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

[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?

[arsheesh]

Hm, that's odd. Let's take this step by step. Prior to merging these two layers you should have 4 layers (Background, Trees, Trees Copy and Tree Frame), all of which should be visible. The Tree Frame layer should be the topmost layer, and the Trees Copy layer ought to be just beneath it. Did you select "Merge Down" on the topmost Tree Frame layer? If so, the Tree Frame layer should have merged with the Tree Copy layer, leaving you with 3 layers, the topmost being the newly merged Tree Copy layer. You mentioned that after merging you only see the 'noise' layer, is this the Trees layer or the Trees Copy layer that you are seeing? If the former, then somehow you lost the Trees Copy layer (if that layer still displays in your "Layers, Paths, Channels" dialogue check to make sure that you didn't accidentally click the "eye" icon off, thus rendering that layer invisible), I'm not exactly sure how this would have happened though unless you accidentally deleted the layer. If the latter, then, well I'm stumped. If you followed all the steps in the Tut then the newly merged Tree's Copy Layer ought to have a black border surrounding it. Hopefully something here was of use to you, if not I'm really not sure what is causing the problem.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[mramshaw]

Tutorials like this one make me glad I registered. Here's my attempt:


Trees.png

I'm not sure why it's grey instead of white, but channel masks are new to me.

Also, the drop shadow didn't really seem to make any difference, perhaps I should
have made the clumps of trees more sculpted? Anyhow, thanks very much for sharing.

[arsheesh]

No problem, glad to here that the tut is of some use to you. Regarding the background, it might be that the "Trees Outline" layer mask in the Channels dialogue is switched to visible. If there is a little "eye" icon floating to the left side of the layer mask, that means that the mask is visible. Just click on the eye icon to make the layer mask invisible and (if that really is the issue) the background should turn white again. As for the drop shadow, not sure why it didn't show up more. One other thing, the edges of the forest have a pretty noticeable bevel to them. This is due to the Bump map. I have not found a good way to get rid of the bevel except by simply covering it up with lots of "little" trees. If you read a bit further in this thread (I believe it's one of the updates on page 1) I explain how to do this.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[mramshaw]

Thanks for the prompt reply, I only tried it once, I am sure my second try will be better.

As for the drop shadow, not sure why it didn't show up more.

Good, glad that's not just me, I was expecting a little more 'pop' from this.

One other thing, the edges of the forest have a pretty noticeable bevel to them.
This is due to the Bump map.

Yep, you could get rid of it (I think) by setting Azimuth to 180, but that kind of defeats the point.

I have not found a good way to get rid of the bevel except by simply covering it up with lots of "little" trees.
If you read a bit further in this thread (I believe it's one of the updates on page 1) I explain how to do this.

Thanks, I'll have a look for this.

[mramshaw]

He, he. My wife says these trees look like Broccoli florets.

She's not too far off ;.} (just kidding). They have a small scaling issue, being as large as your mountains.

But for our purposes (learning) they totally work.

[mramshaw]

As to the fluffiness, whenever someone says they followed the directions to the letter you know they didn't.

Hee-hee, I'm probably guilty as charged.

[arsheesh]

They have a small scaling issue, being as large as your mountains.

But for our purposes (learning) they totally work.

Yes this tut was really aimed at beginner level. There is a way to scale the tree patterns down without losing resolution but it is somewhat involved for a "mini" tut. At any rate, let me know if you encounter any other issues.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[MSZ]

Hey Arsheesh,

thanks for your great tutorial. It worked at my first attempt. With this I got a new technique creating forests. From my point of view the most difficult part in a map.

MSZ

[mramshaw]

I followed the instructions a little more carefully this time:

Trees.png

Not sure exactly what I did wrong the last time, it wasn't the obvious.

The channel mask was off, think I forgot to delete in 1e, Step 2.

In any case, thanks for all your helpful suggestions and I will know better next time.

Some nice suggestions in the various follow-ups:

Trees - Extra.png

I would add that for 5b in Step 1, when you are using the Threshold tool, the black
lines should be thicker than you might like, as the Drop Shadows will intrude quite a
bit into these interior forest streamlets and whatnot.

I really like the tree patterns, I updated the comments so that the pattern name
shows up correctly in the Clone Tool window (unzip the attached into your 'Patterns'
folder, the sub-folders are fine but not necessary I think).

Trees with Comments.zip

I really like these tree patterns for higher elevation trees (i.e. above the forest level
but below the treeline). You can clone them in as lightly or heavily as you like.

Anyhow, thanks again everyone.