Grass
Grow 3D grass with Grass: a neat lawn, shaggy wild grass, a meadow of wildflowers, a field of wheat, clover, dry savanna tufts, tall reeds or a forest floor with ferns. It works like a brush: click and drag on the ground. Grass sways in the wind, follows any hills you sculpt, and grows over any painted ground.
- Click Grass in the bottom toolbar.
- Pick a grass type and a colour.
- Drag across the ground to grow it.
Grass types
Picking Wild grass and growing a shaggy patch, then picking Wheat and growing a field beside it
- Lawn: even, close-cropped grass.
- Wild: long, shaggy grass in tufts, with some straw among the green.
- Wildflowers: meadow grass with white, yellow, violet and pink flowers in patches.
- Wheat: tall stalks with ears, from young and green to ripe and gold.
- Clover: low, leafy ground cover with the odd white flower.
- Dry: sparse, straw-coloured tufts with bare ground between.
- Reeds: tall rushes in clumps, some with bulrushes. Grass grows under water too, so reeds can stand in a pond.
- Forest floor: low, patchy cover of small leaves and sprigs, with bare ground between and the odd large fern. In Autumn the ferns turn bracken-brown.
Colour, height and density
Switching Wheat from Young to Ripe, raising its Height and lowering Density, then growing over the field
- Each type has a few colours to pick from. The last swatch picks any colour you like.
- Height runs from 3 cm to 2.5 m for every type. Density sets how thick it grows.
- Each type remembers its own colour, height and density while you work, so you can switch back and forth.
- Grow one type over another to replace it. With a soft brush the two mix along the edge.
Brush and erasing
Switching to Erase and clearing a path through the grass with a soft brush
- Size is the brush's width in metres. [ and ] make it smaller and bigger.
- Softness: low for a crisp edge, high for grass that thins and shortens towards the edge. Grass always stays inside the circle.
- Erase, at the top of the panel, thins grass where you drag and then clears it. A soft brush leaves the edges thinned rather than bare.
On a phone or tablet
- Drag with one finger to grow grass.
- Two fingers move the camera. Putting a second finger down mid-stroke cancels the stroke.
- Picking a type folds the panel down to a small bar, so the ground is clear. Tap its arrow, or drag the bar up, to open it again.
- On a phone, or with Ground detail set to Low in the Effects menu (the sparkle button, top right), grass is drawn with fewer blades so it stays smooth.
Controls
| Drag the ground | Grow or erase grass |
|---|---|
| Drag the sky | Turn the camera |
| Right drag | Move the camera |
| Scroll | Zoom in and out |
| [ and ] | Smaller and bigger brush |
| Esc | Cancel a stroke |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo a stroke |
| Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y | Redo |
Tips
- Sculpt and paint first, then grow grass: it follows the hills, and a path painted on the ground shows where to leave the grass out.
- Grass hiding the ground while you paint? Hide grass in the Paint panel shows what's underneath.
- Sculpt, Paint, Water and Grass share one undo: Ctrl+Z steps back through all of them in order.
- Scenes made before grass types keep their grass as Lawn, in the colour it had.
More guides
Ready to try it? Open the editor.