Nadril Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 NOTE: THIS IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. WILL FINISH REST TOMORROW! INDEX Part 1: What is Terragen? What is Teraspace? Part 2: The controls. Part 3: Tips and tips of terragen Part 4: how to do teraspace? Part 5: Blending the space and landscape together. --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- PART 1: What is terragen/teraspace? Terragen is a free landscaping program used by many. the link to it is http://www.planetside.co.uk . So, now that you've downloaded it, how the heck do you use it you say? Well, this is going to help you out here with the basic processes, and even going a step further into a thing called Teraspace. What is teraspace? : Well, teraspace is when you combine a terragen landscape with a space scene. You may see them all around deviantart, and sometimes being made by members of tip.it (including me) a good example of teraspace artwork is http://www.alyn.deviantart.com . he has some very good teraspace works there. Well, now to get to the main part of this tut, how to use terragen! -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- PART 2: THE CONTROLS under construction. ----------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- PART 3: TIPS AND TRICKS so, now that you know the basic controls, i can help you out in making your landscape look good :) i'll break it down into different parts here. Surface map: the Surface map is a very important part of each landscape. without one, yours will just look like gray mountains, which, is not very atractive. now, first of all i will explain the Child/Parrent layers. Think of it like this, The child layer always needs a parent layer to be around, kind of like in real life. So you have your parent layer, lets say a basic rock, which would be shaded a light gray. Than, you create a child layer for grass, lets say a green. on the surface map controls (under controls section) mess around with the controls untill you get it like you want. When you render it, you should see a green color over a light color for rock. Now time to improve on our surface map. right now its just a green with a grey, not that impresive. Now, continuing on with the whole, parent/child thing, you can continue adding on different shades of colors. I recomend that you have at least 4 shades of the color for each thing you are trying to represent. For example, grass is not just a simple green. It is many shades of green, Light green, a slightly lighter one, middle-ish one, and some darker shades. For rocks, they arn't just shades of grey, but you can add in other colors, such as maybe some light browns ect. An example of a good surface map for a grassy like thing would have something like: A base rock layer. With different child layers of rock colors. Than Built ontop a Dirt layer, which will be the child layer of the rock, and will have its own child layers of shades of dirt (browns ect.) Than ontop of that, some grass shades. So now we have the surface map done. But whats good a surface map if we don't have a terrain to put it on?? Well, this is where the next part comes in. Terrain: The terrain is simply your land that your surface map goes on. there are a few ways you can create one. 1: Simply make it in terragen. Go to the terrain control as seen under part 2, and render a terrain, messing with the settings. Wallah, you have a terrain, quite simple eh? You can then use the terrain controls and add onto what you have, although i wouldn't recomend it because the controls are not an idea way to do it. 2. Use World Machine. I'm not going to go into depth onto this one, but this program is great if you don't like your terrains being (totaly) random. it can be found at http://www.worldmachine.com 3. Download a terrain. There are sites where you can find real terrains of places, which is realy good if you want to make a thing of, mount st. hellen for example. only downside is it isn't your own work (which i sugest you don't take it as your own) and alot of sites cost money for them. ( i belive they all called DEMS) So now, you have a terrain, a surface map. Wow the landscape is looking preaty good! But theres another part were missing here, the ATMOSPHERE! Atmosphere: The Atmosphere is another big part of any landscape. using it can convey emotion into a peice. For example, having a nice, fluffy sort of sky with light purples and stuff may be a peaceful/love kind of emotion. The same goes for having a firey one. Atmosphere is broken down into a few parts. I have already explained what the different controls do in part 2, but i will meerly explain how to use them well in this part. Main Atmosphere: This is basicly the main colors of your sky, ect. First off, get to the atmosphere part of terragen. There you have 3 options, Simple haze, Atmospheric Blue, and Light Decay / Red. Simple haze- Controls the fog of the piece basicly. The more density you plug into it, the more fog that will apear. Very useful for makeing dark, mysterious landscapes. Atmospheric Blue- Makes the atmosphere more "blue" a good tip is to change its color to a red or so, and set the density up some. This will make it so you have a sort of sunset effect going on. light decay/ Red: Very good for making space landscapes, such as on another planet. For example, making a martian looking landscape, and puting this on high will make it have a dust red sky kind of effect. Clouds: Clouds are another big part. i have explained the differnt peices of them in part 2, but i will just kind of go on for a little bit on how they can be used well. First off, clouds realy are not that customizable. They usualy rely on paitence in order to get a nice looking thing of clouds. Clouds for the most part can be left random (unless you are going for a certain look). however, sometimes a very nice effect called rays can be achived by them. basicly, Ray's are created by sunlight trying to peer through the clouds, just like in real life. To acheive this, create a set of clouds that are very close together, and have the sunlight postioned so that its rays just barly escape the clouds. Turning up your sunlight a ton is good to do too. which leads me onto the sun :D Sunlight/other options: not to sound like a broken record, but the controls have been explained in part 2 :P so i will again, just go on what can be achieved here. First off, the suns direction means alot in an image. If you want the landscape to be the main focus, not the atmosphere, than i would sugest having the sun be behind the "camera" and pointing torwards the landscape, illuminating it. If you want to make a nice sunset, just simply put it behind the landscape :) This will make the landscape darker, but will give you a very nice effect. The controls you see on the bottom are for fine tuning your atmosphere. Playing with these can lead to very good results, but often times are only needed if you are going for a very specific effect. however, don't shy away from these controls just because i'm not covering them, they can dramaticly change your landscape if used in the right way :D So, now we have all of the main elements covered. but there is a little extra we want to add, Water! Some images need water for them, to add some contrast or just to look plain cool :) Water: Water is a preaty simple element, that if used right can realy change the look of your landscape. most of the water controls are self explanitory, so i will instead help out on a few of the finer points of water. First of all, you have the different "types" of water. tropical, ect. ect. You can create your own if you want (which, you could do weird colors for an alien landscape, stuff like that, be creative :P) Or just stick with which one matches most. So, don't go sticking in an artic water type with a tropical island looking place :D its just common sense :) Well, so now you know how to make a landscape. You have hopefully started rendering it now, and are probaly currious, after all of this, how can there still be more? -------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- PART 4: TERASPACE first off, let me tell you this part is designed for PHOTOSHOP 7, although it can be made in higher versions or psp8 :). in this part we will create our space image for our teraspace image. Now, first off let me tell you i am not going to go into depth a whole new space tutorial. Instead, i will link you some very well done tutorials for space, and will instead go on about some elements of space :) links: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/11885274/ : Advanced planet creation. http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/7076196/ :stars tutorial. http://www.scifi-src.deviantart.com : Great space tutorials there. Now, with this create a planet or two and a nice starfeild. Maybe go the extra mile and make a nebula or somthing :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venomai Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 oooohh la la.. I've been looking for a terragen tutorial :D Tyvm, great tut nadril! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 3, 2004 Author Share Posted November 3, 2004 oooohh la la.. I've been looking for a terragen tutorial :D Tyvm, great tut nadril! heh np man. as you can see, i gotta explain the pics and stuff lol :oops: and btw, 1525 helped me out with the pics :) Should get the final version of tut done tomorrow lol :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X_lolol_X Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 i have a noobish question. how do i add water? all i did so far was make mountains and everything. thanks in advance :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unknownmasterofnothing Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 I have no idea how to use terragan maybe this will help me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonChaos Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 this should be stickied...nadril ask a mod to sticky this..its good =] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 3, 2004 Author Share Posted November 3, 2004 heh thanks guys :D and X_lollol_X you add water by going to the terrain control thing, and clicking on the map. Than you get to the big version of it where you can edit it, and just simply (right click i belive) to lower the land down. anyways, thanks again guys, i hope to get the pictures labled tomorrow :D than it should make more sense lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 You can also add water but just moving up the water level in the water control area, or you should be able too ;). Nadril you rat, you're supposed to be off the comp lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_PoseidoN_ Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 very nice nadril, now I just gotta get my computer to let me use terragen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 3, 2004 Author Share Posted November 3, 2004 thanks pos :D lol and 1525, i can't sleep lol so sneaking on pc :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demoris Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 Keep writing and improving on this. It would help alot of the new Terragen users. Perhaps add sub-headings to separate the different elements of each Control window. Also, do something with the images. It stretches the forum alot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 4, 2004 Author Share Posted November 4, 2004 Keep writing and improving on this. It would help alot of the new Terragen users. Perhaps add sub-headings to separate the different elements of each Control window. Also, do something with the images. It stretches the forum alot. yeah. btw, i'm so mad. I had like almost the whole thing writin out (cept for like 6 images) and my cpu goes phycho and i loose it all :cry: Thanks Demoris :D and i will :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordjake Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 i downloaded it, but when i go to open it from the icon on the desktop, the little bar fills up to the left, but then nothing happens. i deleted that, and retried but still - nothing. what do i do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djscoobsta Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 wow kewl tut man i know how to use terragen i mite give terrascape a go tho 8) ill book mark this :D what version of terra this writen for?? and y is ur terragen rounded and diff to mine :? heres my version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephanie Posted November 4, 2004 Share Posted November 4, 2004 wow thanks, I have no idea how to use that program I'll read this when I get home, see if I know how to use it then. Cheers! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 4, 2004 Author Share Posted November 4, 2004 wow kewl tut man i know how to use terragen i mite give terrascape a go tho 8) ill book mark this :D what version of terra this writen for?? and y is ur terragen rounded and diff to mine :? heres my version actully its my freinds 1525's version, and his his rounded off because he's a mac user. Don't worry though, the controls are in the same spot :D btw guys, i'll hopefully get it done today, if my computer doesn't go crazy again :D Thanks guys :) EDIT: and its writtin for the latest version :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 5, 2004 Author Share Posted November 5, 2004 BUMP! Will hopefully finish today :D Had to do something til 6pm yesterday :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djscoobsta Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 BUMP :wink: u finished it yet?? well ok i think it looks kewl 8) is latest version 9.0?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 6, 2004 Author Share Posted November 6, 2004 yeah i think it is :) And i'll try and finish tonight. It's gunna be a preaty big tutorial lol :) :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 6, 2004 Share Posted November 6, 2004 *Cough 4 days to make a 1 hour render cough* Good luck mate.. lot of writing to do :P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_AM_SLICEMAN Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 i dont get it :? arrrgggh y am i [developmentally delayed]ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts