Proxy clipping. Shaping patches of grass.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Trying to figure out which section to put this ;-).

 

I'm looking for useful strategies to fill in these odd shaped areas of grass using proxies.

 

Per the attached image, I have some odd shaped areas of grass (OK, I'm going to be saved when half of it turns out to be DG, but for now and future reference...). I'm coming along with making little patches of grass and strewing them about the place as mrProxies. The proxies really help make the project possible on this 2 gig machine.

 

- with a round patch, I can't get up against the edges of curbs and sidewalks well.

- with a square patch the amount of rotational freedom to randomize my instance appearance is curtailed (but 4 angles is probably adequate)

- with any common shape reasonably sized patch tucking grass into the corners is prohibitive.

 

Is there a solution I'm missing? Am I going to just have to fill that stuff in with unique grass (which I don't relish spending the time building)?

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oops, forgot the attachment. just wait 'til I get home...

Edited February 17, 2010 by Peter M. Gruhn

[jinsley]

I have had the same problem recently on some projects... my quick fix was to:

 

- distribute my larger round patches of MR proxies evenly over the surface.

 

- go back and delete the proxies that over lapped the edges of the preferred area and paint in a smaller proxy (~ 8 x 8 inches) to get up nice and tight against the curbs, etc...

 

I have found that the more detailed the edge pattern needs to be for the grass, the smaller the proxy needs to be... which kind of makes sense.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Thanks James. Good to know I'm not missing something totally obvious. Wondered if maybe a finer proxy would be the solution.

 

I have enough straight edges I'm going to mess with some square patches too.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Gave it a go. 36" squares and 8" squares. Undamped. Filled in a smaller section OK. Distance appearance is not that good, but a different issue. I'm going to run with it for now and work on the rest of the job.

[jinsley]

Looks great... a little more variation in height and colour tone would go a long ways...

 

sorry, took another look... probably just the colour tone would help, looks like there is lots of height variation already.

Edited February 17, 2010 by jinsley

[Peter M. Gruhn]

There's height variation inside each clump, but not from clump to clump. I could maybe make a couple more proxies, one at 103% and one at 96% and a couple materials with slight color variations. And watch the RAMs. I'll give it ago...

 

Oops, I thought instances could... oh wait, I left that button on from when it came up in a different thread a couple days ago...

 

OK, it shows promise. But I need to go back to damped edges. Will not post. ;-)