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General => User-contributed Tutorials => Topic started by: wiwine on May 28, 2014, 07:22:41 AM

Title: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: wiwine on May 28, 2014, 07:22:41 AM
Introduction

This tutorial is intended to help you create nice sets of dunes with Terragen 2 or 3.
We will try to generate single dunes (barkhanes), fields of barkhanes, or linear dunes.
My method offers two major profiles (dunes and sand domes), that you can combine to get nice views of sandy deserts.
At a smaller scale, you will also be able to create sand ripples drawn by the wind on these dunes.

Please note that this tutorial is NOT a scientific study about dunes formation !
Even if it is based on certain obvious rules (the incidence of the wind), the reality is far more complex.
My choice was to create these dunes with trigonometric functions, for aesthetic reasons.
The real dunes could be modeled only from much more complex calculations, including some parameters I'm not able to use with Terragen : incidence of surrounding reliefs (rocky hills for example), obstacles like plants, or fluctuating winds.

Prerequisites

Terragen version : v 2.2.23.1 or higher.
In the previous versions, there was a problem with the Perlin 3D Scalar node : spikes appeared in renders when using multithreading.

Tutorial

Here is the first part of this tutorial, with the .tgd files.
The second part in a few days (I hope).

Comments and suggestions are welcome !  ;)

[Edit 2014.06.04 : tutorial PART 1 v1.2 + files]
[Edit 2014.06.06 : tutorial PART 1 v1.22]
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: archonforest on May 28, 2014, 07:47:29 AM
This is just fantastic!! Thx for your time to put this togehter ;)
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: kaedorg on May 28, 2014, 08:49:12 AM
I just had a look to the pdf but for sure these files will be helpful
and a lot to learn here.

Thanks a lot for this contribution

David
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Dune on May 28, 2014, 12:00:36 PM
Great that you succeeded in doing this, wiwine. Thanks a lot. I will surely dive into this! First quick impression; very sophisticated! Second impression will take a while as I will be gone for a few weeks.
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: TheBadger on May 28, 2014, 07:38:12 PM
Thanks dune. Have not read yet. But Im sure Ill be glad to add this to my library.  8)
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Dune on May 29, 2014, 02:02:43 AM
Don't thank dune, thank wiwine!
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: j meyer on May 29, 2014, 10:02:42 AM
Thanks wiwine!
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: N-drju on May 29, 2014, 02:33:14 PM
No time for it now.

But thank you. :)
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: mhaze on May 30, 2014, 09:51:31 AM
Thanks it's brilliant - would also make good waves.
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: fleetwood on May 30, 2014, 05:03:30 PM
Thanks Wiwine
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: TheBadger on May 31, 2014, 07:52:00 PM
Quote from: Dune on May 29, 2014, 02:02:43 AM
Don't thank dune, thank wiwine!

BAAAAA! Im sorry! Thank you wiwine!

In my mind I saw "Dunes" in the title as possesive, even though there is clearly no aposterphy :( That is because I am a lazy typer, and now I am becoming a lazy reader...  :-\
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Jo Kariboo on June 01, 2014, 09:41:02 AM
Merci wiwine ! Très complet et complexe comme travail. Je vais tenté de faire une image à partir de tes fichiers. Merci encore une fois !
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: wiwine on June 04, 2014, 08:15:44 AM
--- UPDATE ---
Tutorial PART 1 : update V1.2 (some tiny corrections, and a new example for a field of dunes (1b)).
Files : added clip files + files for field 1b.

[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: mhaze on June 04, 2014, 08:52:26 AM
Thank you a great tutorial - sadly the math is beyond me but I can follow the blue nodes - just!
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: choronr on June 04, 2014, 11:42:02 AM
Thank you, this is masterfully put together; and, will be looking forward to see how some of us will be creating scenes using your techniques ...appreciate this very much.
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Shigawire on June 05, 2014, 07:20:51 AM
Absolutely brilliant! I must admit I don't remember much about cosine trigonometry from school.
Though it's never too late to re-learn it. There is no excuse, since we all have access to the 100% free "Khan Academy" if we want to learn cos, sin and other trigonometric functions.

Again, I'm both very impressed and also very thankful. I've been fruitlessly working on a desert scene for a while now. You are nailing the look I am looking for.

Btw, in my own dune scene, I've also implemented giant sand dune mountains, similar to "Big Daddy" in Namibia.

I'll share it with you, though I don't think you need any help. :P Besides, I've got some rendering issues due to having been using the "intersect displacement" functions. I've been trying to implement star dunes as well, that's why I've used intersect.

Big Daddy in Namibia:

(http://www.disabledtravelersguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/nambia_travel_disabled_big_daddy.jpg)
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: bobbystahr on June 05, 2014, 09:45:37 AM
Pure genius, thanks for sharing this...
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Kadri on June 05, 2014, 07:45:43 PM

Looks very good. Thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: wiwine on June 06, 2014, 07:10:11 AM
--- UPDATE ---
Tutorial PART 1 : update V1.22 (some corrections).
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Alexn007 on June 09, 2014, 12:02:15 AM
Thank you so much for sharing...  This is very helpful.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: inkydigit on July 24, 2014, 05:53:45 PM
thank you wiwiwine!
amazing work
cheers
Jason
:)
Title: Re: Dunes & sandwaves tutorial
Post by: Mahnmut on July 30, 2014, 10:27:20 AM
Thanks a lot!