How to create life-like grass?


bjulius21
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17 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

 

 

 . The one thing I wanted to try was making thicker concrete so I could just raise the house a few inches over the top of the grass instead of erasing the grass, and that seems to work. It is of course is not as snuggled into the grass/grade.

 

 

 

Always been the way I do it.  Even in Lumion.  

 

Posted this a few days ago

 

 

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20 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

Here is this same image brought into PS with some adjustments...

 

Right out of TM...

744518216_cont-1(1).thumb.jpg.ed7b68cf13c22e97a53b5c4ee734a7d9.jpg

 

After PS... 

cont-1.thumb.jpg.3fbaae5407845ffa45a875cffe6812cd.jpg

 

 

Not sure what the adjustments in PS were , but the color and saturation is better in the original,

you could try turning the Highlights down a bit and lightening the Shadows a bit , while keeping the color.

 

The PS Image just looks a bit "flat" to me and seems to loss some of the "realism"

 

M.

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2 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

The PS Image just looks a bit "flat" to me and seems to loss some of the "realism"

I agree, it is supposed to be an evening scene. Mainly for my home page (temp site - https://phasade.com/ ) so I could put white text over it. It would not be my typical rendering. While we are shooting for that perfect picture, and I agree with Rene whole heartedly on aspect of drawing attention to the architecture, beauty is still in the eye of the beholder.

 

I have seen before and after renderings that I think are both beautiful and could say I have seen both styles in life whether the sun is out or not, casting shadows or not, etc. That home page pic is like after two weeks of learning. I think it is a beautiful house, and it is going up down the road on an inlet from Lake Michigan. 

Thank you!

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29 minutes ago, stevenyhof said:

I think it is a beautiful house, and it is going up down the road on an inlet from Lake Michigan. 

 

Oh my comment was not aimed at the house , AT ALL , if that's how it came across.......

 

Just thought the image needed some "life".......

 

M.

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13 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

Just thought the image needed some "life"

I took like 2 minutes to tone it back - Lost some luster the original has. No Biggy, I am just cranking through so many things trying to get a number of living rooms set up with all the settings. 

 

 

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I was messing around with exporting my CA as a png and put into Photoshop. Brought in one of my backgrounds and then put in some grass form Twinmotion. That part is not so bad, but adding the bushes would be another issue. Maybe there are options for some nice 3d looking bushes and flowers. 

 

The grass does look nice though for 2D work in Photoshop if that is how you are pulling off the look. Here are 5 grass images from different angles. 1 has not stripes.

This was 10 mins of work. Someone have an idea on bushes?
 2023-01-31-10.thumb.jpg.1fc58856d03e77b717fc9d503a308cb6.jpg

FYI - I brought in the terrain with the image painted black. Then in PS I masked the terrain and deleted it. That left the foundation exposed as it is. Then put in the grass image and behind the house image, it just works. The background image is behind the grass. Then erase/blend in the grass to the background.

 

 

 

grass4.jpg

grass3.jpg

grass2.jpg

grass1.jpg
grass5.thumb.jpg.0061d2b0695af1031fd8ffb91ec89ef9.jpg

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2 minutes ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

A Google search for "bushes.png" brings up plenty. They should have a transparent background and drop right in. I didn't try it so no money back guarantee!

Yes, I only started to look and finding lots of things. Thank you!

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8 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

 

I think that works pretty well Steve ......should look good on the Website....

 

M.

Yeah, it does look pretty good. The plants looks like an eight year old wanted to help out. I know I could get plants set up with shadows already applied, and put groups together you can just place. But after messing with it for a bit I went back to Twinmotion and dug in more with my own textures. I figure I didn't give enough time to the fine details that make a difference in TM.

 

The big thing about TM that was bugging me was that almost all the exterior materials need to be replaced with your own textures because it is all flat and because most of the TM textures are made for gamers. I spent a few hours last night creating and applying textures and now understanding more of it's potential from experience. I also just like the idea of being able to move the model this way or that.

 

Not to say that there is not some potential in the 2D realm with some nice grass and background, but I want to keep at it and learn the 3D. I appreciate your encouragement as always, and maybe some of these ideas will help the next Chief user.

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I wanted to give an update here on my progress. Feeling pretty good now with Twinmotion. I am not using the Path Tracer as it gives me results in areas that I just don't like. Path Tracing is wonderful for glass and water and rough things like brick and stone, but Path Tracing does not offer a number of features the normal lighting provides. Perhaps the right elevation would work.

 

I spent last night and six hours today adding in my own trees and plants and setting up my Library. All my siding, trim, etc are mainly white with the different texture maps all set up. Now I just need to apply the materials to the model and change the colors and adjust a few settings until it looks right.

 

Once I had my default TM template set up I started a new rendering file, I spent 1 hour adding the house model, a few high grade trees (because their size is enormous), adding in my landscaping and messed with lighting, shadows, etc.. After that I brought the file into Photoshop and in 5 minutes using the Camera Raw Filters, produced what I think works and looks good for what I am after.

 

Out of Twinmotion

TM.thumb.jpg.69e1bbe9dbbd9d81f8da48d1f6da500a.jpg

 

After Photoshop

PS.thumb.jpg.7f8d93e3dc1ba4033f7a5806037d2c06.jpg

 

 

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Nice work!
 

I actually prefer the first image. Seems more natural. 
 

Although, it’s a daytime shot, a little glow on the wall mount garage fixtures would be a nice touch. 
 

Grass and all vegetation looks great.  
 

Nice perspective to illustrate the home. Maybe a vehicle or something for scale would be helpful? 
 

I’m certain using this TM file as a template would allow you to produce similar results in minutes for other projects. 

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45 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

Nice work!
 

I actually prefer the first image. Seems more natural. 
 

Although, it’s a daytime shot, a little glow on the wall mount garage fixtures would be a nice touch. 
 

Grass and all vegetation looks great.  
 

Nice perspective to illustrate the home. Maybe a vehicle or something for scale would be helpful? 
 

I’m certain using this TM file as a template would allow you to produce similar results in minutes for other projects. 

Yes, agree with you on the first being more realistic, but I would say I have been after something with a touch of artistic value. My interiors are looking very good with chief and I purposely use a background that is more faded and artsy so they are beginning to play nice together.

 

My focus on this was to produce something quickly, and now that I believe I have it figured out I can begin to fine tune with other objects and lighting. I did not change the roof, that is straight out of Chief as it really looks quite good and adding roof materials and textures in TM just didn't add any real difference.

 

Thank you

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This one is straight out of Twinmotion... I used the same template but moved the sun to the right and moved a few trees. Not bad for an old fart. I started in on this adventure the week of Christmas. A few days ago I was about to give up because I just wasn't getting what I wanted. I'm glad I stuck with it. 

TM2.thumb.jpg.d979d57e493d44dddf1bd1e56fb2615e.jpg

 

 

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On 2/4/2023 at 12:35 PM, stevenyhof said:

Path Tracing does not offer a number of features the normal lighting provides

it does, you just have to make the correct adjustments. can you give some example files?

Would highly encourage the use of pathtracer. Also I mentioned it before but you could really use some better materials on these buildings. This is PT:
1626382422_Image1-Final-NoLogo.thumb.jpg.de27f93b70d0e1262e73701d84904e39.jpg

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16 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

it does, you just have to make the correct adjustments. can you give some example files?

Would highly encourage the use of pathtracer. Also I mentioned it before but you could really use some better materials on these buildings. This is PT:
1626382422_Image1-Final-NoLogo.thumb.jpg.de27f93b70d0e1262e73701d84904e39.jpg

One is the fog. I seen some documentation the other day of the list of thing Path Tracer does not offer yet, but they're working on it.

I have been making my own map textures using PixPlant 5 and photoshop to fine tune some things, and it has done a lot to improve things. Not happy with some so will continue to improve them. I want to thank you again for the videos you did some time back as you were learning TM, that was actually a nice way to learn things. I do still mess with the Path Tracer just trying to see if I can pull it off, but I am super busy at the moment designing homes so trying to produce a rendering where I complete my new website. I am enjoying working with TM, especially since I purchased some nice trees, and will continue to fine tune my process as anyone would do.

Thank you

Steve

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Here is that first house I did when I started. This is a new rendering I did tonight. I used Pathtracer on it. But I also brought it into PhotoShop because while the shadows were good on the house, they were lost in the grass. So I exported both PT and Normal and overlaid them into PS where I brought the grass out a bit from the Normal image. It may not be perfect, but honestly, again I like when it has a bit of artsy character over photorealistic. I must say I like how the glass looks. Perhaps if I think it doesn't quite make the realistic agenda, I would prefer to lean to make it obvious that it is a rendering. I am very happy to have accomplished what I have in the short time I have been finding time, mainly on weekends to work on this.

Nyhuis-PS.thumb.png.23c0d30b84438cae96ea50ceea8a899c.png

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4 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

One is the fog. I seen some documentation the other day of the list of thing Path Tracer does not offer yet, but they're working on it.

I have been making my own map textures using PixPlant 5 and photoshop to fine tune some things, and it has done a lot to improve things. Not happy with some so will continue to improve them. I want to thank you again for the videos you did some time back as you were learning TM, that was actually a nice way to learn things. I do still mess with the Path Tracer just trying to see if I can pull it off, but I am super busy at the moment designing homes so trying to produce a rendering where I complete my new website. I am enjoying working with TM, especially since I purchased some nice trees, and will continue to fine tune my process as anyone would do.

Thank you

Steve

So a couple things. Render PT and render non-pt and mask the fog from non-pt.

or use a fog brush in Ps and mask it to your scene using an object ID

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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

I had updated my camera background images for X15 and was waiting for X15 to come out to share them.

What I figured out was how to make a much wider image so I could add a lake on one side and land on the other. So if you have a house with a lake in the rear, now when you look at the house from above or from inside, the lake will be behind and the land in front. 

Short video to show it...

https://myplan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/nOuKYb9v

 

2023-03-07-11.thumb.jpg.7bcad4d1400a60b03aaebaf197fc7d28.jpg

 

Library included for X15

 

Backgrounds.calibz

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2 hours ago, ericepv said:

 

I finally had some time to play with the new grass tool on X15. What a great improvement!

 

Agreed. I think the new grass region tool is the star of X-15 along with the extend terrain feature. 
 

By the way, you should check out Chief Expert's brick library….

 

https://www.chiefexpertsacademy.com/brick-library-for-chief-architect

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