John has shown a very cool GAEA terrain and was so kind to share it with me, but unfortunately it had come in 4K.
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,30645.0.htmlI like the Mount Escalier terrain very much, so I decided to develop a nice Desktop rendering in 4K high resolution.
After a lot of experimenting with different atmospheres and shaders for the terrain, I had a basic starter to experiment with.
Mount Escalier 1.0
Basic Starter Scenery
By the way... the snow is vector masked.
The snow is distributed from the left side to the right.
Node network for vector masking
Not bad at all, but there are some things which can be improved...
First of all to get an optimal and high resolution terrain, I exported from GAEA a new heightfield in 8K to get more details.
Some color changes had been applied too. The original GAEA Satmaps has been edited to get a fresh color variant as well.
Screenshot in GAEA
Next version and improvement was another more dramatic sky, combined with changes in the mountains colors and adding more details.
The lightly illuminated prominent bright orange rocks at the hillside are a color defined strata map with brilliant colors, developed to fit into the steep walls.
So I am able to get more color contrast due to illumination of the hillside in the rendering. The brightness differences are more spectacular, just a little trick.
The masking itself is made with an exactly defined altitude and slope mask.
In test renderings, I added some light and blurry reflection on the strata map, but it didn't look as expected... ok... I will do something else...
So some bushes has been added as an extra.
A new cloudy sky has been created too. The cloud blanket throwing carefully placed shadows on the hillside.
The contrast that comes with this new cloudy sky, gives the next variant a much more dramatic appearance!
Mount Excalier 2.0
Fine-tuned shadow play and new color arrangement in the terrain shader network
This version has been postworked in Adobe Photoshop CS5.
To do this efficiently, I mostly create a rendering with a high resolution mask. So I am able to manipulate details of interest (e.g. water, sky) right from the start.
Black and white mask of the terrain
Then I implemented some stones between the bushes to get more details in the foreground. The stones are snow capped!
I tried also some forestation on the other side of the lake, but it didn't look pleasant. So I just stayed with the foreground.
Mount Esaclier 3.0
Snow capped stones added
This variant looks very pleasant in my opinion.
The colors of the hillside are great (a tribute to arizona) and their contrast is excellent due to the shadows of the cloudy sky.
The bushes and snow capped stones are also great. This way I could add some more details into my scenery.
To make the bushes looking a little bit more frosty, I painted some harsh frost on the leafs and flowers of the "Grevillea Rosmarinifolia Rosemary Grevillea".
This plant is from XFrog and the textures has been improved with Postwork in Photoshop (XFrog plants are great, but their textures often lousy!).
Grevillea Rosmarinifolia Rosemary Grevillea
Frosted leaf version
Then I decided to create a morning sunrise version as well.
I also created a fog bank on the lake, to get more details into the scene to look at.
A preview of this setup is shown in the screenshot of this variant.
Screenshot in Terragen (Mount Escalier 2.0)
Sunrise variant
Screenshot Mount Escalier 2.0
Node Network
And so I have come to another very pleaseant "to look at" version of this great terrain.
A very beautiful, moody and calm but also a very dramatic desktop in 4K.
Mount Esaclier 4.0
Calm and moody sunrise variant with fog on the lake
Finally I am very pleased with the result achieved so far.
To make it final, I have to render the scene with the path tracer.
I really hope you like my new scene and maybe learned something new?
I always strife to achieve more knowledge and to improve my skills in Terragen.
I am not an expert in Terragen, but I have learned a lot so far over all these years from others in the great forum.
This time, it was the first time importing a GAEA terrain and creating a foggy lake, which I also never created so far.
I have learned how to import GAEA terrains, make frosty leafs, adding snow capped stones (thanks to an example given by WAS here at the Planetside forum).
-> The next time, I would paint more frost and some more whitish snow on the leafs of my bushes to make them looking more snowy and frozen. They are too green for this scene.
But.... what is perfect in this world? What finally remains is the experience you gained at the end and the fun of creating such a beautiful scenery.
That's why I like Terragen a lot and renewed my maintenance.
STORMLORD
(Thank you John for sharing your Mount Escalier terrain. You made it possible to write this detailed report of my undertaking, learning and developing new skills like importing GAEA terrains.)