This week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode features one of the more obscure-seeming features of the latest update to Photoshop CC: the ability to generate a veritable forest of trees using the Fill command. 

Note that this feature is not a brush, but an actual image generator that uses a scripted pattern, replete with the ability to select from various varieties of trees and to render your foliage lush or bare. Check out the features in the dialog box: 

And yet, despite the shiny technology at work here, Deke is as delighted to show you this as Bob Ross was to paint happy trees by hand. 

Note that you’ll need both the latest update to Creative Cloud and a cooperative graphics card to get this (and its new sister pattern that allows you to generate picture frames on-the-fly) to work. If, like me, you find yourself having difficulties, check out this useful thread on the Adobe Community forum for some helpful troubleshooting ideas. 

For members of lynda.com, you can take your tree-planting to a more realistic level with Deke’s exclusive video this week, in which he shows you how to add shadows to make your trees happily grounded. If you’re not a member of lynda.com, you can get a free week’s trial at lynda.com/deke. 

There are no mistakes, just happy generated trees!