I was watching American Experience about John Ford. He did a lot of his movies in Monument Valley. So, with a power fractal and some displacement, I am trying for that look.
Here is the full size from my Flickr photostream.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2579/3663707463_82b20e7e82_o.jpg
Probably the easiest way to emulate the isolated columns and monoliths you find there is via a heightfield generated in either WorldMachine or GeoControl.
John
I think there may be a way using height fields in Terragen 2. I over saved this landscape over it, but multiple height fields work. They have to be small, with a lot of steepness. Then use a strata shader with a large vertical component, like 750 instead of 200. Adding another strata layer after that gives a nice effect.
Oh yea, the border blending on the height field has to be increased a little. This gives nice shoulders for the columns.
This one's 'mountain' are too long. I'm going to change the displacement so they turn into low ridges. RIght now I was going for the shading/color parts.
Nice I like the surface on this.
I have a new version. I reduced the displacement from 2000 to 760. It's almost the correct value. The red RED part is where I
m trying to smooth out the strata layers.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2430/3668125428_563e2fea3b_o.jpg
I think the clouds need some work, ok, a lot of work.