How do you create sand prints?

I posted the render I’ve attached to this post at DeviantArt. But one of my followers has commented that there aren’t any sand prints in the sand. The reason there aren’t any sand prints in this render is I simply don’t know how to create sand print effects. I‘ve seen this thread and other people seem to have trouble with this as well. I rendered the image you see below with midnight_stories’ Desert Planet 360. The only way I know to create sand prints is by downloading a png image with sand prints and editing them in with GIMP or Photoshop (I use GIMP). But does anyone else have any better ideas about how to create footprint impressions in an HDRI render? I’ve created many desert renders and plan to create many more. So, figuring out how to do this well will help me make my desert renders more realistic.

The Dune Sea (1).png
1958 x 602 - 1M

Comments

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 13,189

    We would do it by creating either a normals map or a height map and apply it to the proper channel and then adjust the strength of it to get the depth you want. There are plenty of ways to do it though. It depends on how comfortable you are in GIMP

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 9,298

    A quick proof of concept, nevermind the lights.

    Created prints with three dark gray Genesis figures upside down under white plane primitive, just the soles visible, looked at them with the Top View and took a screenshot.
    Used the PNG in Displacement Strength and Normal Map.

    Displacement gave the depth (positive values) and normal map made the prints lighter or darker depending on whether I used negative or positive value.

    Used the Beach Volleyball 'beach' converted to Iray.

    QuickFootprint.JPG
    975 x 484 - 33K
  • Epic82Epic82 Posts: 124

    frank0314 said:

    We would do it by creating either a normals map or a height map and apply it to the proper channel and then adjust the strength of it to get the depth you want. There are plenty of ways to do it though. It depends on how comfortable you are in GIMP

    Thanks for your reply frank0314. If there are plenty of ways to create sand prints, could you explain a few more of them to me? In regard to the image I uploaded, how would you create sand prints for an HDRI?  

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