Making terrain

[Geoff]

I am very new to the program i got it for Christmas and am just getting around to getting really involved in the program. I am trying to make a terrain for a movie im trying to do but i am really confused i have done some tutorials but i cant ever get anything to extrude the way i want. If it helps in answearing my question i am trying to make a canyon. Please help and thank you.

Geoff

[Ganthofer]

first, there are a couple of settings that should be set. If not set correctly for what you are doing, they can be quite annoying.

 

Under Tools>Options>Units lower right group box "Paste/extrude offset"

 

I usually check the "Use CP spacing/direction for extrude" box. Experimentation is the best way to see what this does, but basically it places the extruded spline('s) equal distance and in the oposite direction from the selected spline(s) nearest connected spline(s). I also turn this off when the extrusions are not going to be extremely repetative. Then each extruded spline('s) is created on top of the original (caution - if you accidentaly miss when clicking to move this spline, click the undo and extrude again or you can end up with spline on top of spline and that can cause some nasty problems) and you can move it manually to its desored location (then resize, rotate move individual CP's...)

 

(text example removed - wouldn't stay formatted)

 

the "Or X: Y: pixels" I usually set to 0 (zero) as this is a fixed distance and have not really found it useful since it can be done with the above, by manually creating the first set of spline(s) and extruding from there.

 

Now, to you Canyon creation question/issue.

There are probably hundred's if not thousands of way to make a canyon.

 

You could start with a Profile spline (drawn from a front or side view) of the Sides and bottom of the canyon as viewed looking down the canyon ( as if you were standing in the canyon) and then extrude this (while woking from the Top view) along the path the canyon floor follows.

 

Much will depend on how it is to be viewed in the still or animation. Are we going to be looking down from the edge, looking up from the bottom or flying thru, panning left/right and up/down.

 

You can model the entire canyon to the finest details, but this could be waisted time if all that's going to be shown is the edge of the canyon, seen from the distance.

 

A description or sketch/story board of how the canyon is to be used in the scene/animation would probably produce more helpful ( and specific ) suggestions for the canyons creation.

 

Just my 2 cents

Glenn

[Geoff]

Thanks i will have to try this out

[clonewar12345]

Also to start, in a model window, right click and pick Plugins>Wisards>Terrain. With this program and a grayscale image you can make almost any type of terrain

[AJS007]

Also to start, in a model window, right click and pick Plugins>Wisards>Terrain. With this program and a grayscale image you can make almost any type of terrain

Is there a guide for this plugin ?

I tried to create mountains and it created a 5 x 5 grid, i had a little play of draging the CP's until I got bored and then decided to create some craters ... and guess what .. yes, a 5 x 5 grid :-o

Have I missed something ?

 

(I'm sure that this doesn't matter but the grid is different from the 'create grid' plugin.)

[clonewar12345]

Well when you are in the plugin, there should be a button that is called "render"

When you click this there will be a grayscale image in the window. The different shades represent different heights. I sometimes experament to see what different numbers do. *You have to click "render" after you change any of the numer fields to see a result.* You can make a lot of different kinds of terrain with this method.

Hope this helped!