mowed grass lines?

[Neilg]

I dont know about him, but I wouldnt because it'd tile. Regardless of how seamless you think it is it's always noticable if you look, by using layers of bitmaps mapped slightly differently you can get maps that never tile in the render.

[natty]

I just normally unwrap and create a map that covers the whole mesh with no tilling.

[MikeHampton]

I've always had the hardest time with large expanses of grass. I've been happy with what I have done up close or even at medium distance.. but like this image.. when you are far away, I've never come up with anything that I have been really happy with.

It's bascially just comes down to time. Materials and VERY fine detail are two things I simply don't ever have the time to do, and I assume most people (who have to do everything) are in the same boat. So when you get a wide shot like this that shows big expanses of grass.. what's missing is clutter/chaos/randomness. All things that take a lot of time to put into a rendering.

What is missing IMO, is that your grass is too FLAT, or I should say the land is too flat. There needs to be SOME kind of grade change, bumps, dips, etc. No large area is going to be that perfectly smooth. So anything you can do to break it up a little.. adds a LOT. Like maybe having the grade slope down as it approaces the water?

Secondly.. there needs to be small patches of bare grass here and there. Maybe using a vray dirt map with a mud texture in the occulded slot.. so that areas around curbs, buildings, fenses, etc.. will show some patches of mud around them. Also.. weeds! There would be some weeds/crabgrass scattered around. Then also some clutter... like fallen leaves, etc.

Ok.. I realize all this detail adds a LOT of time.. and it's time I don't have either to put into my renderings. But I try to add just one of those details if I can.. and then on the next rendering add another.. then another. And hopefully eventually I will have a library of models/maps/techniques that I can eventually use to add those details quickly. Unfortunatly with grass.. I have never had the time to do any of that yet..

[glorybound]

grass

Here are 2 grass materials that I have had pretty good success with.

http://www.whitebirchstudios.com/public_share/grass

I have also played with making a duplicate of my grass and raising the second one 1/4" off the first. On the second grass I use a different material and I add a noise into the opacity channel.

[Neilg]

I just normally unwrap and create a map that covers the whole mesh with no tilling.

So on a shot which shows an entire island with hundreds of houses and zooms in to the front door of one, what resolution would you make it?

[glyph]

couple of things based on real life mowing experience:
the stripes definitely appear on a normal lawn cut with a mower - its not only sports pitches
(though the coarser grass grown in drier climates might bend less than UK grass I've cut)

more importantly the stripes should run parallel to the paving - though I guess if you have a gardener with an eye to design they might mow on diagonals - but it would make the job a lot more tricky

a normal mower has a cut width of 18-24 inches or so - so the stripes look too wide to me