Gaea Tutorial: Basic Texture Creation

[@ra-ul1238]

Thanks for your efforts of showing your workflow, this was very helpful. Texturing was something I struggled the most in Gaea and haven't even tried the texture node yet, but with your tutorial I could improve my texture tremendously.

[@DylanPWN]

You are very welcome! I'm glad I can help you!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hey man, first off, great tutorial, easy to follow! One suggestion for you however! Is it possible you're recording this with an ultrawide monitor? The aspect ratio of your video makes it not possible to be in proper full-screen mode on a 16:9 monitor, and thus difficult to see the UI clearly, even in 1440p. All the text is blurry. Thanks for this!

[@DylanPWN]

Yes. That was happening on some of the early Gaea tutorials. That has been resolved.

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@DylanPWN Cheers man. Keep up the solid work!

[@DylanPWN]

@@WilliamFaucher thank you, sir!

[@erikm9768]

Very good tutorial, just wish it wasnt so blurry so i could see what the nodes say

[@DylanPWN]

Yeah, I apologize for that. That should be fixed for the newer videos.

[@erikm9768]

@@DylanPWN Thanks!! looking forward to the next

[@succubis6803]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial, it really explains the workflow of building awesome terrains in Gaea., I've been trying to follow along with the tutorial , but for some reason my final mixer node only shows a 2d plane with the texture applied to it, has the workflow changed with version 1.2.0 of Gaea?

[@DylanPWN]

Workflow is about the same. Go to your last height node, right click it, and pin it as underlay.

[@succubis6803]

@@DylanPWN Thank you very much, I was looking everywhere but couldn't find how to solve it

[@DylanPWN]

@@succubis6803 You are most welcome. :)

[@tearsofsoy4091]

Thanks for this. I'm thinking about getting the Indie license for CG. Do you think the detail is good enough for hero VFX/Animation or at least mid ground? Thank again.

[@DylanPWN]

Yes, the indie provides good detail for animations. Hero, you will need some additional detail, which you can get with manual sculpting.

[@tearsofsoy4091]

@@DylanPWN Thanks for the reply! So would I be better off getting the next one up for $199?

[@DylanPWN]

​@@tearsofsoy4091 I think you will be fine with the Indie. $99, for most animation. 4K is a reasonable resolution to be limited to. However, the Professional isn't much more expensive, plus no limitation. If you think you need higher resolutions, Pro is where I'd go. :) That is $199.

[@tearsofsoy4091]

@@DylanPWN Thanks I think I should be fine with Indie too

[@ianmcmill]

How would you integrate this into a game engine? As a stamp? Mesher? And how would this integrate into a large landscape?

[@DylanPWN]

You can export heightmaps out in whatever supported format your game engine supports. You can export geometry (a 3D object, mesh) in tris and quads as an obj, point cloud, or FBX using the mesher node. Those are the two most common.

[@alucienando]

Thank you so much for your tutorials! You make it very easy to understand :)

[@DylanPWN]

I'm always happy to help. :) Thank you so much!

[@alonzonchik]

how to export it to 3ds max with textures?

[@DylanPWN]

The same way as with everything else. Use a mesher node if you want a model or export a 16 bit height map or higher, typically using png or tiff as the options. For the color map, you can do the same but recommend png. As for the set up in 3DS Max, I don't use that program, so I can't explain the process very well.

[@alonzonchik]

@@DylanPWN what program do you use for 3ds max? or which one you recommend for a detailed terrain to place a building on it. I don't know if i could really use this scale for such purpose

[@alonzonchik]

@@DylanPWN this scale might be good for a masterplan but i need it as a background on a render

[@DylanPWN]

@@alonzonchik I use Cinema 4D. Both programs are great for getting detailed terrains into a scene. If you need a landscape for a backdrop, you can get away with a low resolution height map. Like 1024 or lower.

[@alonzonchik]

@@DylanPWN alright then i'll try it, thank you man!

[@danielgroenewald3006]

Brilliant thanks, very helpful

[@DylanPWN]

You are welcome. :)

[@asylumlabs6075]

you mention 'you do want to throw in a normal map' but it doesn't seem like you use it anywhere? can you elaborate on what that is for?

[@DylanPWN]

Yes, you can export a normal map with the normal node. What I usually use this normal map for is for distant mountains that are exported at lower resolution but a higher resolution normal map applied to it. Just to help with the details pop a bit for those distant mountains. I apologize, my tutorials are unscripted and I usually just talk while I'm thinking and recording. XD

[@asylumlabs6075]

also, in C4D, where does the heightmap go? When I place under the Displacement in the material, i get these weird jacked up edges....and the Displacer modifier to the Plane doesn't seem to have a field for entering in the heightmap? Thanks for great tutorial!

[@DylanPWN]

@@asylumlabs6075 In the displacer modifier, you go to Shading and you click on the 3 dot button in there to load an image. Make sure you change the width and height segments on your plane object to something high, like 600 or 1000 (for max resolution) or else the displacement will not look right.

[@robvfx89]

man I cannot for the life of me get the lighting (particularly shadows) to show up like that in my viewport.

[@DylanPWN]

At what point? During the terrain creation or in C4D?

[@BryanGreen24]

Can't read any of the nodes even full screen in HD...

[@DylanPWN]

Odd... Okay. I'll take a look at the export options. Thank you for letting me know.

[@BryanGreen24]

@@DylanPWN It's not the export options-- you need to zoom in on the nodes (at least from time to time) so we know what's going on...

[@DylanPWN]

@@BryanGreen24 that could be it, but I've never had that issue in the past in other node based applications. I'm sure it's the export options. They are the only thing I have changed recently.

[@GarfSnacks]

@@DylanPWN Thanks so much for posting your break down Dylan! Very helpful and easy to understand. So I think the issue above is that your ultra wide resolution video doesn't display well on non ultra wide monitors. I have a 1920x1200 monitor so even at the highest quality video setting I can barely read the nodes since the video is being scaled. Looking forward to all your updates!

[@DylanPWN]

@@GarfSnacks I'll record in 1920x1080 and see how that goes, though I'm pretty sure I have recorded in UW before and never had issues. However, I'll give the 1920x1080 recording a go. Thank you for the input and keep an eye open for more tuts!

[@joeg7096]

man idk what im doing wrong but when i link the satmaps all of mine look like absolute shit compared to yours 6:36

[@DylanPWN]

You're probably doing nothing wrong. Just gotta tweak some settings for your specific landscape and what not.