hi all,
does anyone know how i would model a realistic looking feather? I would like one that will look good on closeups.
I need a decent looking feather for both my current projects, I’m Sorry and Little Penguin. The current feather in “i’m sorry” looks too stiff and solid in my opinion.
thanks,
Sam
I use the particle system to make feathers. first I model the shaft, then add a particle system, then use the grooming tools to make it more feather-like, and then i usually just render it and use it as an alpha texture. here’s an alpha I made as an example:
but does it look good or not ?
like to see a nice 3D example of this
feathers i think are the most difficult thing to do in blender to get a realist look!
happy 2.5
seen this one and it’s for special kind of feathers not the usual one!
and you can hand up with lot’s of vertices or the 3D effect is not very good with alpha pictures!
so not that easy !
happy 2.5
I think I used that alpha for my chicken here. (edit) actually scratch that, I just checked the file, and the feathers are actually ‘hair’. I used the feather on montezumas hed-dress which is in the wip section.
the chicken has cartoon feathers it does not like real feathers
it lloks nice for a cartoon but no real at all
i tried to make some eral feathers even with UV mappong and it does not looks real at all
i wish i could find a good way in blender to do this realist effect with feathers!
may be someone know if this can be done in blender !
and sorry search the montezumas and cannot find this thread!
happy 2.5
Very cool! Only Problem is, I am trying to make a nice smooth looking feather, not like the scruffy kind you have shown. I’m thinking just adding a shaped circle and then add a texture, but then it would look less realistic. 
Thanks modron, i’ll use that techinque for my penguin.
I’m still looking for a way to model a realistic single swan feather for the quill in I’m Sorry. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, by me and a few other people. I’m experimenting, but surely someone has successfully created a realistic single feather before?
thanks,
Sam
I had the same problem and therefore laboured for weeks with an acceptable result:
The process of making I documented in my blog.
Nice feather and tutorial. You should post it in tutorials subforum, where it won’t be lost once it falls off the page.
did you try to do following the tut ?
not certain if he is using a UV alpha map for the feather?
any idea ?
and look likes he is using a 2 sides mirror feather
to give 3D effect and 2 sides UV texture
