ADD MOVEMENT TO TREE LEAVES

01 THERE ISOLATE THE LEAVES

may already be a Material ID allocated to the leaves, in which case it is very simple to isolate them from the rest of the model in the Polygon> material Ids> select ID box. Otherwise select a single ‘element’ leaf plane, expand the Ribbon menu and from Modify Selection click the Similar button with only Topology selected from the dropdown.

02 DETACH THE LEAVES

With the leaf elements now selected, click on the Detach button and give this new object the name ‘leaves’ in the dialogue box that opens.

You have now successfully separated the tree’s leaves from the rest of the tree model, and they can be selected and modified independently to the trunk and branches object.

03 SOFT SELECTION

Under Editable Poly expand Soft Selection and switch on Use Soft Selection. Start selecting around the model using Elements selection. Select multiple points, creating random patches all over and overlapping into each other until your selection resembles something similar to the illustration shown here. You may need to adjust the Falloff, Pinch and Bubble values in Soft Selection.

04 CREATE MOVEMENT

With Editable Poly still highlighted, add a Noise modifier. Under Noise Parameters, tick Animate Noise. Adjust the X, Y and Z values in Noise Strength to 100mm and Scale to 100. Switch on Auto Key in the bottom right and click Set Keys at frame 0. Move the time slider to the end of your sequence. Change the Phase value in Noise Animation to a higher value and click Set Keys. Now switch off Auto Key.