A Get Started Terragen 2 Tutorial for the Terrified

[schmeerlap]

I've put together an introductory exercise for noobies who don't seem to be able to get a foothold on Terragen 2, especially those who find the learning curve too steep. I hold their hand (metaphorically speaking, of course (he says, deepening his voice)) all the way to the top of the mountain they will be creating. By the end of the journey the user will have had hands on experience of all the basic shaders, and should be able to confidently begin creating their own scenes. It stops short of adding objects to the scene, the intention being that the user only needs the program itself to build the scene. It is compiled in pdf format for ease of accessibility. I've included a pic of the scene the user will be creating from scratch.
I've posted it here with the intention of creating a link to it from the Terragen Wiki page.

Thanks, John

[Henry Blewer]

Great idea John. Now if we can get the noobies to look in the right places...

[schmeerlap]

Now if we can get the noobies to look in the right places...

Yeh, that's right. I'll start by linking to it from Renderosity and Flickr.

John

[domdib]

A very nice contribution John. I found it very instructive. The only way of improving it would be a few more screenshots of node networks, but that's just icing.

[schmeerlap]

The only way of improving it would be a few more screenshots of node networks

"node networks",     shoooooooooosh, you'll scare them away 

John

[domdib]

As a fellow Scot, I approve that 'shoooooosh' usage 

[dandelO]

As a fellow Scot, I approve that 'shoooooosh' usage 

Here here! So do I!
Although, I tire of it, I must say it repeatedly to my kids! Shoosh!

[Henry Blewer]

I'm afraid to say some of us in the good olde USA just say 'shut up!' with an uplift of the 'up'. We have many weird colloquialisms.

I just started reading your tutorial John. So far it has been very complete and concise. Well done!

[choronr]

John, this is something that all, including the newbies need to read and follow through ...well done!

[Lupina]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial 

[matrix2003]

The Scots Character is Forged in Granite
That is no Timid Reed. Shaken by the Wind.

[dandelO]

Bill, my surname is Reid(not reed. Alas!).

[matrix2003]

LOL ! Here here - and my middle name is MacDonald.  So I tip a toast to you all. 

[Joe Falco]

Just completed the tutorial. Only took me two and a half hours to render the final image but it's done. I can't quite say I understand everything about how the program works but much like life, it's a work in progress.

[schmeerlap]

I can't quite say I understand everything about how the program works

That makes two of us. 
The purpose of this relatively small tutorial is to give beginners a foothold on the Terragen2 journey, and to show that it's not that difficult to create simple but attractive looking scenes. If the tut has increased your level of confidence with using the basic shaders and encouraged you to try building some scenes of your own, then in my eyes it is a success. Rmember, anytime you're stuck with anything in your scene-building endeavours, don't hesitate to ask here at this forum. There's a lot of guys here who know a lot more about TG2 than yours truly, who will be only too happy to attempt to resolve your TG2 problems. Anyway, well done on completion of the exercise.

John