Step by Step Make PLANTS in Cinema 4D

01First Create leaves

off we need our leaf section. You can use the one supplied or create your own. The key is to use a format such as .png that allows for alpha channels. I tend to add a normal map as well, to help sell the details. Once you have that, apply it to a simple plane, bent in the middle to add a little life. Try to keep to around six to ten polygons.

02 MAKE low-poly object

Now it’s time to create a quick low-poly object to act as the growth base. Remember that modelling to scale will help. You can make any shape you like – I’ve gone for a simple spherical shape and a cubic one. Add any other details you need such as stems or trunks. Then, move your leaf axis point to the start of the stem, pointing along its length.

03 ADD A Cloner

Add a Cloner to the scene, with the leaf as its child. It will look awful at first, as there will only be a clone at each vertice of the underlying mesh, but don’t panic. To fix this, change the Distribution setting to Surface and increase the count. If you have a flat underside, it might look a bit odd, in which case delete the bottom poly of the growth base object. As you go on it will begin to look a bit more organic.

04 ADD A RANDOM effector

To finish up, add some variation by adding a Random Effector. Experiment with the settings to suit your needs but try to keep any scaling changes uniform, otherwise your leaves will stretch. Rotation and positional changes along all three axes can work well. If you find the faces of the leaves are too random, try changing the Up vector to +Y in the Cloner. Add more clones if you need to, until you are happy with the result.