Terragen and Maya

Started by 3dmuscle, March 16, 2007, 11:06:47 AM

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3dmuscle

New user here  :)

I am still playing with the free version of Terragen before getting Deep + Animation, since the project i have in mind will require an animated camera.

What i was asked do is create de Sinai desert area and there are thousands and thousand of tents, like a camping ground on the flat surface of the desert (mountains around it), so the camera is going to approach and show those tents up close.

Here's my question: I already figured out how to import the image to use as a displacemnte map but for the tents, is there any way i can import models (tents) and duplicate them and start placing them around? (like maya) or maybe a better solution would be to do all the tents in Maya and composite with the terrain after Terragen renders it.

I did a search here (still searching) and cold find mostly posts talking about animation in the previous version of terragen, using plug ins, not much info with animation in Terragen 2

Thank you for any help

dhavalmistry

the tents can be exported in OBJ format from maya and can be imported into TG2 and add then as population, i.e. if  you want the tents to be random (which would be best for realism) and if you want it to be lined up in some manner then you will have to import individual tent manually and arrange them one by one.....


oh ya...welcome aboard

here is something to get you started....have fun!!

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=110.0
"His blood-terragen level is 99.99%...he is definitely drunk on Terragen!"

Mohawk20

I second dhavalmistry....

I have made a scene with a tower and slums. The slums was just a population of little buildings, nicely placed around the tower.
You just select add object in the objects tab. Then you select obj reader, browse your files to find your tent, and open that. That will give you one single object.
The same goes for a population. Just select population, instead of object after you clicked 'add object'.

I advise to import the object and render everything in TG2! Not only because it blends better, but also because the atmospherical effects give the render that much more realism.

For more info on this, check out this thread: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=676.0

And attached a render of my imported objects.
Howgh!

3dmuscle

dhavalmistry -  Thank you for the tip and that link, it's going to keep me busy for a while.

The tents have a specific arrangement based on tribes, one option as you said is place one by one, but somehow i have to think of something else, since there are too many tents.

Mohawk20 - that's the way i prefer, render everything in TG2. I am not a render/shader guy so doing it solely in Maya is out of the question. TG2 gives a really nice realistic feel to it, i think it is an amazing software.

I attached an image of what the idea is, that was done in Maya by another artist a while ago and now they want it animated and a bigger render version of it. The tents the way it was done was using displacement maps on the terrain, i wonder if something similar can be done in TG2

thanks guys

Oshyan

If you won't be seeing the tents from up close, only from a distance like that, then a displacement map would be ideal for the purpose. You can create it in an external image editor like Photoshop or Zbrush then export in a format TG2 can read and apply it to the terrain using a Default Shader or Image Map Shader. If you need to get a bit closer and see the actual object detail then you could use a tend object, replicated in Maya, arranged in groups and then exported. Export one group for each "tribe" I suppose then arrange those in TG. A "group" would need to be exported as a single object, if possible.

- Oshyan