How to Create Nature Render for Your Portfolio in Blender, in 10 Steps?

+Examples of Using the Grass Essentials Pack

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Does this sound familiar: you desperately want to create nature scene for your portfolio, but don’t know where to start? Or you are struggling with particle systems and end up making a boring grass lawn (insane render time included)? Then watch this tutorial.

In this tutorial which we will go through creating a nature render in Blender, step by step. Actually, it will take us only 10 steps to get the result.

We are also going to use The Grass Essentials pack by Andrew Price. I’m sure you have heard about it, because Blender community seems to go crazy about it. 😉

Having a Nature Render in Your Portfolio is Beneficial, Even if You Specialize in Machinery.

It doesn’t matter if you are well-versed in making hard surface industrial drills, it is still okay to try something new an make a nature render.

Why?

1.  Showcase your lighting skills (subsurface scattering, translucency, complex objects)

2. Brag about complex particle systems

3. Rare opportunity to obtain a dominantly green picture. No kidding. If you love green.

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”
Hal Borland

how to create nature render in Blender
Making of the nature render – stages

The Interest for Nature Renders is Still Huge

I was pretty much obliged to talk one more time about creating nature renders.

Why?

Because the previous How to Make a Grass Field tutorial gathered nearly 100.000 views on Youtube. Amazing! For me, it means that the interest for nature renders is very high. Before we move on to actual tutorial, I’d want to say thanks to each one of you and keep being awesome!

gleb alexandrov

One more reason behind it was the exposure which The Grass Essentials Pack gained in Blender community. Having tested it extensively, I want to share with you one more way of using the Grass Essentials Pack.

Hopefully, just by following this advice you will eventually make a nice nature render for your portfolio.

This is especially true if you just begin struggling with greenery, and have troubles with overly complex scenes and mind-boggling particle settings.

Want to Learn More About Lighting in Nature?

Discover a new way to look at lighting in nature scenes by reading this tutorial.

Imagine a brightly glowing grass blades, swaying in the wind. What you actually see here is the light itself, captured inside a translucent foliage. While probably you can’t see the light photons traveling through space, you can see how they interact with matter.

nature lighting blender 3d

Original Blender Tutorial: How to Make a Grass Field

Watch the tutorial which started it all. Over its lifetime, it received nearly 100.000 views, woah!

how to create a grass field in blender

Bonus Tutorial: 5 Tips for Creating a Wild Grass Field, That Looks Believable

And here is even more learning (as if you aren’t tired of it already).

If you feel like learning some tips and tricks on making a digital nature, make sure to check this tutorial.

I have compiled some useful bits to help you with complex grass scenes like the ones you see on the picture.

wild grass field blender

Where Can I Get the Grass Essentials?

On Blender Guru website. Or alternatively, you can buy it using my referral link. I will appreciate it, because if you make a purchase using this link, I will receive the percentage of its cost. And it will let me to renew my coffee supplies. Sure thing.

Share Your Renders in the Comments!

Rendered nature? Feel free to share it in the comments together with the link to your blog/website/social media.

40 comments

  1. Nathan L.

    Great to see an entire workflow in a tutorial! I want to try some nature scenes now!

  2. sommarviking

    inspiring… but a clear lack of shrimps :p

  3. Stepan Komisov

    Спасибо за хороший урок Глеб, как всегда очень полезно. Кстати не знал где написать, поэтому напишу тут, заметил что на мобильных устройствах меню на сайте (pie menu) работает немного не корректно (разворачивается а при закрытие переходит на главную страницу) и подтормаживает.

    • Thanks, I’ll check the pie menu and see what I can do to fix it.
      Спасибо, попробую пофиксить меню.

      • подфиксить lol … You’ve got russian and english blended LOL

  4. Stepan Komisov

    By the way, Gleb, you have huge experience with Light, could you tell how to make a glow light bulb?

  5. Stepan Komisov

    Like this one
    p.s. cant share pic in post bellow

    • That would be interesting, I think I’ll do it later on. At first glance seems very simple thing, but I know it can be tricky to make.

      • Stepan Komisov

        It will be great, i’ll check for new tuts! Thanks!

  6. Pingback: How to Make a Nature Render for Your Portfolio in Blender

  7. Hi Gleb. Thanks for latest #glebspeedtut on nature renders.

    I have a couple of questions for you about the node setup at 2.45:

    1. Why do you use translucency and subsurface node?
    2. Why do you have the fresnel node controlling the glossy node?
    3. Also should glossy shaders always come after the diffuse shaders in the node chain?
    4. Finally how about making an advanced #glebspeedtut on node setups for materials and also composting (maybe that’s two different tuts though 😉 )?

  8. Adam

    This is what i got 🙂

    • Ah, very cool, Adam! Reminds me about grapes and when I refocus my vision, looks like olives 🙂 All in all, we can relax by looking at this picture.

  9. Pingback: Create a Nature Render in 10 Steps

  10. Thanks for the tutorial Gleb Alexandrov! You make it so easy! This is my result!

    • I like it and thanks so much for sharing your artwork!
      I wouldn’t mind, though, if the main plant was a bit more separated from the background, and the shadows were more pronounced. Maybe, we can achieve it by changing the angle of the sun? (to make it hit the grass from the side, like during sunset).
      Cheers!

        • In my opinion, it’s A LOT better already! 😉
          What we can do from that point is:
          1. add aerial perspective
          2. tilt camera a bit to make composition more dynamic
          3. add light and contrast to the main plant
          I’m attaching a very rough sketch of what I mean.
          Thanks!

          • Thanks! 😉 If you don’t mind answering, how could I get more contrast on the main plant?

          • Try placing the additional light to illuminate it (maybe the spotlight?).

          • Thanks so much for all your help!! This is my final result! (Not much of a difference from the last one though.)

          • Anyway, it’s cool that you are moving forward. Keep it up! Looking forward to your new artworks. 🙂

          • I tried your Si-fi option of this image and I loved the result!! 😉

  11. kman

    created this after watching your tutorial….modeled everything myself so it took much longer than your video….

    • Mate, that looks cool! Especially the veins on the leaf. Did you sculpt it?

  12. Java

    Hey Geleb, when I tried to make the particle system, all my models showed up rotated sideways, how do I fix this? Really cool tutorial btw.

    • thisisprabha

      Hi i have 2 sugesstion
      1. change origin(small orange color dot) to bottom of ur object…..
      2. try rotation tab in particles……
      both 2 worked foe me…….

  13. Guest

    Hey Gleb, thanks for all the great tutorials!!

  14. thisisprabha

    After i playing with ur techniques finally it worth…….Grass looks fine for me….. thanks @Spelle:disqus

  15. Piotr Jędrzejko

    I’m fighting with nature recently (Spring at last!).

    • Be careful, tomatoes are freaking hard to make look right 🙂 But you have a chance!

  16. vernitasquad.nanc

    Hi Gleb,
    You make me feeling free as a bug 😉
    First time I was using SSS in a render. Not understanding everything about it for now but amazed to see how it’s efficient.
    I’m starting to stick around with your lighting open project and already want to thank you for bringing the light to my mind 😉
    Thanks for your awesome work and gorgeous art.

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