

Right now shift right click here

Press alt D hold shift s and selection to cursor that will snap it there and we can press R twice to enable trackball

rotation, so it's a little bit easier to position this and

I will do the same here. So alt D shift s selection to cursor R twice and rotate

You

Sometimes when there are two close together

You can scale it up like this doesn't really matter too much and we can place one here as well

You

Okay, this looks fine so far maybe we can play with the scale a little bit here and there and now what I want to

Do is to finish up with just three floating cubes

So it doesn't really matter that they don't have branches

It will just round up the composition a little bit better so we can see here is the empty space so we can move some cube

There so remember we are duplicating with alt D. So we are creating link duplicates

So these are all linked together

They will share the geometry that will share the materials and now I want to do one more here

And

You know, this is not an exact thing to do

Sometimes you just need to go by the gut by the feeling

What feels good?

What looks great composition wise so

It really is up to you how you place these

You

And maybe one more down here

You

Okay, I think this looks quite alright I really like this

So one last thing to do is just to drag selection around those

Be careful that you don't hit any other objects and shift click the branches here

Don't fall P and parent so you can move the entire tree at once and not only that

It's really easy to select it

If you have the branches selected you can press shift right bracket on the keyboard and that will select all the children

Objects of the tree as well. But first, let's click this and name this tree

And now shift right bracket and I want to have another one here in the scene

So all D so remember this will be linked to and now press Y and move it here in the place

Let's press G and shift Z to better position this somewhere here and now we can play with the scale

I think I want this one a little bit larger and this one as well

so just compare your scene to mine here and try to match these proportions these scales and

Maybe move this a little bit to the side

Okay, so these are the trees and one last thing I think these bells are a little bit too much

so let's select one of these and

Let's modify the amount you can just click and drag here. And remember you can hold shift for some

Fine-tuned adjustment. So I want to make this smaller like this maybe 0.07 or something, but you can see

if you modify

the modifier values

It doesn't get updated on the link duplicates

Even though if you go into the edit mode, you can see these are all linked but the modifier isn't

So there are two things to fix this either you can do this on the one of those and then just select the rest

like this

with shift and

Ctrl drag here to the select the branches

We don't need those and with this one as an active object

You can see that yellow outline you can press ctrl L and link modifiers that will update them all or

There's another option

Let me go back

Okay like this. So another option would be select them right out like this

Ctrl deselect that and with this one active you can modify the amount

But first you hold alt and then try to modify this and you will see

When you hold alt you are modifying all of those at once

So that's pretty neat trick when you sometimes need to modify

multiple modifiers

Remember if you have more objects selected you can adjust

The values by holding alt and that applies to the checkboxes as well. So

Yeah, just a quick tip for the road and these are the trees for you right here and we can move on to the next part