landscape modeling

[DigiDe]

Yes, this is a very good question, and one I can answer for you. However you won't understand my explanation because your a newb. Later.

[newellteapot]

Hi there!

There is a good way, using a displacemnt map. Just draw the contours of the landscape in shades of grey, accordingly to their height, then apply it to a plane with subdivision as a displace map.
Advantage: with a bit of work you can get amazingly detailed landscapes and to change them radically you just need to change the bitmap!
Disadvantage: the plane must have many subs and gets quite heavy.
I did this canyons (see attached) now in a minute. On the left corner you can see the map I drew and used as a displacement.
Hope this helps ;)

[eraderma]

Thanks for the reply, very helpful. It seems when I load an image as the displacement map it is the exact opposite as how your image turned out, in that the darker areas are lower and vice versa. Is there an inverse paremater or something in the material editor. Thanks again.

[newellteapot]

hi!

no I just put a negative value on the displacement as I prefer drawing this way (I'm weird) ;)
You can draw it the opposite way.
Good luck and I would be very glad to see the end result.
;)

[elindie]

Dont worry about people like DigiDe there are always those elitist bastards who like to try and show you what for. Just keep on trying the biggest tip you can get from this wonderful site :D

[Elucid Concepts]

I also use the method monica.ta described, and its actually pretty good in getting a general overview of how the terrain looks like. Of course, you probably want to go in afterwards and fix it up abit.

And btw, whats up wit Digide? Lol. I had to read to post again to make sure it wasn't a joke of some sort.

[mysrh]

People like Digide are what discourages me to contribute to this forum. Critics can be useful however nasty they are, but being NATO (No Action Talk Only) is really the mystery of life.
He sounds like an immature adult with FPS gaming in mind

[newellteapot]

Yeah, Elucid is right, it needs more work, esp if you want to go closer. I also wanted to add the suggestion of using Zbrush. Anyone good at it and willing to explain?
Monica

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