Grass Tutorial - I'd like to think of it as uber...
Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:32 pm
Updated May 28th 2010 by DeadMan... No more broken links!
In the past week I've gotten two people asking me how to make a good looking grass texture. I'm not sure if this trend will continue, but I figured that rather than keep getting more and more halfassed in my description of it, I would just make a tutorial with pics that every aspiring colormapper can enjoy. As it happens, I make grass textures in the same way I make all my textures, so for those of you who are interested, this is more or less how I colormap.
This is my method! There are many like it but this one is mine!
This is the process that I have come to rely upon, but you should experiment around. There are other methods by other excellent colormappers to be sure, and you should seek those out to broaden your knowledge too, if you can. However, considering that I have the ego the size of a planet, and a volcanic one at that, you can expect that I think my method is best.
Anyhow...
Start by filling a layer with whatever color you have currently in your palette. It really doesnt matter. This will be the base layer for our texture group. Next, make a layer above it, and group that with the layer you created before it. This time, the color does matter, so lets choose a grassy color. Say green, for example.
The reason why I do it this way is twofold: First off, the reason why I fill the entire document on the base layer is so I can put the texture anywhere I want to later on without any work. I just control where I want the texture using a mask applied to the bottom layer. For grass, this isn't that important, at least not the way I do colormaps, as my grass texture usually resides under everything. However, for the textures above it, such as rocks, water, dirt, etc., It's crucial. If I want to change where rocks are in the map, I just paint some white onto the mask. Had I just created rocks where I originally intended them to be, changing my mind would be more difficult and time consuming.
The reason why I make the color layer separate from the base layer (as opposed from making the base layer contain the color), is that all the layers we're about to add will use alternate blending methods than "normal" (they will primarily be "overlay"). This means that when I go to merge my textures all together into one texture, I don't have to worry about photoshop automatically applying the mask. I do however use an old version of photoshop, so maybe new versions don't necesarily apply the mask when you merge a group. So do whatever, I guess. If you don't plan on merging your textures, and 400 layer colormap files that weigh in at gig+ sizes are OK with you, then you can also disregard this step.
So here's what my layers look like. I went ahead and applied a mask to the base layer, even though it doesn't really do anything (it shows all presently). Note that the color layer (green) is set to normal. We will keep it this way:
Next off, highlights and shadows. Make a new layer in the group and go crazy. I use big brushes for this, usually 100px and 200px. I follow the rule of thumb that darker means lower, and lighter means higher... It works pretty good in colormaps usually. That's about all the color theory I'm going to get into, as you may have your own opinions on the matter. Anyhow, just color a bit. Here's my stab at it:
Magic begins to happen when we change the blending method of the highlights/shadow layer to overlay. Note that I'm also adjusting the opacity to taste. As this is not an exact science, I'll just play with the slider until I like what I see. As I continue on in this process, I'll probably go back and adjust the opacity of many of my layers. I'm not good at explaining it, but think of overlay as a means of telling the layer to influence the one below it, instead of just superimposing it's own information. black will make things darker, white, lighter, instead of just making them black or white:
Next, use the clouds filter. Make sure your foreground/background colors are set to black/white, or you may end up with some pretty insane looking clouds. We're essentially making a random highlight/shadow overlay here, to put more variance into our grass. Although patterns occur in nature, we will often perceive them as randomness. So a good rule of thumb is that if you want something to look organic, make it random. Noticeable patterns are a no no when making grass. So here are the clouds:
And here are the clouds set to overlay. Again, notice that the overlay blending method changes what looks like fog to darker and lighter shades of green here and there. Adjust opacity to taste:
Now, we begin to put some legitimate texture into our grass. I use a small collection of textures (about 20 all in all) that I've used for pretty much every map I've ever made. Sometimes I hit google for something that I don't have, but that's a rare occurrence. People may disagree with me on this, but I think combination of textures is more important than any one "awesome" texture. Anyhow, what we'll do next is open our texture file, and use the offset filter on it. This is essentially a way to wrap the edges around so we can get at it's juicy, ugly edge, and kill it. I usually offset by 100 pixels in both directions:
Using the rubber stamp tool at 100% opacity with a 100px brush works pretty good. Make sure you define a stamp area at multiple points, so you dont duplicate an entire swath of texture. You may want to repeat the process once just to make sure you get everything:
Now that our texture will tile properly, let's define it as a pattern for future use. To do this, select all, then go to edit> define pattern:
Next, fill a new layer with the pattern. Choose edit>fill> then select your pattern. Here I've filled the pattern and then went back to the fill menu so you can see what the menu looks like and see what the filled texture looks like in the same screen shot, yee haw:
Here's the pattern set to overlay, and toned down a bit in opacity. The idea here is just to further influence shadows and highlights, so we really don't need a lot of opacity. This is the first time we've set a layer to overlay that has color information in it. Setting a layer to overlay will cause it to affect the layer beneath it not just in terms of luminosity, but also color, so that means that color information in the pattern will affect the color of what's underneath it. Sometimes, this will produce a nice affect (after all, nature presents us with perceived randomness in color as well as brightness) however sometimes it won't. You will have to play around to see what you like best:
In the past week I've gotten two people asking me how to make a good looking grass texture. I'm not sure if this trend will continue, but I figured that rather than keep getting more and more halfassed in my description of it, I would just make a tutorial with pics that every aspiring colormapper can enjoy. As it happens, I make grass textures in the same way I make all my textures, so for those of you who are interested, this is more or less how I colormap.
This is my method! There are many like it but this one is mine!
This is the process that I have come to rely upon, but you should experiment around. There are other methods by other excellent colormappers to be sure, and you should seek those out to broaden your knowledge too, if you can. However, considering that I have the ego the size of a planet, and a volcanic one at that, you can expect that I think my method is best.
Anyhow...
Start by filling a layer with whatever color you have currently in your palette. It really doesnt matter. This will be the base layer for our texture group. Next, make a layer above it, and group that with the layer you created before it. This time, the color does matter, so lets choose a grassy color. Say green, for example.
The reason why I do it this way is twofold: First off, the reason why I fill the entire document on the base layer is so I can put the texture anywhere I want to later on without any work. I just control where I want the texture using a mask applied to the bottom layer. For grass, this isn't that important, at least not the way I do colormaps, as my grass texture usually resides under everything. However, for the textures above it, such as rocks, water, dirt, etc., It's crucial. If I want to change where rocks are in the map, I just paint some white onto the mask. Had I just created rocks where I originally intended them to be, changing my mind would be more difficult and time consuming.
The reason why I make the color layer separate from the base layer (as opposed from making the base layer contain the color), is that all the layers we're about to add will use alternate blending methods than "normal" (they will primarily be "overlay"). This means that when I go to merge my textures all together into one texture, I don't have to worry about photoshop automatically applying the mask. I do however use an old version of photoshop, so maybe new versions don't necesarily apply the mask when you merge a group. So do whatever, I guess. If you don't plan on merging your textures, and 400 layer colormap files that weigh in at gig+ sizes are OK with you, then you can also disregard this step.
So here's what my layers look like. I went ahead and applied a mask to the base layer, even though it doesn't really do anything (it shows all presently). Note that the color layer (green) is set to normal. We will keep it this way:
Next off, highlights and shadows. Make a new layer in the group and go crazy. I use big brushes for this, usually 100px and 200px. I follow the rule of thumb that darker means lower, and lighter means higher... It works pretty good in colormaps usually. That's about all the color theory I'm going to get into, as you may have your own opinions on the matter. Anyhow, just color a bit. Here's my stab at it:
Magic begins to happen when we change the blending method of the highlights/shadow layer to overlay. Note that I'm also adjusting the opacity to taste. As this is not an exact science, I'll just play with the slider until I like what I see. As I continue on in this process, I'll probably go back and adjust the opacity of many of my layers. I'm not good at explaining it, but think of overlay as a means of telling the layer to influence the one below it, instead of just superimposing it's own information. black will make things darker, white, lighter, instead of just making them black or white:
Next, use the clouds filter. Make sure your foreground/background colors are set to black/white, or you may end up with some pretty insane looking clouds. We're essentially making a random highlight/shadow overlay here, to put more variance into our grass. Although patterns occur in nature, we will often perceive them as randomness. So a good rule of thumb is that if you want something to look organic, make it random. Noticeable patterns are a no no when making grass. So here are the clouds:
And here are the clouds set to overlay. Again, notice that the overlay blending method changes what looks like fog to darker and lighter shades of green here and there. Adjust opacity to taste:
Now, we begin to put some legitimate texture into our grass. I use a small collection of textures (about 20 all in all) that I've used for pretty much every map I've ever made. Sometimes I hit google for something that I don't have, but that's a rare occurrence. People may disagree with me on this, but I think combination of textures is more important than any one "awesome" texture. Anyhow, what we'll do next is open our texture file, and use the offset filter on it. This is essentially a way to wrap the edges around so we can get at it's juicy, ugly edge, and kill it. I usually offset by 100 pixels in both directions:
Using the rubber stamp tool at 100% opacity with a 100px brush works pretty good. Make sure you define a stamp area at multiple points, so you dont duplicate an entire swath of texture. You may want to repeat the process once just to make sure you get everything:
Now that our texture will tile properly, let's define it as a pattern for future use. To do this, select all, then go to edit> define pattern:
Next, fill a new layer with the pattern. Choose edit>fill> then select your pattern. Here I've filled the pattern and then went back to the fill menu so you can see what the menu looks like and see what the filled texture looks like in the same screen shot, yee haw:
Here's the pattern set to overlay, and toned down a bit in opacity. The idea here is just to further influence shadows and highlights, so we really don't need a lot of opacity. This is the first time we've set a layer to overlay that has color information in it. Setting a layer to overlay will cause it to affect the layer beneath it not just in terms of luminosity, but also color, so that means that color information in the pattern will affect the color of what's underneath it. Sometimes, this will produce a nice affect (after all, nature presents us with perceived randomness in color as well as brightness) however sometimes it won't. You will have to play around to see what you like best:
