I'm learning how to make grass for a project I'm working on using @jlampel 's course at https://cgcookie.com/course/creating-grass-in-blender . I was so proud of the results I wanted to show what I had so far and get some feedback for what I could improve on. I think it looks great for a start! I literally went outside and picked some grass and buttercups to use as a reference. It's made of hair particles for the shorter grass, and a combination of mesh grass shoots and some clumps of those shoots for the longer ones. There are also longer pieces of grass and some darker more reed-like ones that are difficult to spot, but I'm working on that!
I've been using blender for years, but I only started to truly learn how it and how CG work in general around a year ago, so I consider myself relatively new at CG. I started CG cookie a couple of months ago during quarantine so I could get some formal training rather than relying solely on YouTube.
There are a few improvements I'd like to make before I'm done. For example, where I live, there's a lot of moss in our grass. I still have to add that. I also have to tweak the dead grass, and add more flowers, and tone down the world lighting a bit, and as I mentioned above tweak the longer pieces of grass and the reed-like grass, but other than that I'm already pretty happy with how it looks!
I'd like to see how can I improve on it? I'd like some feedback because I'm still relatively new and would like to make sure I really understand what I'm doing, and the best way to approach it. Thanks!
The images are posted in order of time. The last one is the current version of my grass.
@jlampel I'll be honest, it didn't occur to me to model the moss too. Thank you! I'll be sure to post the finished product in the gallery!
We get that kind of moss around here too! I would just add it as another particle system and reduce the count for the grass. I'd recommend keeping the poly count very low and using a texture (could be procedural or painted) for the details instead.
@jlampel Thanks! That means a lot coming from the creator of the course I learned from!
I did add a couple of weeds, as well as some longer/darker pieces of grass, as well as turned down the lighting because I thought it was a tad bright, and I can definitely say it looks much nicer!
If I may ask a question, I'm still relatively new to particles. Where I live, most grass has a layer of moss in patches around it like this: https://blog.nutrilawn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/moss-3.jpg?width=2240&name=moss-3.jpg
How would I go about recreating this in blender?
Wow, this grass is looking really good! I'd say it's a big improvement. You can always add more weeds or brush, but that heavily depends on the scene and what context you have it in. Keep up the good work :)
ssambear Thanks! I just toned own the worldlight, it did help quite a bit!
I also spent today added the dead grass and the moss. I also added some vertex groups to control the density/length of the grass and moss. It's taking a while to tweak, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with what I have! ^^
This looks very nice! The flowers you added are a nice touch. I agree that the world lighting may be a little strong, but overall this is very realistic looking!