Free version vs. Creative question

Started by Jman99, May 16, 2018, 08:30:21 PM

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Jman99

Hey all! I just heard about this software a couple of days ago, and am blown away by what it can do. I'm mainly wanting to use it to create my own landscape photos or elements as a reference to draw/paint. I don't need any of the animation functions, really. But I notice the Creative version allows you to create objects, like houses. This also interests me, because sometimes I want to put a house/cottage/cabin in the scene, but I have absolutely no idea how to draw one from scratch. What kinds of things will this allow you to create, as far as that goes? Do you create the objects from scratch, or are there objects already created you can use, or both? Also, the free version says "maximum number of populations: 3" What doest that mean, exactly? haha
Thanks for the input!

--Jason

masonspappy

Creative and Professional versions come with a few pre-built Objects that can be manipulated somewhat   or used for creating populations of those objects, but TG doesn't actually create the objects you mention.  There are places around the internet where you can find free objects, but object quality and rigor of construction are frequently hit-and-miss.

Re: "Maximum populations", a single object can be duplicated many times to create a population of that object. I could use 3 objects to create 3 populations, but free version won't allow me to create any more than total 3 populations in a single image.

Jman99

Hey Mason, thanks for the info! So do trees count as objects? Or can I create as many plants/trees as I might need? I've downloaded the free version, and will be checking it out tomorrow. I'm guessing there's a bit of a learning curve, though.

masonspappy

Trees do count as objects.  (Anything that has to be imported into a TG scene counts as an object.)
BTW, I should have mentioned that if you peruse the "File Sharing" section of these forums, there are all kinds of objects available for you to use.

Jman99

Hmmm ok, sounds like I may have to get at least the Creative version, if I want to do anything other than mountains, basically. But I'll check it out, and see how it goes. Thanks again. I'll take a look at the file sharing threads, too.

WAS

Just a note, as a landscape artist myself both with medium and photoshop, Terragen would be a terrible reference. No offense. I struggle to get anything near what I can create free-hand with comparatively no effort. For elements in digital work though, I think TG would work great over other applications like Vue.

Jman99

Wow, that surprises me to hear you say that. The images I've seen so far have been fantastic, and could easily be used as a reference. But I guess creating the images might be another matter. I'll play with the free version and see what it can do.

WAS

Quote from: Jman99 on May 17, 2018, 04:26:08 PM
Wow, that surprises me to hear you say that. The images I've seen so far have been fantastic, and could easily be used as a reference. But I guess creating the images might be another matter. I'll play with the free version and see what it can do.

Maybe I don't understand your idea of reference. When I think of reference I think of the time spent in finding reference images for certain shapes or aspect angles to use when creating a new piece. With that in mind, spending all the time to get what you want in Terragen, just to use it as reference, seems a bit redundant to just translate to another medium. Using it for elements, like matte, etc, is another story.

Oshyan

A "Population" is a set of instances - many copies - of a single object. These are useful for things like forests, grasslands, etc. In the Free version you can only have 3 populations, in other words 3 sets of 1 model copied many times. The number of copies of each model is not limited, only the number of total "Populations". You can use as many *single* (non-instanced) objects as you want.

Terragen does not have a 3D modeling function for creating things like houses, etc., but as others mentioned, you can load many available 3D models from elsewhere. 3D models can be just about anything, houses, plants, bridges, aircraft, animals, etc, etc.

Starting with the Free version is definitely the right approach, in my view. If you like working with it and the results you can achieve, then see which commercial version will fit your needs, i.e. allow you to do anything that you have felt limited in with the free version.

- Oshyan

Jman99

Quote from: Oshyan on May 17, 2018, 06:44:43 PM
A "Population" is a set of instances - many copies - of a single object. These are useful for things like forests, grasslands, etc. In the Free version you can only have 3 populations, in other words 3 sets of 1 model copied many times. The number of copies of each model is not limited, only the number of total "Populations". You can use as many *single* (non-instanced) objects as you want.

Terragen does not have a 3D modeling function for creating things like houses, etc., but as others mentioned, you can load many available 3D models from elsewhere. 3D models can be just about anything, houses, plants, bridges, aircraft, animals, etc, etc.

Starting with the Free version is definitely the right approach, in my view. If you like working with it and the results you can achieve, then see which commercial version will fit your needs, i.e. allow you to do anything that you have felt limited in with the free version.

- Oshyan

Hey Oshyan, thanks for the clarification on things. I think I understand the population thing, but I'll know for sure once I start playing with it. I wanted to get to it earlier today, but I've been really tired, and haven't been able to do much yet. Hopefully I'll wake up and get motivated soon