[Award Winner] Making Photo-realistic Trees in GIMP: A Mini-Tut

[Bayonet_Chris]

I was wondering about that! Luckily on my map, it was a small island and the river/stream wasn't essential. :-)

[arsheesh]

Hello Again. So there were a couple of things about this tutorial that bothered me, and in talking with at least one other person who had used this tutorial, it seems that he had the same concerns. The first point of concern was that the forests seem to cut off too abruptly. The second problem, related to the first, was the the forests seemed to "hover" above the ground rather than to appear like an integrated part of the landscape. I've recently been experimenting around with a new map and have come up with what I think is a nice solution to both problems. I have created some "Individual Trees" patterns that I have painted underneath the forests (that is, just under the "Tree Bumps" layer). The result seems to be a much more natural looking forest. While at some point I will update the tutorial here to demonstrate how to make your own tree patterns using the method I've discovered, in the mean time I have uploaded three different tree patterns (each of which is a different hue) for anyone to use. Here is what to do:

• Making the Pattern: after unzipping these files you will find that the images are all .png files. To use these as patterns within GIMP (or PS) you need to turn the .png files into .pat files (or, if you are using PS, whatever file is used for patterns), and then save them within the "Patterns" folder of your Gimp. Here's an easy way to do this. Right click on a .png and select "Edit with GIMP" (this will bring the image up in GIMP). Next, click on "File" and then select "Save As". Change the file type from .png to .pat. Click on your own user folder and double click on the "GIMP" folder. Once this opens, scroll down to the "Patterns" folder, double click it and hit Save. Now, close GIMP, and restart it again, and you should find the image has been added to your GIMP patterns.

• Using the Trees Patterns: to paint with a pattern, select the "Clone Tool" and adjust the scale of the brush to about .50 pix. Select "Apply Jitter" and set the amount to 5.00. Under "Source," select "Pattern" and then select one of the tree patterns. Now create a new transparent layer (named "Individual Trees") just below that of the tree bumps layer (see tutorial). Now paint within and and along the edges of the forests (you may find that you need to adjust either the scale of the brush or the amount of jitter to suit your needs). You should see dots of individual tree clumps spring up all over the place. Once you have finished creating the individual trees, simply give the "Individual Trees" layer a drop shadow (see tutorial) and you are done.

Below you will find a couple of "before and after" images showing what a difference painting with these tree patterns can make.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[RobA]

To use these as patterns within GIMP (or PS) you need to turn the .png files into .pat files (or, if you are using PS, whatever file is used for patterns), and then save them within the "Patterns" folder of your Gimp. Here's an easy way to do this. Right click on a .png and select "Edit with GIMP" (this will bring the image up in GIMP). Next, click on "File" and then select "Save As". Change the file type from .png to .pat. Click on your own user folder and double click on the "GIMP" folder. Once this opens, scroll down to the "Patterns" folder, double click it and hit Save. Now, close GIMP, and restart it again, and you should find the image has been added to your GIMP patterns.

Thanks for the patterns. As a tip, you can use png, gif, jpg and bmp files in gimp as pattern fills without having to convert them to pat. Just put the files into your user pattern folder, or ad a new folder to your settings. No need to restart gimp, just click the pattern reload button.

-Rob A>

[arsheesh]

Thanks for the patterns. As a tip, you can use png, gif, jpg and bmp files in gimp as pattern fills without having to convert them to pat. Just put the files into your user pattern folder, or ad a new folder to your settings. No need to restart gimp, just click the pattern reload button.

-Rob A>

Thanks Rob, I didn't realize that. Guess you learn something new every day.

[Gidde]

That looks fantastic. I'm going to have to give it a try on my next helicopter-view map!

[Solomiranthius]

I'm incredibly new to this, but (as far as I know) I've followed these directions to the letter (twice) and have ended up not with the soft-edged fluffy looking trees in the tutorial, but hard-edged, almost crater like trees. Anyone know where I'm going wrong?

Using Gimp for Mac OSX.

Thanks!

~Solo

[Green-Pilgrim]

Hiya - I'm having some problems with Step 5 in the tut. When I merge Tree Frame and Tree Copy - it just shows me the 'noise' layer of Trees. I'm running Gimp 2.6.2 Any suggestions?

[Ascension]

Yep, the lil stragglers on the fringes of a forest help to blend it in better. Nice job.

[arsheesh]

Hello there Solo, and welcome to the Guild! Hmm, let's see here. One thing I noticed right off the bat (though unrelated to your initial concern) was that it looks like the HSV Noise some how spread beyond the cloud shapes on the "Trees Copy" layer to the rest of the layer as well, hence the background is all grainy looking. Not sure why this is, unless GIMP interacts differently on Mac 0SX then it does on Windows XP. It's an easy fix though. If you add then apply the "Trees Outline" layer mask to this layer it should get rid of the Noise. OK, on to your question:

1. Hard Edges: actually, this has always been an issue with this tut. I have not yet been able to figure out a way to isolate, and then bump map portions of a clouds layer without it ending up with hard edges. Which is why I opted to try and "cover up" the edges of the forests with individual trees (see the update on making individual trees).
   
2. Fluffiness: I know that you said you followed the instructions exactly, but the clouds in the image you posted do look different, and I'm not altogether sure why this is. Did you by chance remember to select "Turbulent" (Step 1: 2.b.i.) when creating the Solid Noise layer? If you forget to select Turbulent the trees will look allot flatter. However if this is not the issue, let me know and I'll try to go through the tut step by step and see if I can figure out where things might have gone wrong.

[Solomiranthius]

Hi arsheesh, thanks for the quick reply! I had noticed the HSV noise as well and got it taken care of in some test forests I did this morning - the problem was that hitting "delete" on the Mac version of Gimp appears to do nothing. I saw the update after I posted for the harder edges and I'll give that a shot today. As to the fluffiness, whenever someone says they followed the directions to the letter you know they didn't. While the clouds were "turbulent", I noticed that in Step 1: 3.a I had moved the right arrow, not the left, to 85. This seems to have solved my problem! Thanks again for your help and for the tut, which when actually followed, works great.