https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/an-apple-a-day

I am not comfortable with modelling organic shapes much, so when I needed fluffy trees for this project in such a limited time I fretted. But knowing max, I played around with modifiers and found a very easy way to achieve the result I wanted. There are lost of ways to achieve one result in modelling but this felt very fast and easy to me.

I just wanted to share the process. :sweat_smile: In very brief, it is a process of adding and re-adding retopology and openSubdiv modifiers one after the other.

In details:

• Started with primitive sphere shapes.
• Joined them using pro-boolean under compound objects tab in modifiers; which resulted in terrible topology.
• Now, that is the part where I discovered how to model these trees using retopology modifier.
• Adding retopology modifier cleaned up the topology but also increased the polygon count.
• To decrease the polygon count, I added a second retopology layer using either the QuadriFlow or InstantMesh option with a lower polygon count.
• This created low poly version but unfortunately with quite sharp edges. To smooth it out, I added the OpenSubdiv modifier.
• To decrease the polygon count further, once again I repeated the retopology process using the reForm option.
• Voila! There we have the fluffy trees.