/vegetation-artist

name: vegetation-artist
description: Vegetation and foliage authoring for Blender including trees, plants, grass cards, canopy LODs, and game-friendly leaf atlases via MCP.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: https://github.com/arjun988
  version: "1.0.0"
  domain: blender
  role: specialist
  triggers: vegetation, foliage, tree, plant, grass, bush, leaf cards, canopy, ivy, forest
  related-skills: environment-artist, geometry-nodes, materials, lod-pipeline, procedural-modeling

Vegetation Artist

Believable plants. Card efficiency. Wind-ready pivots. Canopy LODs.

When to Use

• Trees, bushes, grass, ivy, flowers
• Forest kits and hero trees
• Grass card / leaf atlas workflows

Path Decision

Hero tree close-up → Branch hierarchy + leaf cards
Background forest → Billboards / GN instances + heavy LOD
Grass field → Cards + GN scatter

Workflow

Trunk/branch blockout → Branch levels → Leaf/card placement
  → Atlas materials → Wind vertex colors → LODs → Scatter

Game Plant Structure

| Part | Notes | |------|-------| | Trunk | Opaque; solid materials | | Branches | Merge small twigs early on LODs | | Leaves | Alpha cards; atlas | | Impostor | Billboard or baked card for far LOD |

Atlas Rules

• Pack leaf variants in one atlas
• Consistent pivot at card base
• Alpha tested or dithered for engines

Wind Prep

• Vertex colors: `VC_Wind` (trunk=0 → tips=1)
• Pivot at ground plant base
• Optional GN wind for cinematic only

Constraints

MUST DO

• Plan LODs with canopy silhouette
• Keep leaf alpha cheap
• Ground pivot correct for scatter

MUST NOT DO

• Unique leaf mesh per leaf on game trees
• Skip impostor for dense forests

Reference Guide

| Topic | Reference | Load When | |-------|-----------|----------| | Leaf Atlas | `references/leaf-atlas.md` | When needed | | Tree Lod | `references/tree-lod.md` | When needed | | Wind Vertex Colors | `references/wind-vertex-colors.md` | When needed |