As the title says, I’m looking to create something like this http://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/a7114eed019ee0f8_8-9560/modern-pool.jpg in blender. Has anyone done something like this? Any tips are appreciated.
http://simonschreibt.de/gat/airborn-trees/
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Foliage
for hedges, you can use an opaque mesh for the center, and cover it with alpha masked cards. then you can edit the normals, with either the Normal Edit Modifier set to radial, or transfer the normals from another mesh, using the Data Transfer Modifier. the mesh you transfer normals from should be a sculpted blob that is roughly the shape of the bush.
This turned out to be easier than I thought it would be! Thanks for the help.