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Author Topic: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's  (Read 2696 times)

hubmer3

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Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« on: February 11, 2016, 12:00:37 PM »
Hy!

Im using forestpack in almost every scene and mainly take the presets from your nice library.
So i want to get further an make my own lawn's with patches.   8)

1. I watched the tutorial about creating grass but when i mix up medium sized patches with small eg. dandelion the lawn becomes "holes". What is the best way for making lawns with different patch sizes? I saw the evermotion katalog, they also have 3 different patch dimensions.

2. What ist the highest quality grass katalog out there? Evermotion, Maxtree, Real Grass?  ???

Thanks in advance!

Phil

Michal Karmazín

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2016, 04:15:33 PM »
Hi Phil,

I'm afraid there is no only one best way, but most usually having items with similar size and using corresponding Density (they should overlap slightly) is the easiest way to prevent troubles like the described one (the Area isn't covered completely).

That doesn't mean, there is no way to fix that behaviour by raising the Density (setting low numbers) and enabling the Collisions feature (feel free to check use of this work-flow for a slightly different purposes in following "crystals population" post), but that's not very efficient way.

The recommendable work-flow of building "large" presets would be to attach those "detail" (smaller) objects into few clumps with similar diameter like in case of Unkempt Lawns presets. I would suggest you to give a try the Distribution Map - Diversity - Clusters feature, which you might find handy for this kind of presets.

Also it's possible to "divide" it into several Forest objects (as it's actually done in case of VP Real Grass presets) and tweak adjustment for those "layers" (Forest objects) separately.
Quote
"What ist the highest quality grass katalog out there? Evermotion, Maxtree, Real Grass?"
The quality of all mentioned vegetation models is very high and it's hard to say which models suits best to your scenes. As there are free samples available, probably the best way is to do some tests with them and than decide.

Best regards,

hubmer3

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2016, 11:49:23 AM »
Well, thanks for your detailed answer!

I will give the distribution map a try.  ;)

The general idea behind my qustion was to creat a neat preset wich can be filled with different meshes and get the optimal ratio between overlap and holes.

a complete different question: is there a workflow for gras with a slightly snow cover?

Thanks

Phil

Michal Karmazín

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2016, 11:43:19 AM »
Hi,

Probably the simplest way would be to distribute any grass preset (I did a quick test with the bundled "Cut grass field 02" one) over a snowy terrain. As the grass on your picture isn't covered by snow at all, that should work fine. Attaching an example of that approach. I've used the VRayDisplacementMod to raise the terrain to cover a bit some blades and give some additional detail to that surface.

In case you'll need some more sophisticated solution, it would be recommendable to prepare few patches with grass already covered by snow / optionally snow applied on ground too. There are several techniques to do such effect (like by using particles) and actually that's something that's be covered in the upcoming tutorial. Hope you'll find it interesting.

Best regards,

Coffeeholic

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2016, 02:48:13 AM »
Hello Michael,

My question is unrelated, but I just wanted to ask if you changed anything in the forest pack material rollout or the material itself on your grass render. When I render the "Cut grass field 02" preset it looks way more saturated than yours, which looks very natural.

Also, if it was possible to share the scene (even without snow) so I could see how you scattered the grass like that (splines? paint area? looks great!) it would be very helpful. If it's not possible no worries.

Thanks in advance.

Michal Karmazín

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2016, 09:42:24 AM »
Hi,

I've just slightly tweaked V-Ray's Color Corrections settings (Exposure, White Balance, Hue/Saturation, Color balance).

Attaching the sample scene (it's pretty simple - a Plane object used as a Surface Area with few modifiers - the VRayDisplacementMod uses a Noise map, VRayLight - Dome type with VRayHDRI map loaded and the Forest object). The Distribution Map used is a Composite map blending two Noise maps with different sizes.

Attaching a sample scene (in 2016 format because of the PhysCamera used). If needed, I'll convert it into some of previous 3ds Max versions. Hope you'll find it useful.

Best regards,

Coffeeholic

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2016, 07:15:55 PM »
It helps a lot! Thank you so much.

Cheers.

hubmer3

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Re: Grass Patches / How to do Perfect Lawn's
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2016, 12:32:22 PM »
Thanks a lot!

 8)