Still Trying to Make the Perfect Canyon Scene

[blattacker]

Every time I make one, I feel like I get a little bit better at it. This is still very much a work in progress, so critique and suggestions are extremely welcome!



I'm pretty proud of the mid-distant areas of this one, I think I need to make a higher resolution build in World Machine for the foreground, though. Still haven't quite gotten the hang of getting realistic layering for the colors, but I feel like it's a good deal further than I was before.

Let me know what you think!

[bobbystahr]

I like where you've taken this, maybe some colour shaders will spur inspiration to a new iteration.

[Oshyan]

Very cool terrain shapes. It's unfortunate that the position and view of your camera shows the flat background though. I think you should either fill those in with procedural terrain (something basic but with a bit of color to it), or move your camera more into the canyon so you don't see so far into the distance. The terrain that you're working with is definitely worth further exploration!

- Oshyan

[Hannes]

It's unfortunate that the position and view of your camera shows the flat background though

Maybe make the flat background an ocean? Cool canyon!

[blattacker]

Thanks everyone! I've got another build going in World Machine for the background that's just the same terrain built on a much larger scale (80km instead of 8km) at a lower resolution so that it should (theoretically) fit without looking too fake, it's just taking a long time to build (which was expected). That being said, I'm sure if 80km will be enough to fully cover the visible planet, so maybe I will end up moving the camera around, we'll see!

[N-drju]

Not bad blattacker as far as the terrain sculpting goes. Colour variations should indeed be implemented, just like Bobby suggested.

[René]

That looks very nice already. Have you tried horizontal displacements yet? Not necessarily the strata and oucrops shader, but for example a horizontally stretched power fractal; that might work very well on top of these shapes.

[blattacker]

To be honest, this is pretty much directly out of World Machine, even the texture is just the raw export. I want to try some lateral displacement, but I've never quite been able to get a handle on it as far as using it on a heightfield. Should I be plugging the shaders directly into a redirect shader, or is there a step I'm missing?

[René]

I mean a simple stretched power fractal, nothing out of the ordinary. That gives a more canyon-like effect. Just an idea.

[blattacker]

René, that is probably the single most useful project file I've ever downloaded for a project like this! Every time I've tried to do strata coloring in the past, I've piped a strata and outcrops shader into a displacement to vector converter to make a mask which...worked, but wasn't the greatest. Your method is way easy and has much better control, thank you so much!


After a bit of lateral displacement and work on the colors (as in, actually using Terragen shaders to color, rather than just using the exported texture from World Machine), this is where it stands.


I want to add several more strata layers, and then add in some sand/gravel/talus debris on the lower grade slopes. After that, I think it'll be time to add some sparse vegetation and start working on the atmosphere!

[Oshyan]

A nice improvement! Looking forward to seeing this continue to evolve.

- Oshyan

[DocCharly65]

Echo Oshyan!

Already quite convincing surfaces and structures in the rocks!

[René]

René, that is probably the single most useful project file I've ever downloaded for a project like this! Every time I've tried to do strata coloring in the past, I've piped a strata and outcrops shader into a displacement to vector converter to make a mask which...worked, but wasn't the greatest. Your method is way easy and has much better control, thank you so much!


After a bit of lateral displacement and work on the colors (as in, actually using Terragen shaders to color, rather than just using the exported texture from World Machine), this is where it stands.


I want to add several more strata layers, and then add in some sand/gravel/talus debris on the lower grade slopes. After that, I think it'll be time to add some sparse vegetation and start working on the atmosphere!

You're welcome, and glad I could help.

[blattacker]

Plugging away at this a bit more, I've added a fractal warp shader to add a bit more detail in the terrain, and then got to work a bit more on the actual texturing of the terrain. René, again, I cannot thank you enough, your method has made coloring strata layers, which was previously the bane of my existence, an absolute joy to play around with!

I seem to have some weird undulation in some of the strata layers (though, strangely, not all of them), which has previously been a goal of mine, and while I kind of like it stylistically, after looking at a ton of reference images, it seems that doesn't actually happen in real life, or at least not very often and certainly not to the level I'm experiencing. Trying to dial it in, though, I can't seem to figure out where it's coming from. I never know with using power fractals as color shaders, should I have "Apply Displacement" checked or unchecked? What practical effect does it serve in texturing?

Another problem I've been having is trying to add the sand/talus on top of the terrain. I used to know how to do this, but I seem to have forgotten. I've tried using fake stone shaders, redirect with a distribution mask, and a couple other things I've forgotten at this point, all with disastrous results. Looking back at previous posts that I've done (I could have sworn I got the answer to my troubles here, but I must have gotten it in some kind of video tutorial at some point), people have suggested using a simple shape shader to smooth off coastal areas. I never quite figured that method out, could someone possibly explain it in greater detail (even if it's not quite applicable here, I'm sure I'll learn something useful for down the road)? And failing that, if anyone has suggestions for adding sand and larger form gravel onto a heightmap based terrain, I'm all ears (or, rather, all eyes)!

That being said, I seem to always say this about my current projects (which I guess is a good thing, since it implies progression), this is shaping up to be, in my opinion, one of my best looking projects to date!

[Dune]

If you just use the color of a PF, it doesn't matter if displacement is checked or not, but if you plug the pf into a child input, then it will influence displacement of course. Using the 'distort by normal' will have influence, and may be interesting for you to experiment with. A small value, like -1 to +1 would give a subtle breakup of that color onto a displaced terrain, e.g.
Applying a sand/rock surface to a talus area would need a mask to distinguish those areas from the rest; then just add sand and rocks and colors to a child of a surface layer masked by that mask. If that's what you meant to ask.