Editing Normals of plants in Blender

[Macrocosm Draegonne]

I have been tinkering with this all day, trying to get the normals right on some grass im making.

To get the double side for the grass planes im using the solidify modifier, also using the Normal Edit modifier to try and smooth them out more rounded, but the thing is normals do different things depending on the order in which things are done, ive tried several rounds in an attempt to get the best method before I tweak my textures any more & add variation etc.  Ideally they would be pointing straight upwards smoothly, but with each upload I seem to find a different result and havnt found the best possible way yet apparently.   Its almost perfect doing the Normal Edit modifier first then apply it, then add the solidify modifier after, but that wasnt always true with every mesh lol.  ?

Im super happy with the li and lod, but the shadows are still not totally on point.

Anyone have any pointers on this area?

Edited October 9, 2018 by Macrocosm Draegonne

[Macrocosm Draegonne]

Seems I had to use a plane for the alignment object in the edit normals, I was using two verts but that was dumb, lol.  The plane gives me a much better result, now I can get back to the texture.