Fluffy stylized trees tutorial, using quadmesh-to-billboards shader in Unity

Here's a tutorial describing the process of using a quadmesh-to-billboards approach for making foliage, and how you set up the content for it to work in your own projects.
This approach offers a streamlined way to make fluffy trees without too much of a complex setup. Once the shader is working, it can easily be applied to any mesh that is unwrapped in a specific way!

Thanks for checking it out, and I hope you find this tutorial helpful!

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:31 - Model setup
03:32 - Subdivision approach
06:39 - ZBrush approach
09:15 - Shader preparations
10:27 - Camera-facing shader
24:22 - Material properties
34:55 - Additional shader functionality
42:32 - Conclusion

[ijidau]

For Blender users — to fill each quad to the whole UV space select all faces, press 'U' and choose 'Reset'.

[JoeyWongcw]

For those still wanting to know how to do the wind effect on Amplify Shader, a quick and simple way is to follow the video's Rotator example around @41:00, but instead of plugging the Rotator's output into the Append input, add a Panner node and plug the Rotator into the Panner's Time input, and plug the Remap output into the same Panner UV input instead of the Rotator's. Adjust anchor/speed/timescale as needed.

[ronjart]

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to record and share this. Can't wait to try it out on our project.

[brasscross]

This is incredible, easy to follow and the results are gorgeous. Hope you make more of these

[gecko]

That's a beautiful shader!
Thank you for taking the time to explain it in so much detail.

[coledanson]

Thanks for taking the time to do such an in-depth tutorial! :)

[Reikha]

I cannot believe this is the only video. I'd love to see more tech like this.

[LazloBonin]

Thank you so much for sharing this! This is insanely powerful in its simplicity. Adding my +1 for wind setup, would love to see it!

[NutyRiver]

Incredible tutorial. I REALLY love how you explain what each node does!!

[foobar]

This is one of the most incredible practical shader effects that I've seen recently. Amazing work!

[chaochenxue]

best stylized tree I've seen in unity， thx for sharing！

[AndreCastel]

Awesome tutorial. Thank you so much for taking the time. I would love seeing how you did the wind as well for this setup. It looks great.

[kiddba]

Great tutorial! I like the way you explain how you achieved this effect, so clear and straight forward

[nathanbarraud]

This tutorial is so good ! I never thought of this technic to make trees ! And the wind effect looks amazing !
Well done !

[romansharf]

Very cool video! Everything was very clear. Looking forward to seeing the wind setup!

[tomclauzade]

Really cool effect :D Love it ! You've done literally every things i need for my project's trees ! Please continue the tutorial for wind or some tips ! Huge Thanks :)

[zardify_]

This might have been the best video I've seen on anything shader related. Huge thanks.

[Airtight]

I'd love to see how you set the wind up. Thank you for this, it's an amazing style.

[shifengliang]

Awesome tutorial! Thank you very much! Looking foward to seeing your wind animation tutorial!

[paridemarini]

Thank you SO MUCH for putting the URP shadergraph link in the description! i was going insane trying to replicate this hahah
amazing tutorial!!