HOW TO CEATE TERRAINS AND TEXTURE THEM

By Sivam

In this tutorial we are going to learn to create terrains with the shape of our desire and
how to create an appropriate texture for each of them.
I assume that you know how to use graphics editors such as Photoshop or similar and
that you are familiarized with 3D Studio Max interface and controls.

STEP 1: Creating a map

First of all we must open our graphics editor and star drawing a map.
But, what do we have to draw in the map?
Imagine the terrain you want to model as if you were seeing it from above, and as if it
were turned into grey scale colors only, so the higher parts of the map are in color white
and the lower parts are in black. (and of course the intermediate parts are in the different
tones of grey). I recommend to paint in this order White > Grey > Black.

So you can draw something like this:

The black zone is a river and the grey and white zones are some mountains.
The grey spots in the middle of the river are some rocks.

Once you finish save your map on a 3D Studio Max supported formats for images.
STEP 2: Modeling the terrain

Now go to the 3DStudio Max and create a plane of about 200x200 size and with 40x40
divisions

Open the material editor and select the first unused material. For the diffuse color map
select Bitmap and search the image you have created before.
Now you have a material with your Map as texture.
Select your plane and go to the modifiers menu. There select the Displace Modifier.

In the control panel go to the button that reads NONE under the map option

Browse your material editor and select the one you have created before
Back the Displace control panel, play with the value of the strength parameter until you
get the optimal setting for your terrain.

This is how it gets with the map used in this tutorial and with a value for strength of 30

We now can see the terrain automatically created by the 3D Studio Max function.
STEP 3: Creating a texture exclusive for our terrain

Now it’s time to finish our work texturing the terrain we have created, applying a
texture specially made for our model.

Copy the image you made for the map and open it again in your graphics editor.
As you can imagine, this is some kind of texture in sale of grey tones, so if you paint
above the image you already have you can get your texture easily done.

Once you finish with the painting, save the image and open it in 3D Studio as a normal
texture and then apply it to the model.

It’s is important to be sure that the orientation of the texture in the material is the correct
to avoid unwanted errors.

You can use the images I put in the tutorial folder to make this practice faster, but try to
learn the way the colors are used in the map and how to texture your terrain once
modeled.
If you follow these instructions right you must get something nearly this

Now you can create another plane to simulate the water of the river, add foliage or
whatever you want.
Remember that you can make any terrain you like, not only this one.
I hope you enjoyed it.

Any question or suggestion? Send me an E-Mail to mavisbeek@hotmail.com