How to create a undulating surface

[smaximo]

Hello,

Does anyone has a good way of creating a terrain surface that is smooth and organic but defined by precise points and lines, something that you can control the heights rather well?

I normally use contours with the "terrain" mesh to recreate a terrain and then use the "conform" command with a plain so it adjust itself to the original terrain giving a more smoother look, but in this case the idea is to make a square paved area (concrete) with a organic shape, higher and lower areas. I am a little overwhelmed right now so any good pointers would be really nice.

If you think about it, it something that can be used to design a skate park for example.

Check the images bellow so you can understand what I mean.

The first I have taken it from the web and it is actually from a project that exists, but I have no idea how to do that. I know that that mesh is really precise because I have been on that site.

 

[Corey Beaulieu]

That is awfully precise, but I suppose you could try painting a gradient over your terrain contours and using it to drive a Displace Modifier. Once you have it setup you can then refine in a somewhat live fashion by painting it in an open photoshop file and saving it while you have a max file open. This should read the save (to speed it up you will want to reload the map in the material editor), but at least you will get some pretty decent feedback from it.

 

You may even consider making your terrain the typical way that you do and then rendering a Orthographic Z-Depth pass with very tight bounds (exact highest point to the exact lowest point). Then you can just use that as a driver on a Displace Modifier and use what ever geometry you need for the concrete.

[smaximo]

Hi there and thanks for the suggestions.

I was thinking if someone has some way of creating a mesh like that but starting with a more formal existing ground information, maybe cad lines or something like contours and then create a mesh surface that can represent it quite precise.

I've seen something about NURBS...

Edited August 18, 2014 by smaximo

[Chris MacDonald]

I'd definitely model it using edge loops, and use turbosmooth to achieve the desired effect.

 

It looks like what#s been done on the first "mesh" image you posted; there is the telltale "bunching" up of lines around areas of more detail/sharper corners.

Edited August 18, 2014 by Macker

[jayeshmane]

hey Sergio

there is plugin call populate terrain this will help you check this link below

http://populate3d.com/products/terrain/

[Scott Schroeder]

Terrain conformer; http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/terrain-conformer

 

Make your ground plane a nice quadded surface, add in your higher levels, and just let the various falloff levels in the conformer script create the surfaces.

[smaximo]

Thanks for all the tips, those are really nice plugins.

I was just wondering how to properly use those "edge loops", can someone give some pointers on that?

[Chris MacDonald]

[smaximo]

Thanks Chris, this is really helpful, a lot of good tips and techniques. I can see that maybe with some contours taken from Cad and then trying to use those modeling commands to add a little more detail can do the trick and end up with a good smooth and precise surface.

[Chris MacDonald]

It's a pretty steep learning curve, and I'm not great at it; but it's certainly sorted out a number of problems for me in the past.