Flowers

[omnivorist]

I have some experience of using Blender to create still life compositions (fruit, glassware etc.)
My ultimate ambition in this area is to model flowers - something like this:

I would be really interested to hear from people who might have tried something similar.

Is Blender suitable for this kind of thing?

I expect I might have a fairly long road ahead If I want to get the results I am looking for.

Thanks (in advance)

[FinalBarrage]

I dont think this has a solution, modelling flowers is very technique based, and will require hours of research. Try going on a youtube spree, and find neat tricks and tips on making the peddles. Once you’ve learned a couple then you can start to merge them and create flowers yourself.

Tips, view each flower as individual projects, dont rush it, as the beauty in a flower lies in the details.

[omnivorist]

Thanks for your response. I am quite prepared to put in the hours of research but I would like to share experiences with other people who might have similar interests.

I totally agree with you about modelling each flower as an independent project. The 18th cent painters who created images similar to the one in my post used a similar approach. The flowers they painted would never have stayed fresh enough to be painted straight from life and, besides, they often bloomed at different times of the year. These painters created their compositions by ‘artificially’ combining a number of earlier studies.

Here is one of my first attempts. The geometry isn’t too bad but I am not happy with the texturing/shader. Reluctant to show it actually as it is nowhere near good enough.

[yogyog]

That - is very impressive! Nice modelling!

As for materials… translucency, semi-transparency (very slight) … slight gloss…

And you may need to texture as well.

This may all be possible in principled, but myself I’d start with

And then start adjusting everything, and adding textures.

[RickyBlender]

if there is some glossy on the flowers you better use the new principle shader with this easy option

and it is a beginning
but first do you have a reference photo to guide you on the color - texture?

also if there are some small bumps kinks around
you could use the texture painting in sculpt mode
for some bump map
also can do a roughness map
might be easier in 2.8 even if still in alpha mode

Blender 2.8 PBR Texture Painting Tutorial

happy cl

[yogyog]

Can you do transparency and translucency within Principled?

Can you tell me how?

[RickyBlender]

you can use the transmission value at bottom
but need to change the mode for glass and transp things!

happy cl

[omnivorist]

I tried out your suggested shader, adding some (hand-drawn) textures and here is the result:

a step forward, I think.

So thanks a lot for your response. I plan to investigate Blender 2.8 once it is stable as the texture painting looks really impressive.

Right now, I am trying to move forward on two fronts:

1. Techniques for modelling the variability of real flowers. (trying particle systems. displacement modifiers, armatures, etc)
2. Shaders for flower petals. When you think how the whole purpose of a flower petal is to reflect/transmit light in a really special way it isn’t surprising that it is difficult.

See my response to RickyBlender for the latest on the modelling.

[omnivorist]

Thanks for your response. I downloaded an early version of Blender 2.8 and the texture painting looks amazing (just what I need ). All the same, I have decided to hold back until it is a bit more stable.

In the meantime I have been experimenting with the modelling. Here’s the latest rendering:

[yogyog]

If you want to test out 2.8 right away for texture painting… I’ve found that you can append objects from 2.8 to 2.79. That way you can texture paint and then jump back.

Textures are looking beutiful! Love your work!

[RickyBlender]

could you also show the nodes set up used for this
it looks nice
but depends on the transparency of the flower too I guess

happy cl

[omnivorist]

Yes, I am still struggling a little with the shader. Here’s what I used. Later I realised that the nodes feeding into the diffuse shader were wrong but I quite liked the result so I left it.

I am also including a reference image I have been using (see below).There is a very strong contrast between the deeper colour at the heart of the flower and the transparent/translucent parts on the edges. I have been trying to model that - without much success.

Transparency is important of course.

[omnivorist]

That’s useful to know … thanks

[RickyBlender]

try it with the principle shader
might give more options
for roughness - transp mapping

happy cl

[omnivorist]

Latest results:

I hit reset on the shader. This is simply the principled shader with eveything turned low and transmission controlled by the ‘facing’ attribute. I’ll try adding some (painted) detail and bump maps later but I’m happy with this for now. I need to put some more work into shape variations in the petals.

Thanks for your earlier help

[RickyBlender]

try to add a back light to better see petal transparency

looking nice with principal shader

all with mesh or using some bump map ?

try to show nodes set up
so if other people want to try they can use it
and get good results

happy cl

[burnin]

I’d disregard Transparency and use BW map on translucency. If you observe petals closely, you’ll see that they get thinner toward the edge. So, since SSS can’t be effectively used in this case and no S5 (single sheet SSS) shader is present, Translucent shader, to me, is best alternative.

Further then, double-sided texturing should also help you a lot in achieving wanted results.

Keep it up.

[omnivorist]

Thanks burnin - really interesting suggestions.
I’m going to try them all !
Away for a few days though so it may be a while till I post.

Meanwhile there’s another thread on this topic with more results:

Rendering complex scenes (general question)

It’s in Technical support. I’m not sure how to link to it

[omnivorist]

Thanks for the reply and the encouragement RickyBlender.
I’ll try to include a nodes set up in future posts.

So far this is all mesh but I can see bump mapping would be a better approach and might avoid my polygon counts blowing up.

Here’s the latest rendering - largely done to explore rigging the flower stems with armatures. I find this gives me much better control of the overall composition than manipulating the objects directly (with rotations etc)

Rather than trying to go the whole way with modelling, shading etc. I’m trying to move forward on a number of fronts. Still a long way to go before I get to where I want to go with this.

[omnivorist]

Latest result in my exploration of flowers.

This is a quick test to get an idea of rendering times but I was really pleased with the result. The two earlier flower models are included together with the latest one (pale pink). The deep pink flower is a little too regular and ‘plasticky’ for my liking. I am much happier with the latest one. Here’s how it was done:

1. Created a basic 2D petal shape using a specialised armature.
2. Applied the cloth attribute to the result and set it going for a short time in a ‘light breeze’. This introduced a bit of variability in the petal shape. Repeated this 5 or 6 times to generate a group of slightly different petals.
3. Repeated steps 1 and 2 for 4 or 5 times to produce families of petals with different amounts of bend/flaring etc.
4. Built a torus-shaped ‘core’ and created particle systems for a number of rings drawing on the range of petal groups.
5. Instantiated the result and fixed it to the top of a cylindrical stem controlled by a armature via Bezier curve.

Nice thing is that, one you have the flowers, it is simply a matter of arranging them.