Maya 2011 Create Organic Terrain from Custom PS/CS5 Displacement Map Tutorial by Stuart Christensen

The 3D tools in CS5 Photoshop are perfect for creating custom organic terrain displacement maps for mountainous landscapes or rolling plains. This tutorial by Stuart Christensen will guide you through the process of creating original terrain displacement maps in Adobe CS5 Photoshop and the process of making that terrain come alive in Maya. The terrain then becomes a blank canvas for you to color. So once again, textures and imagination are the essential key to making landscapes come alive.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Maya 2011
• Terrain
• Create
• Stuart Christensen
• tutorial
• displacement map
• photoshop CS5
• 3Dtools

[Adrytl]

I need help - i got to the part where you set up alpha is luminance and manta ray production and set the alphas. When you rendered the first time you had small little bumps which the alphas fixed later. In mine however they were small bumps doing downwards and when i adjusted the settings they become "reverse mountains". Any idea how i can fix this?

[deepfriedectoplasm]

@Adrytl The photshop 3D tools can be a bit wonky and it will more than likely require you to troubleshoot and try several times before you get a solid terrain. A good thing to do in photoshop is to add quite a bit of blur to the mesh, that seems to clear up many issues when the mesh is brought into Maya. Hope that helps.

[RubenDelight]

I was doing this but when I apply the displacement map everything becomes really jagged choppy, does this mean I need to add more divisions? I was using the same amount as you. And also is there a way to convert the displacement to quads in stead of tris? Very clear tutorial btw!

[deepfriedectoplasm]

@RubenDelight To convert to Quads just select the mesh and then go to the main Menu Bar - Mesh - Quadrangulate and that should turn it into quads. As for the jaggies, you may need to reduce the displacement attributes a bit. As well, when you are in PS it is best to not have extreme highs and lows in the displacement. Experiment based on results etc. Hope that helps

[scorpio7213]

too hard mines cant even get half way where is the hyper shade located at ??

[deepfriedectoplasm]

@scorpio7213 Just go to the "Window" menu at the top, then Rendering Editors and choose Hypershade, and that will open the hyperhshade window. Hope that helps.

[sunjianhua0520]

good



[dumiinfo]

Thank you for sharing all these tutorials. You are a gold mine as always.

[RubenDelight]

@deepfriedectoplasm thank you! I'll take a look at it!

[scorpio7213]

@deepfriedectoplasm yes a lot many thanks!! :)