Handpainted Grass try 01

Anya Starr

Hey everyone! Just trying out something I've never tried to hand-paint before...grass haha! I maaaay have gone a bit overboard with it. However, any suggestions would be most welcome! I will be starting to post a LOT of handpainted textures-as this semester I'm working on a ton!
Thanks!
anya

whiketan

Could use a little bit more contrast IMO. Otherwise its pretty good, though I'm not an expert in any sense of the word, so think what you will.

Anya Starr

Contrast as in having more dark areas intermixed?? Or do you mean the sharpness of the lines? Because I could see both!! XD

Havoc89

If anything I would say less contrast. I've worked on a few stylized projects, and the last thing you want is for textures to stand out and grab too much attention. Generally most hand painted textures that are environment related should be fairly low contrast. I find it is best to avoid harsh shadows and bright highlights. Keep your levels with in a mid-tone range, as that will keep it subtle but detailed, and more importantly will not be distracting to the eye.

Other then the overall contrast, the main problem I have is with attention to detail being very equal. Stylized hand painted textures generally rely more on larger broader shapes, and any fine details are usually much more subtle. This is not true 100% of the time, but it is a good rule of thumb to follow. So for example, currently each grass blade's inner details are equal to the detail of the edges of the blades which makes the grass look like vines rather then blades of grass. It is also making it very difficult to see the shape of the grass blades because your eye gets overloaded with too much visible detail. To fix this issue you should make the inner details extremely subtle to the point where they are barely noticeable and rely more so on the over all shape of the grass blades to define the surface.

Anya Starr

Havoc-Ok, I will try that! Keeping the edges more crisp, and maybe softening the 'inner details'. XD

Anya Starr

So, here is a small swatch of grass where I have lowered the contrast/detail within the blade itself, leaving the sharpness of line to the outer rim of each blade. Does this work better? I'm also attaching a GIF of the higher to lower detailing changes.

Anya Starr

Changes coming along, will post more soon.

TerryMosier

Anya, your grass looks great. I can't wait to see it after making the changes that Havoc suggested. Making a hand painted grass texture look good is something I am currently struggling with myself and I am glad I stumbled on to your thread to catch some inspiration and some pointers handed out by Mr Havoc89.

Can't wait to see more. Keep up the good work!