Entourage — Vegetation and Plan Elements
Vegetation is the most spatially complex element in landscape architecture rendering. It defines spatial enclosure, provides scale, and creates atmosphere — when it reads correctly.
Why vegetation handling matters
Trees and planting in a section or perspective render do three simultaneous jobs: they establish spatial enclosure (the ceiling of outdoor rooms), they provide scale reference (a mature oak canopy at 40' spread tells the viewer how big the space is), and they create the atmospheric conditions that make a rendered space feel inhabited. A generic blob tree at the wrong scale or with inconsistent lighting undermines all three simultaneously.
Section and elevation trees
Trees in section or elevation are silhouetted forms that must read clearly as vegetation while communicating species character, canopy density, and scale. Photoshop-rendered section trees are typically built from two sources: extracted photographs of real trees, and painted or brushed forms for secondary and background vegetation.
| Layer approach | How to build it |
|---|---|
| Foreground trees (closest to camera / cut plane) | Extract from high-quality photography using Refine Edge for complex canopy edges (see Card 10). Scale to the correct height. Place at full detail. A foreground tree should look like a real tree, not a diagram of one. |
| Midground trees | Can be extracted photos at reduced detail, or painted forms using textured brushes. Green family fills at mid-detail. Shadow falls differently than foreground — slightly more uniform and softer. |
| Background trees | Simplified silhouettes — either simplified extracted photos or brush-painted forms in muted green-grey. No fine branch detail. Consistent mid-tone value. Create atmospheric recession by desaturating and lightening background elements (aerial perspective). |
| Section cut trees | Trees cut by the section plane show cross-sections of trunk and major limbs — these are typically simple circle or oval forms in a mid-brown, distinct from the elevation trees visible behind the cut. |
Plan view tree canopies
Trees in plan view are represented as canopy circles — the projected overhead view of the canopy spread. These are typically built as circular or irregular filled shapes with texture overlays, not as extracted photographs of real canopy views (which rarely exist at the correct angle and quality).
| Method | When to use |
|---|---|
| Brush-painted canopies using Wacom | Fastest for large numbers of small trees. Use the provided special brush packs (tree plan brushes) for species-appropriate canopy forms. Vary brush size and rotation per tree to avoid identical-looking canopies. |
| Filled circles with texture overlay | For individual significant trees where canopy character matters. Fill a circle with the appropriate green, clip a leaf texture above it, add a shadow ring on a Multiply overlay layer for depth. |
| Extracted canopy photographs | Aerial photography of tree canopies, rotated and scaled to match the plan view. Reserve for hero trees where individual character is important. |
Atmospheric perspective
In real perception, distant objects appear lighter, less saturated, and with reduced contrast compared to foreground objects. This is atmospheric perspective — the result of air and particles between the viewer and the scene. Replicating it in a rendered composition is what creates the sense of spatial depth that separates convincing renders from flat ones.
Apply atmospheric perspective by adding a lightly tinted Screen or Normal overlay layer with reduced opacity over background vegetation groups. Slightly desaturate background layers with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer clipped to the group. The foreground should have the highest contrast and saturation; the background the lowest.
Try this
Build a simple tree line in section with three depth layers: foreground, midground, background. Apply atmospheric perspective to the midground and background groups using overlay layers and clipped Hue/Saturation adjustments. Then view the image at 50% zoom. The depth should be readable without reading the individual layers. If it isn't, the atmospheric perspective adjustment is insufficient or the lighting between layers is inconsistent.