Ferns are relatively simple plants that may come in handy for architectural renderings. We will create ferns from photographic reference. The logic is the same as for other plants, relying on the stencil channel to avoid explicitly modeling the shape of the fern. The fern shape file is included at the end of the tutorial.
We will start with a photograph of a fern.
The reference fern
Texture
From the photograph we get a relevant cropped, edited image from which we shall obtain the maps.
Color map
Glow/Specular map
Normal map
Stencil map
A little glow was added, and specularity is controlled by a map.
The texture should look like this.
Screenshot of the texture. All maps were rotated 90º.
The model of the fern is just an extruded path with several modifications.
The base path
The path, extruded
After extrusion, we convert the resulting geometry into a Bézier surface.
We begin by tapering the point of the fern…
…and then curve the surface moving the handles.
The texture is applied. We need to scale the mapping.
Mapping is scaled on the x-axis.
The fern looks better now.
We now begin twisting the branch by moving points and handles.
The twisted fern.
When satisfied, we convert the object into a shape and replicate. First move the centerpoint.
Let us create an 8-stalked fern.
Scale and rotate the branches to break the excessive regularity.
The fern is ready, minus a proper pot.
That is how we can create a fern.
The shape file is this one –zipped– if you want to use the fern right away.
The image below is the fern in place.
