Alright..... so I have started my work on the "NWDA & Planetside True 3D and Animation Contest" and wanted to start a WIP thread. I'll try to post images as soon as I make some progress, but don't expect updates every tenth minute as I don't have much time for this in these times.
I made these islands using "World Machine 2" and this terrain is what I will be using if I don't change my mind. At this moment it is hard to understand the scale of these mountains since there are no objects in the scene, but the plan is to populate these islands with trees at some point to better show that they are quite big.
Just to clarify, these islands will be green and have a more tropical look. Not covered with sand as this image might suggest. This is just a simple setup i made to test the terrain.
Regards,
Terje
Looking forward to see where this is going :)
Do you keep the .tmd-files? Might be useful later for masks/meshes etc.
wonderful beginning.... I'm looking forward to your finished work...
I don't know why , but i love such images-objects :D
Thanks guys.
Tangled-Universe - Yes. I do keep them. I don't know much about World Machine. I can only make simple stuff like this. I don't know how to create masks and stuff like that. If you know of some tutorials or something that could help me with that I would greatly appreciate it :)
Kadri - What do you mean by "images-objects"?
Regards,
Terje
"images and objects" better Terje ? :D
Hehe. I understand now.
It's getting a little late ;)
Regards,
Terje
:)
I like it already! Please keep us updated on your progress, I personally love watching images grow and evolve in this manner :)
Hi Terje,
You can output erosion masks pretty easy.
Below the main output of the erosion device there are 3 other outputs named flow- wear- and depositionmap.
You can export these heightfields to an image. BMP works fine in general.
The best way to do this is to connect the output of a mask to a "equalizer" (device -> filter) and then connect that to a regular file output and select .bmp output.
You need the equalizer to brighten up the mask so you can use it straight away in TG2. Otherwise you'd have to make a levels adjustment in post (which is what the equalizer does for you).
Using the flow-mask you can specifically texture the eroded channels.
Using the depositionmap you can specifically texture the sedimentary rubbish at the end of the erosion channels.
I'm not exactly sure yet what the wearmap stands for.
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Martin
That was very helpful Martin. I'm doing some testing now.
Thank you very much ;)
Regards,
Terje
IMO: The masks that can be exported from erosion (and things like "select angle/ select slope") are the strongest feature of WM. They allow for perfect form fitting surface work that doesn't have the usual TG look (obvious cutoffs from height and slope only) that simple surfacing suffers from with minimum effort.
Also: Flow mask is the path eroded materials traveled, deposition mask is where that eroded material ended up, and wear mask is where it came from in a way, parts of the higher elevated areas that lost material due to the erosion.
Ah right, thanks for clarifying the wear-map function Zylot.
Thanks for the info Zylot. I'll try to use some of these World Machine tools.
Regards,
Terje
Started working a little bit on the mountain rock surface.
I also tested some World Machine masks to see how it works. I can see myself using WM for this many more times in the future.
Thanks again Martin for the great tips and also to you Zylot :)
Regards,
Terje
Ah you're making good use of it so far, nice huh! :)
That looks golden in terms of the masks. I used them in almost every TG1 render I made once I purchased WM1. Now I need to cough up for 2.2 ;)
Very nice work so far. Hope to see where this is going.
Just a slight update with the surfacing.
- Terje
Fine work! Looking forward to see where this leads!
yeah, me too. Any updates, yet, Sjefen?
Sorry guys. No updates yet. I haven't had to much time for this the last days.
I was also in the mountains today and I may change my mind about the terrain. I think I want to make some Norwegian mountains with a fjord or something now. Not decided yet ???
Regards,
Terje
This is what we're talking about. Cool. Hope to see where your frames are going sooner than later. I want to see this animated.
Very good texture and terrain work.
This terrain is really fantastic!
How do you use Worl Machine 2 ??? :P
What do you mean?
How the software work, or?
Regards,
Terje
ya Like how to Use it I downloaded the demo and it is quite confusing to use.
it would be really sad to not see this progressing further after this great start! Come oooonnnn Sjefen :)
agree with Frank !
the terrain is really good... i hope to see more of this, even if it's not for the contest ;)
Hi quarkphotonect,
I'm no expert with World Machine. I just recently learned a few things from people in this forum.
One thing I figured out myself is that the "Layout view" is you're best friend if you are to build the terrain yourself. Now I always start with the "Layout view" so I can make the basic shape of the terrain and then I connect other nodes to it to get a more natural looking landscape.
Frank and Seth,
I have played a little more with World Machine and I've made a new terrain as you can see below. I think I will be using that one instead. It is a valley and is supposed to have a fjord inside. The plan is just to animate the camera trough the valley and maybe add a boat or two.
Guess I'll have to rename the thread if I change the terrain ::)
Regards,
Terje
yeah! This is going to be great!
wow ok, now i wait to see more of this one :D
An update to show some progress and give the thread a little action. I'll try to update it a little more frequently in the future.
I have started from the beginning with a new terrain. The idea is to just animate the camera flying through the valley. It's not gonna be too fancy, but I wanna try and finish this project. It is supposed to be a Norwegian Fjord. I know it's not the most typical Norwegian mountains, but it's the best I managed to do with World Machine and time is running up :(
Regards,
Terje
Looks pretty good.
Another update...
The fjord is added :)
I will have to start on the vegetations soon.
Nice work. This is looking good so far.
Testing with some vegetations.
I noticed some odd reflections of the trees near the middle of the image. Is this a bug, or?
Regards,
Terje
Awesome work! This is looking fantastic, I really love the reflection of the mountains in the water.
Great image, I love it!
You must add some stones and improve the texture of the mountain, it'd be stunning.
Very good scale for the veggies. I would try to make the grassy areas have some dryer look to in places.
I'm working on some improvements right now, but this scene is getting a pain in the ass to render. Once it gets down to the water height it will render all the water first. Even the water that is far behind the mountains and that's not funny at all. Water should always be rendered last.
Regards,
Terje
Looking really good so far.
Have you thought about making a water mask from a bitmap?
... or during development, just use a dark blue plane. Or a dark blue plane with a default shader with specularity on. Replace with water only for final renders.
Regards,
Frank
I just turn off the water when I'm not working with it and don't need it ;)
The odd reflection probably comes from adjusting the Horizon Shift in the Water Shader. Did you change it from the default of 0.5?
As for the water render time, try the advice in this thread: http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=8793.0
Basically, mask your water so it's not just a big water plane and wasting lots of render time.
- Oshyan
Hi Oshyan,
I have not changed the Horizon Shift. It's at the default 0.5.
Masking the water is a good idea. I'll try that.
Regards,
Terje
Then try changing the reflection shift. ;)
- Oshyan
I'm having some real problems animating this scene.
Terragen crashes every time once I start playing with the timeline and adding keyframes.
Regards,
Terje
Sjefen, you don't have to animate the scene. Just make the 6 shot storyboard :)
Yeah I know, but I need to do some testing.
Otherwise it's hard to know if I did it right.
- Terje