Q: creating/using rock path

[Sp34k]

Howdy!

I have just started on a picture that needs a little rocky road (used for cars) - I found a Rock path from terragen.org but seriously, I don't know how to apply it where I want it..
I have uploaded a picture to show what I mean..
The white stroke indicates the road, (use your imagination lol)..

Is this a big complicated project or is it simple enough to add a rocky road for this matter? The road is not supposed to be big, just to fit something like, 1-1½ car..

Cheers,
Mike

[cyphyr]

I don't know the specifics of the file you got from terragen.org but your easiest method would be to set up a new surface layer (or distribution layer), use a painted shader in the shape of the road as a blend shader and then simply have the Rock path clip file as a child of the surface layer (or distribution layer). You'll have better results with the painted shader if you position your camera directly above the road area and paint in plan Y.
Good luck
Richard

[Tangled-Universe]

I don't know the specifics of the file you got from terragen.org but your easiest method would be to set up a new surface layer (or distribution layer), use a painted shader in the shape of the road as a blend shader and then simply have the Rock path clip file as a child of the surface layer (or distribution layer). You'll have better results with the painted shader if you position your camera directly above the road area and paint in plan Y.
Good luck
Richard

Indeed,...you could then also paint one single stroke for one tire-track. Then duplicate that painted shader and feed it through a translate-slader which moves the duplicate ~1m away from the other track.
This way you'll have nice parallel tracks

[Sp34k]

Howdy

Thanks for the useful informations, I surely have something to work with here, I haven't used the paint shader yet because my TG for some strange reason quits when I use it..
I will do my very best to do this and hopefully I can return with a sucessful road:) So far, thanks for the help, we'll see how it ends

Cheers,
Mike

[Sp34k]

Alrighty, I have tired differet things..

1: I sucessfully made a "road", it doesn't look much like a road yet hehe, I still need to learn a few things..2
2. I tried to use some of the rocks from the Rock Liberary and link them to the surface layer I used for the road (linked to Displacement) and then link the rock layer to my painted shader, but without much sucess..

The road itself is kinda dry so my goal is to make it more realistic with rocks and tire-track as Tangled-Universe explained.. When I learn this, I will paint the road better, right now I'm focusing on learning how to do this right:)

Do you guys have any suggestions related to a more realistic road?... I admit that I have already learned alot from this already. The note-network has always been spanish to me but I understand it better now + the painted shader is simply wonderful!!

Cheers,
Mike

[Dune]

It's probably better to paint a mask in PS for your road, you'll have better control over hard and soft edges. That's the way I do it, anyway. Then add this as a surface layer, displace it downward a little, perhaps with a constant colour, so that the tire tracks 'dig' into the soil. Give it some sand colour.

Hope this helps.

---Dune

[Volker Harun]

I agree with Dune, you might want to add a second camera on top of your scene, that is linked to an imagemap shader. Having the right image you can get a render like the attached ... and you are able to draw a mask in PS.

Volker

[Hetzen]

Echoing Dune and Volker. You can be a lot more precise with setting up layers of masks to create; the road, the ruts, side ditch, side bank, etc. Which would be a bit hit and miss with the paint shader.

I'd also be tempted to smooth the road area too. You could do this by notching up the smallest scale of the first land scape PF to get the simple general shape, then use the road mask to block out any further detail from being applied to the road with further PFs.

There is another way, but it's a little complicated to easily describe in text.

[Sp34k]

Howdy:)

I apologize for the slow response, some bad things has happend... Anyways, I have now read what you guys have said and it's a little confusing I'll admit..
For now, I'll try to do my best to accomplished what you have said, wish me luck and we'll see if my PC ends up in flames or my monitor ends up getting beaten..
Thanks for the help so far, I'll see what I can do from what I've learned:)

Cheers,
Mike