Creating 3D Environments With Graswald's Tools & Assets

Introduction

My name is Maxim Fischer, and I have been a German 3D Artist since 2017. Over the past couple of years, I specialized in rendering and lighting and made many personal and group projects at the university. Alongside my studies, I worked as a working student in a small media agency, in which I mainly created 3D product animations. At the end of January this year, I finished my bachelor's degree in media design at the Hochschule Hannover, and since then I got employed by the Hochschule Hannover to cooperate with Graswald on a research project for 3D plant scanning.

Getting Started With Graswald Products

When I first started working with Graswald, the CEO, Julius, asked me to familiarize myself with the assets and GScatter. As part of my job, I took the initiative to begin exploring these tools and features.
Working with Graswald assets provided me with a vast range of plant variations, with different options for each plant, divided into "big," "small," and "dry" categories – depending on the plant. As a result, repetition is less of an issue, and I am able to create more diverse and realistic environments.

The level of detail in the Graswald assets is impressive, and it has allowed me to get closer to a plant asset than ever before. This is thanks to the high texture and geometry resolution.

The Ecotopes

Graswald currently offers seven different ecotopes that contain all available assets. The website is user-friendly and all the necessary information can be found with just a few clicks. Users can browse through the "Main Store" where all assets are randomly listed or directly select the desired ecotope to find the appropriate assets. 

If the name of an asset is known, the search bar can be helpful in finding it, either by its colloquial or Latin name.

When downloading, the Asset Store offers the file formats FBX, Alembic, and .gscatter for Blender, providing great flexibility for various workflows and software requirements.

Setting Up 3D Environments With Graswald Assets

When I first started using Graswald assets to create scenes, I did so in Cinema 4D, downloading them in FBX format. The downloaded files come in a compressed ZIP folder that includes all LODs and texture maps.

Before I begin working on the scene, I have to prepare the assets. I load each individual plant asset into a separate scene, select a LOD level (there are three levels available), and create a shader for Octane with the desired texture resolution. Then, I reference the prepared assets into the main scene and begin with the artistic part of the project.

However, for my current projects, I use the .gscatter format, which integrates everything into one file. To work with it, you need to install the downloaded .gscatter files in the GScatter plugin. After installation, the assets are listed in the library, and you can determine the LOD.

First, you need to select a surface on which you want to emit everything and then import the desired assets into the scene from the library. There are two options available for importing the assets – either directly into the scene or by emitting them on a surface. After an asset is emitted on a surface, GScatter creates a scatter system, and you can start creating complex scatterings with various effect layers.

The GScatter Plug-in

After a GScatter system has been created, the LODs are displayed in the Outliner and the GScatter system itself is then organized into a list in a separate interface. You can control the individual systems by disabling them for viewport or rendering, or by switching the viewport display to Geometry, Point Cloud, or Bounding Box.

These are the rough settings. For more complex ones, the Effect Layer is used. Here, there are already some default settings that are responsible for randomly determining the size, scaling, and quantity of distributed assets.

In addition to the default settings, you can add as many new Effect Layers as you like. I personally mainly use the Noise Texture Effect, but occasionally also the Slope Effect, Proximity Effect or Wind Effect. However, there is much more to choose from.

The Noise Texture is essentially the same as in Blender, but with the ability to change the Seed value and define the contrast more precisely using a gradient.

With the Slope Effect, for example, it is possible to determine at what angle of the surface the assets will no longer be emitted.

With the Proximity Effect, you can select an object that is responsible, for example, for masking the distribution of assets. The special thing about it is that you can create custom gradients with a graph. For example, I was able to depict a two-lane path with an extruded spline curve. But this is computationally intensive, so you shouldn't connect too many objects with the effect.

With the Wind Effect, it is also possible to create an animated noise that affects rotation and gives the illusion that the asset is moving with the wind.

As the name Effect Layer suggests, all the layers are overlaid on top of each other. It has similarities to the layer system in Photoshop. The Effect Layers can be multiplied, added, subtracted, inverted, and the opacity can be determined. These options are intended for each individual Effect Layer.

After creating an Effect Layer, it is listed in a list and can be instantiated multiple times. This way, you can work "non-destructively" and adjust multiple systems simultaneously.

To ensure that the scenes depict a natural and necessary variety of the respective ecotopes, I pay close attention to using a sufficient variety of assets. I strictly adhere to reference images and consult with other members of my team to maintain realism.

The use of randomness in the placement and orientation of assets, through the use of Effect Layers, helps to avoid a patterned appearance and make the scene appear more natural. Additionally, I ensure that plants do not grow completely randomly but are deliberately placed. For example, some plants grow only in groups, in dense or bare areas, and/or not in shaded areas. This approach ensures that the scenes have a more natural and realistic look.

Conclusion

Compared to the scatter tools in Cinema 4D, GScatter saves a lot of time. Even with just the default settings, you already have a solid starting point to build on. The imported or installed assets are ready to render immediately. On the other hand, in Cinema 4D, you would need to create a new Cloner object for each plant, and its default settings do nothing, so you would need to adjust them manually.

For non-destructive work using noises, for example, you first need to create a vertex map and then link it to a random field. Next, you create a MoGraph shader and add the vertex map with the random field to the Fields tab. Then, the MoGraph shader must be placed in the Effectors tab of the Cloner object for everything to work properly.

Octane Scatter for Cinema 4D is similar to the native Cinema Scatterer. However, GScatter makes it much easier for artists to start their creative process as quickly as possible.

Maxim Fischer, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Arti Burton