Jump to content

Complex Grass


Wither

Recommended Posts

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

 

This is a tutorial on making complex grass, as requested by jerkfight in the Pictorium.

It is based on a Photoshop tutorial I found. [link]

Though I tried to write it out as simply as possible, this is still a time consuming tutorial (due to all the duplicating and details required).

Ash has written another tutorial that can give similar (maybe even better) results with less effort.

---

Required Plugins

None!

Outrageously Useful Plugins

Waves - Madjik

Mirror/Rotate - Toli

---

You start off by drawing a circle. I chose gray because it's easier to get different colors out of it later.

1

Now take the elliptical selection tool and leave a small sliver.

2

Delete the selection. Then erase a little bit off the bottom so it's flat.

3

Use Waves (or any other effect) to tweak the shape to your liking. This part can be very tricky to get right and there's no sure-fire way to do it. Just keep playing until it's a slim curve. I chose Waves because it comes pretty close. But there are a dozen other distort effects that can do the job too.

4

Color the blade however you see fit.

5

---

Now begins the long part... Duplicate the grass layer a few times. On each, rotate, stretch, and/or move the blades around. Try and get a decent spread.

On parts where the grass overlaps, create a layer UNDER the top blade, take out your paintbrush (size 3) and draw small black specks where there would be a small shadow from overlapping. Then gaussian blur the layer at 4 px.

6

Lower the opacity of your shadow layer to 120.

7

Stay with the same shading 'rules' for the rest of this part. Be sure to recolor every few blades or so.

8

9

Every few blades, be sure to use the Mirror/Rotate plugin to flip the grass so it's not all one direction.

---

After doing this process for about 15 or so blades (remember to keep shading!), you should have a healthy clump going.

10

Go ahead and hide the background layer, flatten, then start the process over again. But with the whole clump this time.

11

Keep doing that until you've got an even bigger clump.

12

Hide the background and flatten again. By now you've got a large enough clump to fill a screen without much effort.

Just remember to flip the duplicated layer every now and then and you'll have it done in no time.

13

---

That's it! You're done! Here's what I made after some color adjustments.


14

 

---

My example isn't quite like the Photoshop version... but to be fair, the author is a professional artist who spent a fair amount of time on his grass (and is also armed with a more powerful software... >_>), and I'm just some guy. ;)

Besides! How can I compete with this!? :shock:

Have fun Paint.NETting! :D

---

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aile! Good to see you again! :-)

---

Wither, Excellent work! This tutorial is David.Atwell approved. ;-)

 

The Doctor: There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior... A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.
Amy: But how did it end up in there?
The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it.
River Song: I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice !

-Additional info how you make it in your signatures?-

@DarkShock91, i get it

WHATZ.png

wear our signature and earn 50 studiocredits. pm me your username if you want to participate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The super fast way of making grass is:

Fill an area with green.

Add noise:


  • [*:2twrk1pa]Intensity - 100
    [*:2twrk1pa]Saturation - 0
    [*:2twrk1pa]Coverage - 100

Then motion blur at 90 degrees (uncentered) at your preferred distance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

God almighty Wither! You are too unassertive, that grass looks gorgeous! I was nearly going to water my p.c screen :D

Going to try this soon, Bravo!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice tut, accept a bit long..

But the result is nice, I'll start making one..

IMO, they SHOULD be long. A lot of tutorials are WAY too short. :-)

 

The Doctor: There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior... A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.
Amy: But how did it end up in there?
The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it.
River Song: I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, it really is (complex :)

Could you pls make this clear for me? When you say

"On parts where the grass overlaps, create a layer UNDER the top blade, take out your paintbrush (size 3) and draw small black specks where there would be a small shadow from overlapping. Then gaussian blur the layer at 4 px."

Where am I supposed to put this "shadow" layer? Just under the first layer starting from the top? I wish I could do this tut but I am presently stucked with this :roll:

Thanks for your help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once you have your grass placed and you have a part where the top blade overlaps one below it. Create a new layer and move it to just one level underneath the blade on top. Then draw your 'shadow dots'. Hmm... It's sort of hard to explain. So I did a short clip up to that point. :)

th_clip0050.jpg

I'll edit this into the first post too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once you have your grass placed and you have a part where the top blade overlaps one below it. Create a new layer and move it to just one level underneath the blade on top. Then draw your 'shadow dots'. Hmm... It's sort of hard to explain. So I did a short clip up to that point.

Wow! A step by step video tut! Lol, thanks! If I am not able to make it after this, think I am going to hide myself somewhere for a looong looong time :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok, Done it!

Thanks Wither! may be may attempt is not that good but I like the idea of little furry animals'eyes peeking from the grass :)

animalettinellerba.jpg

p.s.: Ahem.....perhaps should I have to go and hide for a while?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It is, technically. Except the clone stamp doesn't do anything with transparency, and there's a lot of transparent edges in the grass. Going back to reset the stamp's origin point to maintain realism would probably take you a little longer then just duplicating the layers. If you have a large area you want to fill, get a large cluster and just start building up.

For example, use a single cluster of grass and keep copying until you've got a bigger cluster (about 5-6 of the original), then use that enlarged selection to fill a bigger area. Just keep doing that until you've got a grass selection that won't take too long to fill a very large area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is, technically. Except the clone stamp doesn't do anything with transparency, and there's a lot of transparent edges in the grass. Going back to reset the stamp's origin point to maintain realism would probably take you a little longer then just duplicating the layers. If you have a large area you want to fill, get a large cluster and just start building up.

For example, use a single cluster of grass and keep copying until you've got a bigger cluster (about 5-6 of the original), then use that enlarged selection to fill a bigger area. Just keep doing that until you've got a grass selection that won't take too long to fill a very large area.

I see. Thanks for explaining. Well hopefully when i get more time i can finally try this. If you also remember Ash's Fur Tut. I achieved a similar effect with it and i would like to compare them soon. This tutorial is amazing, but one of the links are broken.

EDIT: Never mind the last two comments... I notice you link to his tut, and the link works now.

omExTE6.png


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...