Masking out the image and offsetting geography.

[niipon]

Hi all,

For a project we're currently working on, we're testing Terragen2 to create a landscape image and have found the following two questions.  I appreciate the inputs from you all!!

1. How could we mask out one part of the image from another?  Here, we want to separate a dry land from the sea.
2. How could we offset(move) the geography made with Power Fractal?

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1. How could we mask out one part of the image from another?

We created a dry land with Power Fractal and tried to separate it from the sea using the map to mask it out, but it didn't work.
We connected the image map shader to the blend shader of the Power Fractal to include the texture for the mask (see the image 1).
To create the mask map, we created and used a camera to have projection mapping.

As a result, although we were able to mask out the dry land of the fractal, the sea (the black part in the mask map) was elevated whereas the dry land part was sunk (see the image 2).
We also tried to check the checkbox of "invert blendshader" of the blend by shader, but the white part of the mask map became flat.

Could you provide us with the solution for this?

2. How could we offset (move) the geography made by Power Fractal?
We simply wanted to shift the position of the geography made by Power Fractal toward the XY coordinates but weren't able to do so.  Could you let us know how we could do it?

I might be asking very simple questions as we just started using your tool, but I would appreciate if you could give your advice.

[Henry Blewer]

As far as separating the water from the land, I would render the water as a luminous pink, no shading. Then do the same with the land, luminous blue. Then these could be used as masks in the compositing program you like. The sky and the land each can easily be rendered separately on the render tab. Just turn each on and off for the renders.
There is a way to translate the power fractal, but I have not tried it. In the node window. Right mouse Create Shader, Other Shader, and Transform. Transform allows x,y,z relocation, and scale adjustment.

[Oshyan]

The Power Fractal by default applies displacement in both positive and negative altitude along Y, so what's probably happening is your blend shader is at 0, and the local terrain actually has negative altitude. You could adjust the displacement offset in the Power Fractal to fix this.

As for moving the Power Fractal output, as njeneb said, use a Transform Shader. Connect the output of your Power Fractal to its input and use the Translate function.

- Oshyan

[niipon]

Hi njeneb,
Thank you for responding to my questions so quickly.
Using of the color mask to separate the water from the land to composite is very interesting.  If they are separated with the color mask, they can be composited with other elements, so I will try that later.

Meanwhile, we need to animate the camera vigorously and to consider the reflection of the land on the surface of the water, so we will first render without separating them.

[niipon]

Hi Oshyan,
As for the base terrain altitude raise problem, it seems I can solve by entering the value in the offset of displace in the Power Fractal.
Thank you very much!!

As for the offset of the Fractal, however, I wasn't able to do so even after I connected Transform shader (see the attached image).
Are my settings wrong???

Sorry to trouble you, but I would appreciate if you could give me your feedback again.

[Henry Blewer]

Try assigning the fractal linked to the input node. Click on the small box to the right of the long white rectangle. An input query will appear asking Assign or Create. You want to assign the fractal to the input.
Create is also great. It has many uses. But in this case it is not what you are needing. There are many threads dealing with the transform shader. Try search at the top of the forum page. It helps to be specific as possible; SEARCH 'transform x,y,z' for example.

[Matt]

The fractal should be connected to the second input on the Transform Shader. The first input is not transformed, so that you can layer transformed shaders onto non-transformed shaders.

Matt

[Henry Blewer]

Oops! Thanks Matt!