basics Creating stunning and realistic landscapes 3d landscapes

[Jelmer]

Creating realistic and amazing landscapes with 3ds max or any other application is quite a challenge, you need to think about scale, performance and environmental effects like clouds and fog. Lighting is another major influence, and reference material is important just as well. You will learn the basics and some more advanced techniques and tips to achieve a realistic and unique landscape you want, let's get started!

reference material

Often you might feel inspired and just start modeling something from scratch, it's better to collect some reference material first though. First of all you can come up with some new ideas and plan your project because you'll know what you still need to do with a clear final image in mind.

Lots of landscape photos can be found on the internet, you can try google images but personally I found better and more artistic photos on photo sharing websites like flickr.com, just take a look here. Or you can try viewing the most "interesting" photos on flickr, but be careful, it's addictive!

Another approach that you can consider is concept sketching before you start up your 3d application. Again you will have a better idea of what you need to do and can plan ahead. This might not be the most exciting part but it's definitely recommended to spend enough time on.

Composition

Composition is not just for painting and photography, it's just as important in CG/3d because essentially you're doing something quite similar. The Rule of thirds is often used and easy to apply to your work, just have a look at the render below to see how it looks. The eye of the viewer will naturally focus on the points where the lines cross, and your render will often look better with the horizon near one of the 2 horizontal lines, like below and the main subject close to the intersection of any of those lines.



Another thing to consider is the position of objects. If you only add detail and objects far away in the background your final render will look rather flat and boring, be sure to add some detailed objects in the foreground and try adding some Depth of Field to increase the feeling of depth. Fog can also help to increase the feeling of distance, both effects can be added in photoshop using a zdepth map, read this compositing tutorial to see how it's done.

lighting

Lighting is another key influence on your landscapes, especially the position of the primary light source is important (most of the time the sun). Never ever position your light behind the camera, your render will look really flat and boring. Personally I think a lower light will give better results because you will have lots of contrast and the shadows become more visible so you can see the actual shape of the terrain better. Also remember the colour of light changes depending on the time of day and weather conditions, for more in depth ideas on colour take a look at this tutorial on mental ray rendering.

To illustrate what I just said here are some quick example renders I did:

1. Rather dull, little contrast (main light behind camera)



2. Better, the whole scene looks more natural and realistic. (main light to the right of camera)



3. Lots of contrast and atmosphere, Interesting contours and colour. (main light 180 degrees from camera)



Also be sure to have a look at this article which covers rendering and lighting with mental ray and 3ds max in detail.

modeling and the modifier stack

After some sketching and thinking I start with the basic terrain modeling, I start out with a plane with quite a few segments, depending on the size of the landscape and detail I need. Anything between 20 and 100 is ok, you can adjust things later on anyway.

First I convert the model to editable poly and start "sculpting" the rough shapes I'm looking for. A very useful tool here is soft selection, play with it's settings and you will quickly be able to get the rough shape you're looking for. Of course you'll need some more detail so apply a turbosmooth modifier and then a noise modifier, most of the time I use fractal and always adjust the scale as well. If you don't like what you're getting change the "seed" value for something different.



This can be repeated a few times at different scales and values to get what you're after and there you have the basic shape of your terrain, of course there's still a lot to be done. If you want a more hands on, in practice approach on this try a video tutorial on landscape modeling.

Obviously a terrain model without anything else is not enough, landscapes almost always involve nature which can be extremely detailed and complicated.. Placing every object manually would drive me crazy, and you as well if you're ok.. The most important objects and those close to the camera I tend to place manually so I have a lot of control to get the position I want..

On the other hand things like grass, trees and other vegetation is easy to add with particle flow, this is the basic workflow I use all the time:

1. Create a particle flow source, create>particle systems>particle flow

2. Set speed to zero and rotation to world space and add some variation if needed

3. Replace the position icon operator with a position object and select the landscape model where you need to place the models. I often copy the model, apply a grayscale texture to set the density of the particles and then hide the model.

4. Replace the shape operator with a shape instance and select the models you want to scatter on the terrain, be sure to add some scale variation for additional randomness, along with the grayscale texture for random density.

If you don't have particle flow or don't want to you use it you can try the compound> scatter object. Another alternative is the hair and fur modifier used in this landscape tutorial to learn more about it.

environmental effects

Because Landscapes are often quite large a little background fog is often seen, use the effect in a subtle way, but don't forget about it because it will definitely help to increase the realism a lot. You can use the environment> fog effect but it's much faster and easier to control with photoshop in this tutorial.

If the sun is visible in the background you can also play with some of the lens effects to simulate a photo look, don't overdo it though, these sort of effects can also be applied in photoshop if you want to save some time and have more control.

Other good practice

Keep things simple - performance will be better and it's easy to keep track of things, you won't get lost after re-opening that old file and it's easy to make changes.

Name your objects! - No, not box1 box02 plane01, use names that make sense and explain what the object is or does. Maybe even think of your own naming conventions so you can always find the object you need, just press H and you can select it from the list.

Use layers - When your scene becomes more crowded it's a good idea to start using layers to keep things organized, increase performance and easy editing.

Related links

• flickr
• mental ray lighting article
• photoshop compositing article
  
• 3ds max mountains and water video tutorial
• 3ds max landscape with grass video tutorial

[ExTaZ]

Hmm... I will try this just gotta find a nice photo and do some noise and some stuff, texture and the hardest part lightning Anyone know any good source for like Enviroment pictures?