Sakura Tree

Of all the props, trees and plants are probably the most painful to make because we simply have no idea how they should like. It's easy if it's realistic, since we can just copy a real plant, but having to make them cartoony makes my head swoon. Too round and people complain that plants don't look like that. Too lush and people complain it's a jungle. Is it me, or are people hard to please nowadays? Anyway, got a base model from Ken today, and gave it some tweaks by make the trunk thicker and curved to one side. Dropped lamberts on them, and test rendered them. Turns out, rendering the pink "leaves" using Maya Hardware with a slight transparency produces an interesting effect. Looks like something done with a paintbrush and cartoony. Jerald doesn't seem impressed and wants the pink flowers to look more like flowers. I'm extremely in love with the effect though. lol But again, I'm always easy to please. A few friends suggested that it looks like a scrunchy.