While SpeedTree has been around for 21 years, 2022 marked the tool’s first full year as a part of Unity. As we rocket into our plans for 2023, let’s look back at this past year, packed with inspiring user work, exceptional additions to the SpeedTree asset library by our artists, and the latest features incorporated by our developers.
Artwork that inspired us in January 2022
In January 2022, we released SpeedTree 9, which introduced freehand tools and photogrammetry features to our monthly subscribers.
Turtle Rock Studios Vegetation Artist
Rudy Lamotte – “The Whispering Forest”
Student at New3dge
Marie Henry – “Alien Planet”
We also had the chance to speak to Rocksteady Studios Artist Jonjo Hemmens, who shared details on the process behind building organic assets for his personal project, “Hemlock Forest.”
Cloud Imperium Games Environment Artist Daniel Peres released a compelling Vegetation for Games course on his Gumroad, providing artists like Samantha Baqvel and Máté Válent insights that helped shape their eye-catching vegetation later that year.
Arrowhead GS Environment Artist
Samantha Baqvel – “Hydrangeas”
Student at Breda University of Applied Sciences
Máté Válent – “The Cloud Forests of Honduras”
Onyx Studio Ltd. Lead Vegetation Artist, Jim Feenema – “Rock Fern and other WIPs”
Artwork that inspired us in February 2022
February brought us a breathtaking SpeedTree tutorial by Jean-Michel Bihorel for The Gnomon Workshop.
Framestore Environment TD
Mizuki Yamada – “Castelo de Algoso”
Environment Artist at Sharkmob
Alexander Livholts
“Coffee by the Pergola”
CG Generalist
Shunsaku Matsurida – “The Serpent’s Lust”
Student Shangyu Wang – “Terrarium”
Artwork that inspired us in March 2022
Our March interview with Arnaud Claudet revealed extraordinary vegetation modeling tips based on his winning entry to The Rookies contest, “World of Real-Time Discoveries.”
Months later, he reached out to let us know that he got his first professional job as an environment artist (our favorite kind of updates to receive from featured artists!)
The release of World Creator 3 launched with a spectacular short film by Aaron Westwood titled “I AM,” which features fantastic foliage assets made with SpeedTree.
Expo image from official GDC 2022 Flickr album
To cap off an excellent month, we attended our first Game Developers Conference (GDC) with Unity, our return to in-person events for the first time since March 2020.
Antler Interactive 3D
Environment Artist
Michael Khinevich – “Moon Gate”
Environment Artist
Geremia Merzari – “Lost in Nature”
Lighting Artist
Thomas Harvey – “Winter Cave”
Artwork that inspired us in April 2022
Associate Environment Artist at Blizzard
Kris Yu – “TAKEOVER – Abandoned Factory”
(Based on concept art by Dawid Jurek)
Art Director at Puny Astronaut
Sam Donaghey – “Churchyard”
In April, we spoke with 11 Bit Studios Environment Artist Artem Ostapchuk who touched on helpful tips for planning compositions, using Blender to set-dress assets, and modeling vines and vegetation in SpeedTree.
3D Environment Artist at 11 Bit Studios
Artem Ostapchuk – “Overgrown Jungle Path”
Historic VR – “Guildford Castle VR: Gardens”
(Available on Steam)
Environment Artist
乂安逸 – “Unity场景练习”
(Yi Anyi – “Unity Scene Practice”)
Artwork that inspired us in May 2022
Environment Artist at Tiny Talisman Games
Mathis Palomba (@yayhiko on Instagram)
“Stylized Train Station”
Artist at Netherrealm Studios
Cory Billett – “Owl Garden”
In May, we enjoyed a gorgeous preview of the upcoming pilot by Brackenwood creator, Adam Philips. This pilot, “The Dashkin,” expands on the fantasy world through his concept art and animated “Prowlies Wildlife Documentary.”
Note that the April 9.1 release of SpeedTree includes new features like scene cameras, and refined compatibility between the Click Place freehand tool and mesh generators. New properties have enabled more stylized workflows, such as feature vertex stitching and multiple extensions from one branch.
Environment Lighting Artist
Max Spiegel – “Water Mill”
Group project – “Sentinels”
(featuring foliage by Samuel Gauthier Cyr)
Artwork that inspired us in June 2022
Environment Artist
Mohamed Hadiri – “Minshan Grove”
Artist at Moon Studios
Valeria “Merenga” Samoilikova
“Spring of Power”
After overcoming some minor editing issues, we finally released our interview with Assassin’s Creed Environment Artist Adrien Paguet-Brunella. During this discussion, he shares his experience designing foliage for the AAA franchise, and encourages aspiring artists to collaborate and share their own processes for the benefit of the industry as a whole.
Student at Savage Level
Tom Joubert – “Hitokiri vegetation”
CG Artist at Tecma Solutions
Elia Luongo – “Acer Bonsai”
Artwork that inspired us in July 2022
Environment Artist at Veles Productions
Michal Chojnowski – “Forest Environment”
Artist at Shiro Games
Florian Elie – “The Temple Jar”
In July, we had the pleasure of chatting with Jonathan van Immerzeel, also known as Staggart Creations, about the stylized vegetation he designed for the slice-of-life game, Lake.
A snippet of Jonathan van Immerzeel’s Atlas building process from our interview
Artist Rigdhi – “Relentless Voyage”
Environment Artist at Bulkhead
Ben McDonald – “Forest Pass”
Artwork that inspired us in August 2022
Environment Artist
Sisa Chiang – “Amalfi Coast Project”
FX Artist
Andreas Hansen – “Tsunami”
Unity booth cube at SIGGRAPH 2022,
featuring “The Dome” by @3dpatxy
While SpeedTree Artist Sarah Scruggs was unable to join us in-person for her presentation, she edited and submitted a video for Danny Oakes, our product manager, and Genevieve Gagnon, fellow artist, to present on her behalf.
This year’s SIGGRAPH took place in Vancouver, where the Unity booth’s centerpiece cube showcased artwork from our users. There were also colleagues onsite to discuss SpeedTree with current and prospective users, while motion-captured acrobats bounced on a trampoline beyond the wall supporting the demo monitor.
Artwork that inspired us in September 2022
In September, we announced our collaboration with Renderman on their NASA Exploration Art Challenge. This challenge encouraged users to sign up and snag a free SpeedTree Cinema license to bring their own vision of far-off worlds to life. While SpeedTree users didn’t place this round, there’s always next time.
Architect and Artist
Kay John Yim – “Kagura (神楽)”
Eleni Verykokidi – “Worlds Within Reach”
Additionally, the 9.2 build of SpeedTree brought metadata options to users looking for custom file information. A new property was also added to the leaf and batched leaf generators to help align 3D anchors with the orientation and deformation of parent nodes.
Environment Artist at AirStrafe Interactive
John Chung – “Inanna’s Archive”
(based on concept art by Max Hay)
Environment Artist at Hinterland
Krista Hilge – “A Mountainous Tree House”
Artwork that inspired us in October 2022
Artist Alin Gurita – “Guardian”
Environment Artist and CG Generalist
Ivan Lisogor – “Forest”
In October, our content marketing manager dug into our spookiest user projects, a favorite pastime since joining the SpeedTree team in 2018. If you’re craving more artwork with an occasionally eerie, autumnal theme, check out our Top 5 lists from October 2019, 2020, and 2021.
As an extra treat, the SpeedTree artists released a new batch of library models, including the Japanese Tamukeyama maple and weeping willow.
Artist and Student
Francisco Javier Navallas (@3dpatxy)
“Escher’s Pacman”
Level Environment Artist at Room8 Studio
Guillermo Moreno Alfaro
“Project Witch: Swamp Environment”
Artwork that inspired us in November 2022
CG Artist Cristian Durnea – “A natural bridge”
CG Artist
Daurélia Gazel – “Twitch Waiting Screen”
In November, we published our interview with DreamWorks Artist Thomas Proux. In this article, he shares his method for modeling stylized foliage in “Bonsai Garden” – a bright spot in the dwindling daylight of fall.
We’re pleased that our SpeedTree’s artists didn’t let this lack of sunshine stop them from adding a ton of new models to the SpeedTree library, including rice, peppermint trees, and bhutan pines.
Visualizer Elizaveta Ivanova – “Fantasy”
Artist Marc Schneider – “In the park..”
Artwork that inspired us in December 2022
Artist Mary G. – “Flowers fields”
Hard-surface Artist at Hangar 13
@Matus_Pavkeje – “Verdana Valley”
In December, we caught up with Doug Campbell to discuss his approach to creating relaxed Western landscapes using NDunes.
Then, before taking a break for the holiday season, our engineers gifted us one last major SpeedTree update for the year with the release of 9.3: two new generators (Decal and Mesh Detail), a mesh Scale Value, as well as rotation part of the Frond Generator’s properties.
Environment Artist and Student
Yoann Leong – “Wetland”
Environment Artist
Gwanseon Oh – “Castle in the Sky Laputa”
It’s been a year of learning new processes, embracing change, and working with teams multitudes the size SpeedTree used to be as a standalone company. While we’ve bid our monthly Top 5 blogs adieu and jazzed up the names of our Artist Highlight interviews, we will continue to celebrate user work and share educational resources to build better environments, as we’ve strived to do for the past two decades.