PlaymoFriends
Creative => How-To => Topic started by: Raven on December 16, 2015, 19:53:33
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Does anybody know how to make good looking trees? These are some of my latest efforts:
(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/Tree1_zpsul25limb.jpg) (http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/Tree1_zpsul25limb.jpg.html)
They are adequate, I suppose, but I don't really like them. To me, they just look like what they are: brown bits and green bits stuck together.
I thought of digging out all manuals which include trees, and following Playmobil's own instructions. But I really want trees of all shapes and sizes to create a sort of dense woodland effect. Something like this:
(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/Tree2_zpshikry3pc.jpg) (http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/Tree2_zpshikry3pc.jpg.html)
... but looking much more like woodland, and much less like a load of green bits stuck on top of brown bits.
Any advice?
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Well, if you find out... share!
My current efforts are somewhat... lacking.
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Trial and error... I keep making errors!
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Trial and error... I keep making errors!
I got the error part down pat! :P
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You're not alone :lol:
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Disclaimer: I don't do a lot with trees myself, so this comes more from just looking at the pictures rather than a lot of experience.
Can you double the amount of greenery per tree? So if a tree comes with three green bits, use five or six to make it fuller. I know the green bits will often come with three holes for the branches to go in to stay on, but they'll usually hold just fine if only two, or sometimes even one, are used.
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(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/Tree2_zpshikry3pc.jpg)
... but looking much more like woodland, and much less like a load of green bits stuck on top of brown bits.
Any advice?
I like that composition. The thing that seems to be lacking with those trees is leaves. There is a lot of wood for the amount of leaves so I'd add more leaves to each tree if they were available.
One thing which doesn't require extra pieces is to arrange your woodland so that as many of the leaf pieces are facing outwards as possible. Have the tall tree in the middle then arrange the shorter ones around it trying to face the leaves outwards as much as possible. You want your woodland to be like a shell with very little inside and as much as possible on the outside.
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More leaves - good idea, I'll try that. I seem to have amassed rather a lot of trees, and therefore leaves also, so I'm able to add more.
I happened to look at this vet set photo this morning:
http://playmodb.org/setpics/4/4343.jpg
And I noticed that the tree on there looks so much better than mine, just because of the addition of leaves in the centre of the tree.
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I don't know if looking at playmobil's suggestions would help... they would have you put two different colors of leaf pieces on the same tree, which just looks silly to me. I think your individual trees look pretty good, actually. The taller light green one is the best.
As for creating a realistic forest, I struggle with that. But I remember one person here did an interesting, though complicated process one time with a great result. She lined up the trees she had, took a picture, and printed it out life-size. Then she set it up as a backdrop, arranged the trees differently in front of it, and took another picture, repeating the process until she had a multi-layered backdrop that looked really good behind the few actual trees she had. It was pretty cool.
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It's difficult, alright...
For my magical forest, I tried to add lower trees and bushes, of varied length, so that the end result looked fuller and more 'green' was showing. A pine tree here and there helps with that too, but then you'd have to mix tree types.
(http://i.imgur.com/ShYuZqb.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/c0vf2Fq.jpg)
I agree with the rest that adding as many leaf-parts as possible helps. Of course the trees are less stable and tend to fall over a lot if the leaf-bits are only attached with one hole rather than three. What can you do? :)
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Of course the trees are less stable and tend to fall over a lot if the leaf-bits are only attached with one hole rather than three. What can you do? :)
I have discovered that the trees do tend to fall over ::)
I pick them up, again and again and AGAIN :wall:
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For my magical forest....
Of course! I should have thought of looking at that again for ideas!
I've been experimenting with trees, and yes, more leaves makes a lot of difference. And smaller trees as well: what was intended to just be branches put into the base and made into shorter trees. I'm intending to start the 'real thing' woodland area within the next day or two.
But I'm now aware of two more little problems. One is the amount of trees needed. I really thought that I had lots of trees. But my lots of trees is really not enough. And the other problem is my lack of small green bases to put the trees (and undergrowth/bushes/ferns) on. I thought I had lots of those too. But, again, there is not enough. I need the small bases, so that the trees and other green things can be close together. I don't have enough small green bases.
However....
There are sets that I want, so I don't want to buy tree parts and little green bases from Parts right now. I just wouldn't feel enough happiness in return for the money. I want to be happy about sets, not feeling 'oh yes, here they are,' about green bases. So I'm going to have to stick with what I have. And see what I can do with it.
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What about getting a piece of board and drilling holes in it that the trees can stick into. You could even decorate the board with paint and other materials to make paths etc.
It would also have the advantage of not tipping over.
One large board or several smaller boards that can be placed together.
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We have struggled with this for years. Please let us know what you come up with
http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=12326.msg232530#msg232530
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A few more hints - don't be afraid to put the leaf clumps directly on the ground or on rocks or whatever you need to fill in space. Also, tree branches fit into the holes in rocks so use the small rock clumps in addition to the green grass pieces to hold trees up.
Take a look at the third post in this ancient thread: http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=3944.0 (http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=3944.0)
It shows some jungle images I made and talks about how I did them, showing a side and above view of the scene layout. You can accomplish a lot with planning - look at what you did with your zoo buildings - just apply similar principles to forest creation.
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The information on the link is great. Especially about the use of colour; and where and where not details matter.
I'd love to have a nice backdrop, but I don't have that; nor do I have any good lighting (just one low-level energy saving light bulb, and whatever nature gives to me). Due to vision problems, I can't even see what I'm photographing until I look at it on the PC. But I don't believe in wishing for or waiting for the perfect things - my attitude is 'I'm going to do it anyway'.
But I'd like to do it the best I can.
I think my trees are improving. Maybe this is a little bit too dense:
(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/TR1_zpsy8tz5pwn.jpg) (http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/TR1_zpsy8tz5pwn.jpg.html)
I liked this tree though (with the natural background of a jar with a few sandwich boxes in it ... that was to prevent cats from standing on a space on my clean green cardboard):
(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/TR2_zpsqzythves.jpg) (http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/TR2_zpsqzythves.jpg.html)
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I think my trees are improving. Maybe this is a little bit too dense:
Looks GREAT!
I liked this tree though (with the natural background of a jar with a few sandwich boxes in it ... that was to prevent cats from standing on a space on my clean green cardboard):
:lmao: :lmao:
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At the German Board, Ute has designed a big, big tree with the tree of the new Adventure Treehouse 5557.
I like it very much!! :love:
Take a look:
http://www.klickywelt.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=59073&p=799564&hilit=baumhaus#p799564 (http://www.klickywelt.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=59073&p=799564&hilit=baumhaus#p799564)
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I think my trees are improving. Maybe this is a little bit too dense:
(http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/TR1_zpsy8tz5pwn.jpg.html)
Not too dense at all.
Look at this bit of forest for instance:
(https://www.colourbox.com/preview/2053282-spruce-and-pine-forest-floor-overgrown-with-fern.jpg)
Looking at all the fern I'm thinking playmobil needs smaller ground ferns to fit better under the trees.
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At the German Board, Ute has designed a big, big tree with the tree of the new Adventure Treehouse 5557.
I like it very much!! :love:
Take a look:
http://www.klickywelt.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=59073&p=799564&hilit=baumhaus#p799564 (http://www.klickywelt.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=59073&p=799564&hilit=baumhaus#p799564)
Asks for login :(
I remember in the exhibition during the PCC tour there was a victorian dio with a VERY impressive tree..
Now where's that pic... (from the PROCESS (http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=8205.msg256100#msg256100))
(http://www.playkingdoms.com/temp/playmoproc/pcc2014j167.jpg)
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Those big trees are quite fun to build, they tend to fall apart under their own weight unless you add something to keep the branch unions tight, glue, hot glue, fun tack type of stuff. For me it becomes a sort of building game when I do not use tack.
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Ute gave me permission, to post the picture:
(http://www.klickywelt.de/download/file.php?id=431495&mode=view)
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Ute gave me permission, to post the picture:
That links to the file through klickywelt (http://www.klickywelt.de/download/file.php?id=431495&mode=view (http://www.klickywelt.de/download/file.php?id=431495&mode=view)), and since I'm not logged, I can't see it..
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Will post it another way today evening.
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Will post it another way today evening.
Thank you :)
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Better?
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Better?
Yes :) - thank you!
And... Wow. It's gorgeous!
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Amazing!
Once I did use some differences in height on the ground so trees look like they differ in size.
Inspirational thread!
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Those trees are impressive!
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I think my trees are improving. Maybe this is a little bit too dense:
(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/TR1_zpsy8tz5pwn.jpg) (http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/TR1_zpsy8tz5pwn.jpg.html)
I liked this tree though (with the natural background of a jar with a few sandwich boxes in it ... that was to prevent cats from standing on a space on my clean green cardboard):
(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/Raven461/TR2_zpsqzythves.jpg) (http://s71.photobucket.com/user/Raven461/media/TR2_zpsqzythves.jpg.html)
It's not too dense at all, I think it looks amazing like that!
I ended up buying a few bulk lots on (German) Ebay with lots of trees and green bits in them. They weren't that expensive. And trees always come in handy, so I never regretting buying so many of them.
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If you like to make a good forest use different types of trees.
With number 30616590 tree trunk you can make different heights.
And you need 3002282 3002877 to couple to te ground and to the branches.
Use lots of leaves.
Succes.
Greetings Peter
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I know I already said my post, but I see new
How to make a good tree? Make one that makes YOU happy. Add a little patience, creativity, perspective, lots of love, and bam... Your own awesome tree... Add many and put in animals and such and look for ballance and you have your very own creation
I would love to see your personal imagination as no one else has what you have :)
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Thanks for the great information in this thread. I received the tree from Treehouse 5557 from DS, and I think it's terrific. Finally a tree with a realistic size.
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I really like the new tree from the foresters house 6811- and it needs no baseplates.
http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30023812 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30023812)
I also tried the big tree from the treehouse, but in my opinion these tree is to big for a normal forest - it´s much bigger, than the 30cm pine tree. But looks very good for a Stand-Alone-Tree (Like at the photo of the exhibition in Koblenz last year.)
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That is a huge tree.
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That tree was for me one of the highlights of that dio! It's AMAZING.
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I never tried the treehouse tree alongside normal trees. You're right, it looks huge :)
But now I see it like that, I think it has great potential.
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Since today, there are two new trees available in the german DS-Shop.
The large birch tree is new, the other one was already in two of the Foresters-House-Theme Sets from last december.
http://www.playmobil.de/2-laubbaeume/6472.html?cgid=Ds_Bauernhof&showSpareParts=false#cgid=Ds_Bauernhof&start=1 (http://www.playmobil.de/2-laubbaeume/6472.html?cgid=Ds_Bauernhof&showSpareParts=false#cgid=Ds_Bauernhof&start=1)
New possiblities for nice forests - but a little bit expensive. :-\
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Treehouse tree is amazing. That to me is what a tree should look like.
Looking at the trees from the DS-shop, it would be nice if the picture showed a klicky alongside the trees to give a sense of scale. As trees like this are for making the playmoworld more interesting it would be good to have their size made more obvious.