Creating a Terrain in Maya

[CGmonkey]

Displacement map perhaps? :shrug:

or sculpt poly tool isn't anything to recommand because you can't really have total control and it will get very soft and look generally bad.

Use that one for small details, filling gaps etc..

[robin]

sculpt poly tool is pretty much what i would use ... get a high poly plane maybe ( 80x80) and sculpt it, and once not too bad make a sub-D out of the mesh tweak it again and texture it

Voila!

[pyromania]

What also helps is to paint a greyscale hieght map, then import it as an attribute map for the sculpt polygon tool. This gives you more control of the final shape.

[Kabab]

You can paint displacement maps with artisan :shrug:

[nemirc]

Originally posted by Kabab
You can paint displacement maps with artisan :shrug:

Well, that may be true but I'd preffer to paint my displacement maps in photoshop or something, since the tools allow you a better "tweaking" (or whatever) of the map allowing you to make a more "rocky" terrain (instead of a softed terrain)
:beer: :bounce:

[graphiouz]

You can use the DrawsplitTool and draw cross lines on a highdensity polyPlane, then use paint SelectionTool [alt sculptPolyTool] you can achive fairly nice terrains with that tecnique..

.

[JasonA]

If you want something quick and easy, use a program like terragen to create a terrain map, export it as greyscale and use it in maya as a hieghtmap for artisan or whatever. Terragen has a lot of built in algorythims for terrain generation that are pretty excellent for the time taken to generate them. The only thing it won't create are outcroppings.

[Duncan]

Here is a thought..
Create a 2D fluid texture as a displacement map on a plane, turn off velocity grid, make the density grid static and then make the resolution as high as your desired pixel resolution. Make the fluid z size a bit larger(e.g. 3) and turn on "use heightfield". Set the transparency of the fluid to zero, the renderInterpolation to smooth and rotate it -90 in X. Also turn on disableEvaluation so that your playback is fast. You can now paint on the fluid using the paint fluids tool. In the paint fluids tool you should turn on Display->asRender so that the color changes with height. When you wish to render the displacement you MUST then turn off heightfield on the fluid, or you will get incorrect results. Increase the alpha gain on the fluid to increase the rendered displacement.

There are some nice advantages to using a fluid for a height displacement, in addition to being able to interactively paint it.
1. The displacement value is in floating point precision, so one can paint very subtle bumps.
2. The smooth render interpolation on the fluid does sub pixel smoothing, whereas with normal displacements it is flat across the tops of individual pixels in the map.
3. One can remap the outputs of the fluid using the internal ramps and built in textures.
4. One can additionally paint color on the same fluid(create a color array on the fluid and connect the fluids outColor to the shader color).

It is a little tricky to get this setup right. I may create a script to make the setup easier.

Duncan

[Ckerr812]

Duncan, You are a genoius man! Give this man a raise :thumbsup:

[nemirc]

Originally posted by Ckerr812
Duncan, You are a genoius man! Give this man a raise :thumbsup:

:thumbsup: :bounce: :drool:

(sorry for the spam :rolleyes: )

[bklyn]

Ok first off I want to thank everyone who help me out with there tips and tricks. I’ve tried some of them, but I think the way I’ve come up with is the best.
Like I said “THINK” so if anyone knows a better way or can tell me what I’m doing wrong please take the time to do so. Thanks

First I created a nurbs plane 100x 40x40 and imported this image into the Sculpt Surface Tool Attribute Map

[bklyn]

This image shows the terrain image loaded once with these setting

Pull in the Y Axis with Max displacement set to 0.79

[bklyn]

This image shows the terrain image reloaded 30 times with the same setting

( Yes I Clicked RELOAD 30 times until I got a height I liked )

[bklyn]

Like is said before I don’t know if this is right all I know is it works.. So far that is…. I’m still working on it

As of now I can use a nurb or polygon planes - see the results in real time - paint it - make it a passive or active rigid body

But I’m some what new to Maya so if anyone can help please feel free to do so

Thanks to Duncan for his/her help is there any way I can get a step by step tutorial on how to make that method work ?

[Renderizer]

Take a look at this tutorial:

http://144.214.176.85/courseware/notes/phenomena/index.html


I utilizes the mountain texture as a displacement map to create a NURBS landscape (snowy mountains).

Not sure if this meets your needs, but it's pretty interesting anyway... ;)

Renderizer

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