Jungle waterfall

[miha2]

Hello, that's again me... i'm trying to create a beautiful waterfall, though it shouldn't be as hard as the ones that already are here. What i want is some simple waterfall, which would be about 9 ft long and located somewhere in jungles. i know it's hard, but that's why i want it. also, there should be the stones in the river (yes, the river too, what is a waterfall without river...) ok. imagine this picture. you (well, the photographer) is making a pic at about 6 ft, about 35 ft away from the fall, in the river, and sees the next picture - trees on both sides of the river, rocks (from which the waterfall falls), trees on those rocks (well, not rocks, but behind them), fall itself, and (it will be post work) animals. any tutorials here?

[miha2]

anyone?

[FrankB]

I doubt there's a tutorial for exactly this scene which you have described.
How far have you come with your own attempts? Perhaps you could just show them here (or better in the image sharing forum) and people will be happy to help you get there step by step.

Regards,
Frank

[miha2]

that's the problem - i'm new to terragen and just want to learn a few hard things, so that i could create easier. for instance, i still don't know what the word seed means in terragen. i know how to import trees, do power fractals, alpine, but they all are not what i want to. i like creating normal wide rivers, with beautiful soft shores, but all i can get (and only sometimes, not always, just when i get lucky) is just a piece of water in the middle of mountains. that is it. so, whichever you can give me tutorial, i'll be glad to. i can't even create the lake like on the pictures from xfrog or planetside, where there is a tree, a grass, a lake (well, piece of water) and mountains behind. i can't even create this. but i really want to. but the tutorials here are just for the basics. not what i want. for example, http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1051.msg10303#msg10303 is just an example of what i DON'T want to create - i want a smooth wide river, (well that's just one of other examples i want to create) or there are lots of waterfall tutorials, but most of them are postwork. i want to create a live waterfall (and well, in this example it sould be a small river), and if possible, (don't know how to do it yet) animated, so that i could stop my water at any moment and create a good picture of it. what else? there's lots of what i want to create more, but first of all, the hardest. the Jungle waterfall. please help me with it. so, i hope you imagined it already in your heads this picture, and so i'm waiting for your help. and if there is a tutorial, can somebody give it to me, please?

P.S. something like this, but without the cave. and more rocks, like, it shouldn't go down on both sides, it just should be a solid rock, kind of like all waterfalls, but short, not even like Niagara. and thin - not wide http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=5251.0
more likely like this one: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=3899.0

[FrankB]

I'm sorry you won't like what you're reading next, but you will find out anyway: it is highly unlikely that you would be able to follow such a tutorial (and understand it) if you don't understand a few basic terms like for example a seed. Besides that I don't think that there is such a tutorial. You have to start somewhere simpler and then work your way towards your envisioned image. If you want to take some good advice, try to break your "problem" into smaller chunks. For example, you could start finding out how you can make a soft dent into a flat terrain. If you succeed with this, you will have the foundation for a soft, wide shore. Next you try this on a heightfield terrain for example. You will probably spend some time finding a believable spot in the terrain for your image, and then apply the solution for making a soft shore right at the place where you need it to be. The painted shader could be your friend, or a greyscale mask applied as a blendshader to a displacement shader, or... many ways to get there.
Believe me, the actual waterfall is going to be your very last problem to solve. You will end up making the waterfall either with a specifically distorted cloud, or "painted water", or a custom object with a water surface shader applied, or a combination of all three.

There are a few great tutorials, some of which will teach you aspects of the combined knowledge you need to have to make your vision come real. The user wiki is a great start: http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

You will also find a few tips on making a waterfall in the tips and tricks section for TG2: http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Terragen_2_Tips_and_Tricks#Waterfalls

Regards,
Frank

[airflamesred]

Frank's right
You're describing a vision you have in your head, which is great, but the practicalities of putting this onto paper, so to speak, are not going to be found in any tutorial. There is a tutorials page here so try working through those to get you started. Terragen is not an easy start in 3d terms.
beat of luck.

[miha2]

Ok, so if i understood you correctly, you want me to create (just telling you my new idea) 2 heightfields, one with shores in front, and the other the rock itself, with the waterfall. right? and well, as i can only guess 3rd heightfield that is right on top of the 2nd, with a rock and waterfall, to create river. how about that? looks nice to me, but is it possible? also, if i create the river on the rock i'm describing, can the water "fall" from that rock? i mean, will it create the effect of the real waterfall? i understand that the plants is the last problem i should care about. now i just need the fall.

[miha2]

like this though it's far away from the ideal

[miha2]

so, how do i do the rock, the river and the fall?

[Cyber-Angel]

I seem to remember back in the Pre-Tech Preview release days the FAQ mentioned that Water-Falls where in development or words to that affect, to that end until Planetside Implement a fluid and physics solver doing waterfalls and other fast moving water phenomena in a convincing manor, especially some thing that that would hold at 4K resolution for production work is going to be hard to pull off.

At any rate the water-air interface would have to be taken in to consideration, as would solving the necessary Phase Functions, and Light Transport in Participating Media, while your at it solve Multiple Mie Scattering and other phenomena noticeable the dynamics of water in that king of environment.

All of the above and more if you want Terragen to do things properly, this is just my view on this, however.  just point out that convincing waterfalls a probably harder to do in software then many people think.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel                     

[miha2]

Cyber-Angel in English, please. Or, even better, in Russian...

[FrankB]

haha, well I think the cyber angel was just day dreaming and got lost in that.

Now practically speaking, what about adding a lake object next, miha, and adjusts its altitude, so that you "river" will look like it's filled with water?

For some nice fat rocks at the shore, check out this tutorial: http://www.nwdanet.com/terragen-tutorials/11-wilderness.html

Regards,
Frank

[miha2]

i know that, i did it once. it looks good, but that's not the river. what i mean, please, give me instructions on how to do the river (like what i should use - the Make river shader or seed numbers), how do i do the 90 degree "slope" for the rocks to be beautiful. well, you know, i have an idea - i did the crack in the earth tutorial (in fact, crack itself) and "played with it" to get one side "white" and the other "black" so that i have 2 different levels and i have now the "rock".

i thougt, maybe i should add some "brownish" color for the earth to look more realistic? i mean, the water in this case would be "whitish" though i still don't know how to do the effect of the waterfall in the river on the "lower" level. i will create the "smoke" for the effect, but how do i do the water "foamy"?

also, how do i deal with the "Make river" shader? how do i control its level? i don't want it to be 10 ft high, i just want it, like, half-ft max.
or i don't need it? just the fall and the river on lower level?

[Henry Blewer]

I think to do what you have in mind, image maps would work better. An image with the basic terrain. Then have another for the river. And one for the deeper area where the water fall falls into.

[miha2]

well, can i do all three at once, or you want me to bind all three of them in photoshop/painter? also, can someone give me the image map that looks similar to the one i should create?