Our game is in 2D but while doing visual research I came across blender tutorials on how to make a 3D object look 2D with a style of old Ghibli movies. I was fascinated by the discovery and wanted to immediately try it out. Therefore, I opened blender and a couple of tutorials and tried to make something similar.
I followed this tutorial at first:
I started by deleting the cube and adding a new object - a plane.
Next, I modified the shape of my plane to resemble the one of a grass by merging the edges of the rectangle in the centre and smoothing out the sharp edges.
Next, I duplicated the object three times and proceeded to bend them.
At this point, I found a different tutorial that seemed to be more straight forward and also the final effect looked more pleasing to the eye than the previous one.
The new tutorial used particle system as the main function.
The beginning was the same: delete the cube and make a plane.
This time I had the opportunity to learn more about the shader and how to use them.
I added a grass texture onto the plane.
Next, I chose the hair system from particle properties and change the hair type to strips.
The upcoming step was to Increase the number of emissions and shorter the hair length.
Edit the children to simple and also clump the hair.
In the clumping section, I could edit the shape of my grass so I played around with that until I was satisfied with the effect.
I was so happy with the final effect. Unfortunately, as for now, our camera doesn’t work with 3D object yet so my plan is to render a 2D image and import it as a normal 2D asset.
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What I learned
Being new to 3D modelling I feel like I learned a lot. From memorising the shortcuts to efficiently using a particle system to my advantage. I learned that I don’t have to model everything by hand instead I can just use the tools that Blender offers me. Not only I will save a lot of time in the future but I can create more interesting and unique shapes by taking advantage of the software abilities.
The second tutorial I followed: