Desert plants

[nachoman]

Face it, few people model open deserts, meaning scarce information exists regarding modeling desert plants. I've seen a few articles in magazines and a few threads on the internet, but by and large information on modeling forests dwarfs that of deserts by about 100 to 1. In this thread I will explain how I model some desert plants indigenous to southwest North America.

By comparison, modeling a generic forest is easy. From a distance, only a trained botanist knows the difference between the various hardwood or coniferous trees in a mass of foliage. That's definitely an advantage for the forest modeler who can create a background of rather generic trees and satisfy the average viewer. In deserts, the visibility of individual plants and the extreme variation amongst species makes a "generic" approach impossible. Not only is the variation amongst cactus species profound, but North American deserts also contain unique trees, shrubs, and pure oddities like ocotillo and agave. Techniques used to create more humid environment vegetation simply won't work.

As a caveat, I should mention that I don't like using natural materials. I've had bad luck using natural materials in the past, with insects and with dried materials becoming too dry and fragile after a few years. A simple sneeze becomes a scale tornado. That means, I won't be exploring options for making these plants using dried weeds, lichen, or spanish moss.

I'll update this thread periodically as I figure out how to model each species.