Making the Grass

I followed some tutorials for the grass. I made high poly versions of each blade, and then grouped them together against a plane to make chunks of grass. I learned how to use the FFD modifier to edit the mesh in a smooth and flowing way, this will come in handy for the other plants I have planned to make.

I then created a series of materials to be baked out as a texture for the grass, there was the base diffuse, different highlights, colour variation between the blades.I really like the aqua/turquoise colours in the grass. I think they will look really great once spread out in my level in UDK.

 After all the baking, I'm now a lot more confident in using it and so much quicker in doing so.

 Then created separate planes and alphas. All the materials that were baked out were combined and masked in photoshop to enhance the whole texture overall. I had some problems with a grey line around the edges of the grass blades, but I played around with the settings in the material editor for a while until they finally went away. I took screenshots of the settings to make sure that doesn't happen again as it really interrupted my work flow!
Also learned how to use the bend modifier properly to get the planes looking more interesting from all angles. 

Then arranged all the plains in different sized patches, these are to be used in the level throughout.