Q: making water coast on image

[Sp34k]

Hey folks

I have yet another question (hope theres no "asking too much - ban" rule lol) - I have just rendered a small image to show what I've started on:



To the right I have the water, (Don't mind that the water looks like snow.. I made a mistake before rendering) I would like to make a waterline of sand and rocks or whatever might fit this enviroment, but I don't know how to.. It doesn't fit that the green grass reach all the way out to the water..
I have tried different things to see if I was able to solve the problem myself but I didn't have much succes.. An example, I tried to go to my Fractal Terrain and enable the adjust coastline and the result was that the water almost filled the whole picture..
I'm pretty lost here

Cheers,
Mike

[dwilson]

Add a surface layer above the grass layer(s).  Enable the altitude constraints and set the lower one to about the height of the water level or a little bit below the water level.  Then set the higher one above the water level, how much depends on how thick of a "beach" that you want.  Then you can place any other surface layers, powerfractals, and fake stones shaders as child layers to that surface layer.

[Sp34k]

Hey dwilson and thank you for your kind response, everything makes sense to me! (actually I learned something I didnt know) - but right now Im figting with getting the "beach" OVER the grass.. I'm not familary with the notes yet so im trying different things.. But I have taken a screenshot of my notes if that could help maybe.. I've tried different things but im not familary with notes yet

[dwilson]

What you need to do is make the grass object not populate where the beach will be.  To do this attach a surface layer or distribution shader as the density shader for your population and turn on the lower altitude constraint and set it to the same number as the higher altitude constraint on your beach layer.  This will restrict the grass from appearing over your beach.

[Sp34k]

Dwilson thank you for all your help, I do appreciate it alot but ill have to quit on this one.. I have tried alot of things but all that happens is alot of spacing between my grass..
You have explained alot of things that I've learned from and which I will be able to use later, but I just can't make it work in this case..

[Oshyan]

If you post your TGD I'm sure one of us can quickly put the altitude constraint in place so you can see how it would work in your scene.

- Oshyan

[Sp34k]

Hallo Oshyan

I appreciate your reply and help, but I have to admit that I was thinking about uploading the TGD so someone could show how it's done.. But at the same time I wouldn't be like "heres the TGD, DO IT FOR ME!", you know?

Anyways:) I have now uploaded the TGD file, if you see any huge mistakes you should feel free to tell me, I'm here to learn 

Cheers
Mike

[dwilson]

Here is the tgd with the altitude constraint on the grass population and with a beach layer.  You will probably need to tweak the altitude constraints on the beach layer and grass population.  If you have any questions, just ask.

Devin

[Sp34k]

Woaw, thank you Devin! I appreciate your help and support.
I will take a look at it right now and see what you have done, considered to what I did (which didnt work).. I'm sure this will teach me something new 

[rcallicotte]

Thanks Devin.  Can't wait to try it.

[Sp34k]

Calico: You had problems with it aswell? I sure did learn from this, I figured out what I did wrong but I can't really explain it  The point is, Devin's example did clear things out for me, I should be able to do this again on another picture in the future:)