"The Martian" Landscape...

Started by vinyvince, July 21, 2018, 11:32:35 AM

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vinyvince

Hi all. Im trying to create a photorealistic Mars' Landscape , similar to the areas seen in "The Martian". I have tried with World Creator 2 but it doesn't convinced me totally.. I was wondering if some genious gentlemen mind here may have done something similar which they would not mind to share their scene for me to give me a start to generate the landscape.  Here's what im looking to achieve...


Any help will be greatly appreciated,

[moderator: images removed per request]

ajcgi

I didn't work on The Martian, but did work on the series called Mars, using Terragen. Additionally I'm currently working on a BBC show about the solar system, oddly enough including Mars again.
Get yourself over to the NASA JPL site (https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/) and dig around for references, especially images shot by the Curiosity rover.
Try to concentrate on one thing at a time, whether that's undulating sand dunes, rocks of a certain type and size or huge mountains and cliff formations. I've spent days in the past just making interesting atmospheres or working on the huge rock structures like you see in your Martian refs there. Imagine you're working on a painting - do the large brushstrokes first and work them up. If you're new to Terragen, don't test everything in one scene at once - have a scene for cracked ground, one for a mountainscape etc, then worry about bringing them together later.
One more thing - TG works in metres. Don't forget that or your mountains will be pebbles in other scenes. ;)

bobbystahr

Good advice well worth following.
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

Hannes

Quote from: ajcgi on July 24, 2018, 06:46:58 AM
One more thing - TG works in metres. Don't forget that or your mountains will be pebbles in other scenes. ;)

That's indeed a very good advice. For the last few years I tried to create everything including imported models at the appropriate scale. Thus you can add everything you have in your archive and it will fit.

vinyvince

Well yes no surprise here . As soon as you deal with tool with physical property or the algorithm today behind cg lighting , better is it to work as much as possible to work in Metter. Afer, cutting a complex challenge into small baby steps with some accurate ref, dont follow this in VFX and you mental sanity might suffer :)

Thanks for the advices anyway Few last questions which confuse me to drive the project im working on for the studio about your software feature, is it possible to populate a group of loaded objets instead of a single object? Do you know?

Is it possible  to use IMG file from https://www.uahirise.org/dtm/dtm.php?ID=PSP_008520_2085 directly into Terragen? I can't make it work.... Is there any tutorial example file to show the way please?

One lastm does Terragen support viewing render with a LUT ?

________________________________________________________________

Vincent Thomas   (VFX and Art since 1998)
Senior Concept and Env DigiMatte Artist all in one  with a deep background in Lighting Lookdev  And Creative Supervisor VFX supervisor
http://fr.linkedin.com/in/vincentthomas


Hannes

#6
Quote from: vinyvince on July 24, 2018, 09:49:30 AM
...is it possible to populate a group of loaded objets instead of a single object? Do you know?

Is it possible  to use IMG file from https://www.uahirise.org/dtm/dtm.php?ID=PSP_008520_2085 directly into Terragen? I can't make it work.... Is there any tutorial example file to show the way please?

I'm afraid using a group of objects in one population is not (yet) possible.

You could convert those images into another format. These are no heightmaps as far as I can see. What do you want to use them for?

ajcgi

#7
Those IMG files should be loadable into the Heightfield Load node. If you want them at the North pole, turn off geo-referencing, else they'll be on the side of the planet or something else equally awkward. If you need a few side by side, you may need to blend them together with simple shape shaders to hide seams. The HiRise satellite has a polar orbit which messes with some of the seams.

Incidentally, try http://maps.planet.fu-berlin.de/#map=4/-666803.04/889070.72 instead of uahirise. It contains all the Mars DEM data and colour data that's useful to us TG types in one handy map. If you need a certain geological feature, you can even enter its coordinates and find it.

Edit: If you do want to blend them together with others, keep goereferencing on and then change the 'Lat long at apex' settings in the planet to be the coordinates you need to put them at the north pole in your scene. Essentially everything is best considered at the very top of your planet.

vinyvince

#8
Thanks guys.

So far i start to have some result but im struggling to get this kind of horizontal breakup you see in the picture here, on the top of the mountains, it's easy to see.... Any idea how to achieve this? If so do you mind sharing a simple clip setting to see the process please?

[moderator: image removed per request]

vinyvince


ajcgi

Have a look at this tgd attached. The redirect shifts the layers up and down while the distribution controls the height where it all begins. Try plugging a power fractal into the mask of the strata for some further breakup. The strata layers can kinda be blended together this way to get the variation you see in that reference.

[attachimg=2]

vinyvince

Im opening it; thanks so much for helping me to learn! 
Tripple beer for you :)