Sign In Sign-Up

ShadowLight Inc's Web Page Control Panel

Example Use of FractalGen's Output Images

All images and sample screens (c) ShadowLight, Inc. 2002

We will demonstrate how to use FractalGen's Output Images in a 3D Program (LightWave 3D in this case)

• Based on the three sample maps shown on FractalGen's Homepage, we can generate a 3D landscape quite easily.
• The three images used are:

1. Displacement - grayscale image to displace the landscape grid object
2. Color - Add to the color channel to color the landscape
3. Bump - Add to the bump channel to add bumps along the surface.

Three example maps are shown here side by side (shown side by side & reduced 1/2 size):

In the example that follows, the descriptions, images and terminology are relative to LightWave 3D's interface. Your setup may be different for your software but should be similar.

• For this example, a 500 m X 500 m mesh plane with 250 divisions in X & Y directions was created in Modeler. The polygons were tripled and aligned then saved as landscape.lwo
• Load your 3D program
• Load your landscape object
• Load the first map (displacement)
• Apply the displacement map to the object mesh at 500 x 500 m scale (Y axis) with the displacement value set to 60 m
• Place your camera location and rotation to an interesting view.
• With surface smoothing ON, we get the following OpenGL solid preview:

OpenGL with: Solid Color Smoothing ON

 

• Next, load the color map
• Apply the color map into the objects surface color channel at 500 x 500 m scale (Y axis)
• Now, the OpenGL preview (with textures ON) will give us:

 

OpenGL with: OpenGL Textures ON

Well, you can now see where we are headed with this process!

• Next, load the bump map
• Apply the bump map into the objects surface bump channel at 500 x 500 m scale (Y axis)
• Set bump value to 100% or greater (this can be experimented with on your own to get the desired effect)
• To see the bumps, we have to render the image, so rendering with the default settings:

 

 

Bumps Added RENDERED with: Shadows = OFF Reflection = OFF Refraction = OFF

• Now, let's add some water at the beach level and render again, still just default rendering settings at this point:

Water Object Added RENDERED with: Shadows = OFF Reflection = OFF Refraction = OFF

• Now, turn on a gradient backdrop, add some bumps to the water and render again:

 

Add Gradient Backdrop Add Bumps to water RENDERED with: Shadows = ON Reflection = ON Refraction = OFF

• Now, lower the camera closer to the water and change the view position, turn ON fog, turn ON refraction; render again:

Turn Fog ON Lower & change camera position RENDERED with: Shadows = ON Reflection = ON Refraction = ON

 

Turn Fog OFF Add more bumbs to the land RENDERED with: Shadows = ON Reflection = ON Refraction = ON

In the last two images, notice the dark blue in the water between the islands. This is a result of the combination of

• underwater color mapping
• transparency of the water object
• rendered refraction

Looks nice!

This concludes a basic idea of using FractalGen's output maps.

You can experiment as much as you desire with different camera angle or flyover animations. The possibilities are endless!

Some suggestions for experimentation:

1. Set the color image map to 70% opacity and add many other color layers (fractal color noise for example)
2. Add many layers of bump mapping to the landscape object.
3. Animate the land growing from 0 m to 100 m. This looks similar to the "Genesis Torpedo" effect in "Star Trek II"
4. If using refraction, experiment with different values for transparancy & reflection for the water.
5. Put the camera under water and use some bluish green fog. Add a fish or two!
6. Add buildings or other objects to the scene (lighthouse, pier, boats....)

Email Us Your Comments

[end]