The
most intresting part of the project
was modelling and integrating the additional
elements in the terragen created image.
As
I haven't discovered any "export
to max"-plugin I modeled the
front rocks by hand (detailing only
in those areas that were going to
be under the objects). I applied a
Matte Shadow material and in the VRay
Menu (Oops I forgot, the scene was
rendered using the VRay renderer)
under System/Object settings I selected
all the terrain objects and Checked
"Matte object, Cast shadows,
receive shadows and affect alpha".
Now
the light set-up was tested with a
sphere. I applied a white material
and created a Direct Light to cast
shadows that match the Terragen scene.
The light color can be easily noticed
on a white material, so that's why
I chose white for the sphere material.
The shadows needed to be softer, but
rendertimes would have increased a
lot so I decided to leave them Like
this.
After
that I started detailing the focus
zones.
The
front rock was covered with a plane
with a grass texture. After that I
applied a VRayDisplacementMod modifier
to it (explained in detail in my
"Grass" tutorial soon to
be found here on 3D Total) to
get a decent grass without much hassle.
The
cobble stones are absolutelly necesary
for the scene realism. At first I
wanted to make a road but settled
with just the cobblestone in the end.
Pretty boring cloning all the rocks
but it was all worth while :). Took
care also to apply a noise modifier
to them with a different seed so no
two stones are identical.
For
the GI environment I selected the
backdrop image and I mapped it on
the enviroment. Simple spherical environment
that is. This is how I do things most
of the time when a HDRI of the scene
is not available
Btw,
I was too lazy to mess with the HDRI
export option from Terragen but I
hear it's pretty good.
After
having some concepts for the objects,
modeling got a hell of a lot easier.
Well,
that was not the case with texturing(I
usually don't use UVW Unwrapp unless
if it's absolutely necessary. I try
to keep things basic with a UVW Mapping,
box mapping most of the time. But
in this case I had to preciselly position
the markings so that was not a viable
option.
The
geometry is also pretty simple, being
a keen follower of the saying "what's
not in the frame, can't be seen"
The
bump and diffuse maps were done in
Photoshop by using maps found on the
net.
I
unwrapped the model and by using the
simple "print-screen, paste in
photoshop method" I created the
textures (I know Texporter was a much
better sollution but hey... that's...
MY WAY :))
The
markings are just fonts I got from
www.alienfonts.com , thanx Azra for
the tip :) I would have had to make
them by hand otherwise.