TheTerrainTutor 👍 no worries dude. Watching a lot of your vids at the moment as I've only just started building dioramas! You got any videos on building stone country walls?
Hello TTT, I loved your alternative method of creating wire-wrapped trees. I will go from here to watch the other videos you have posted for this series. I am especially looking forward to the "Species Specific" video. During this video you questioned what the term is for additional tree trunks. I can help with that bit of trivia. This information may be help in the designing of different types of trees. I am not certain, though, since this video is the first of your series I have watched. Perhaps you have already included these variables in your designs. However, if you are truly curious about this, read on; otherwise, just ignore the rest of my comment ... :o) Multi-trunk trees can result via a number of means which then gives different terms to the additional trunks. ***Foresters and Arborist, please note I am stating the variables very simplistically*** In a single trunk tree (like a conifer), the trunk is called a 'Leader'. A typically single trunk tree of decent size may be cut down, burned etc. and regrow as a multi-trunked tree. Deciduous hardwood species (cone-bearers will not do this) have adapted to regrow from 'stems' that sprout from the residual stump of a single-trunk leader. This is called coppicing (cop-piss-ing). The number of these stems surviving to mature trunks depends on the size of the stump (also called a stool) from which they sprout. The larger the stump, the more stems it can support into maturity. These stems tend to be more straight in growth than the original tree. In historic times (especially when wood and coal were the primary means of heating, smithing, and cook fires) of places like Britain where lumber was a limited resource, this was a deliberate form of conservation and sustainability. The terms low, middle, and high forest arose from this practice: low being from stump, middle being trees cut higher up on the trunk, and high from "standards" or mature trees left in a harvested forest area. The individual trunks resulting in this situation are called 'Stems". A multi-trunk tree can form from this coppicing if the stems fuse together early on and remained fused to over 4.5 feet.. The different stems will then flair outward and branch individually. These would still be called 'stems'. There is the "low Forking" category in which trees branch at lower than 4.5 feet above the root collar. In such cases, the split trunks are just called branches though the tree may have the appearance of multiple trunks.. A tree can sprout 'suckers' or basal shoots. These are separate growths that sprout from the tree's base or root system from meristem cells. These undifferentiated cells (like human stem cells) produce exact clones of the original tree. If allowed to grow, they would eventually become what foresters would consider a separate tree, despite the shared root system. This is consider a form of propagation vs regrowth such as coppicing. Then you have Gemels (meaning twins) , or 2 trees of either the same or closely related species which 'self-graft' by growing in close proximity until they touch. Over time, wind motion causes them to abrade the bark down to the 'living' layer of the tree, the cambium. Then, the trees inosculate (conjoin). This can happen at the root, trunk, or branch. These differ from the above scenarios in that they have separate root systems whereas stems and basal shoots appear on the stump or from the base of a single root system. Lastly, you have aerial root trees like Cypress and Banyans which form multiple trunks by sending 'shoots' down from the branches. These shoots root in the ground yet remain attached to the parent tree. The shoots eventually harden into trunks themselves. So the additional trunks on the parent tree are called shoots. There are other instances involving vines and bushes but since you are making trees, I limited my answer to the main forms of 'multi-trunk' instances of trees. Hope you found these examples interesting and helpful to your designs. I look forward to viewing your other videos... Which I am off to do right now!
These tree tutorials are wonderful, but I wonder: Will there be a future tutorial dealing with coniferous trees, on how to sculpt and flock them? While I haven't yet tried to make them (need to master the basics first), they strike me as being rather more... fiddly to make.
you are truly a gentleman. share techniques and secrets of your art that 90% of people would jealously guard. here in Italy we say: the difference between a champion and a teacher is that if the first has to teach you something he will always have secrets because he knows that sooner or later you could reach his level, the second instead has no secrets in teaching you because he knows that his skill is such that by the time you get to his level he will probably already be dead of old age. Greetings from italy.
i used the thin green wire in 1 of ur videos to make my trees worked out pretty good lol also in ur fuliage video u mentioned 3 types of foam well i use the med dense foam not the real dense stuff or the loose foam but the solid yellow foam an i havent had any problems with it i use a magic bullet to grind it all up mix it with paint an glue an comes out perfect u dont need pva glue elmers glue works just as good :)
The big branches that come directly off the trunk are called main branches A tip to making trees look natural: The angle between a branch and the trunk or the branch it grows out from is usually ninety degrees. in nature, when the angle is smaller, the joint is weak, and tends to split and break in high winds.
It looks wonderful Mel. Almost a shame to hide all that with leaves. It would be great for Autumn trees. Think I'd wear my glasses doing the initial phases. Looks a little eye-pokey-outie.
In regards to covering the wire frame, I recall someone mentioning Rust Oleum Leak Seal for wire trees. It's basically liquid rubber in a spray can, used for automotive and repair work, and when used on wire trees it helps cover up the wires better and gives some texture. As a bonus, it helps seal it in and gives you a black basecoat to begin painting with. Personally I'd wrap it with teflon tape before spraying Leak Seal on it to help with hiding the wire. Spraying seems like a fair bit easier way than the usual methods people do to give a bark-like look to the tree, and especially handy if you have to do a bunch of trees at once. Remember, it doesn't have to _look_ exactly like a tree, just have the _impression_ of one!
TheTerrainTutor No prob! Hopefully you can find it over there in the UK. I see it a lot over here in the states in places like Home Depot and Lowes, so maybe it goes under a different name for you guys.
Seems amazing as end result* and easy enough for the worst hobbyist in the whole branch.. 🤔😢 0.6 or 0.8mm is better? A shop here sells 600 of 0.8mm rods for 6.28$ or 4.85£ and 900 per 0.6m for the same price (thats around 220m i think) However tommorow im just going to be an idiot.. ie myself and try my own method. Using 1+mm that cant bend much as base braches and gluing 1mm thin ones to the base with hot glue. Will hide the base smooth texture by all purpose slow glue with thin ropes and PvA on top with grinded coffee and pellet dust. Yeah, i have an extremely bad feeling about something going down south with this idea
Weight and Stability. If I have a "standard" base of plaster covered polystyrene, how am I going to fix this and keep it stable as I reckon it will weigh about 150gm? Love the videos!
Run a dowel from underneath the trunk and use that as a pin mate. Or run really long fine roots out across the piece and then texture the piece, essentially using roots as roots mate
I've been in Portugal for the past month, I come back and the first TTT video that I watch, everything's different, you're in a new place with a big sword and a fantasy map behind you... What the hell have I missed?!?!
sweet. glad I came across this episode. That'll give me the best way to try and mimic a tree in my own yard. its got about a foot long trunk and the rest sprouts out four other lengths. now I have the good idea to attack it.
Im doing one now, started out with a piece of PVC pipe, wrapped it in aluminum foil not real tight. Once wrapped starting from the root buttresses...near the ground.. I pinched lines going up the trunk in random patterns. Running the foil up past the pipe you can mold the hollow. I used collected roots for branches applied with a hot glue gun. You can create more texture for the bark and the roots with the glue gun also. Ta da anchient old live oak
God, you're gonna make me bark. That was baaaad, I think you might have a problem to root out. However, I'm gonna leaf this thread before I turn green.