trees & foliage alpha map texture form with defined transparency

[hoshun11]

I need help again.... how does this trees and foliage texture works, and is it recommendable than a 3dimensional trees? what is its advantages and disadvantages?

[karl zacharias]

I do most of my foliage post production in PS...but i believe your speaking about mapping the tree onto a plane and appling an opacity map to it with your alpha map...do just that...diffuse slot is your texture and place your b&w alpha map into the opacity slot...always looks flat to me...but go for it.

[hoshun11]

if u do foliage in PS, how would you do to cast its shadow?

[STRAT]

thats down to your photoshopping skills. 1 method is to copy the layer, make it black, blur it out a bit, and push/squeeze/strech it etc etc until it looks like a shadow.

[Ricardo Eloy]

I've heard of people using Piranesi for that. It can place the trees as 2D images, but it understands depth, so you can actually move the trees back and forward until you like them. Also, it casts 3D shadows, real-time. I don't use it, but it seems pretty cool.

[DennisB]

if u do foliage in PS, how would you do to cast its shadow?

 

Hi Hoshun11,

 

If you go to http://www.gardenhose.com/shadowtute.htm you'll find a PDF tutorial on making shadows for 2D trees, both for when the sun is low and the shadow falls long and away from the tree and for when the sun is overhead and the shadow falls round and beneath the tree.

 

There's a "round" shadow you can download and use if you like. The tutorial references an earlier version of Photoshop. So if you're using a new CS version, use the Warp (Transform) tool instead of the 3D Transform tool referenced in the tutorial.

 

If you only need a quick visual guide, jump to the last page of the tutorial.

 

Finally, a shadow that exists as a Photoshop layer can be made into a texture just like a 2D tree. That means you can map the shadow to a modeled terrain for example, and place it under a simple tree sprite to give the 2D tree the illusion of 3D volume.

 

The Painting Tree Shadows (http://www.gardenhose.com/PaintShadows_P.htm) show how this is done using a simple terrain modeler to make the shadow conform to an uneven ground surface. The same principle applies to most any 3D application, however.

 

Good luck and have fun,

Dennis@DigArts

http:///www.gardenhose.com