Creating 3D contour maps of land

[RobA]

Hey can you post your texture/color map for it as well, I'd like to try a render in 3d studio using your same maps...but with the super impressive mental ray displacement capabilities.

I'll of course share the results.

That looks awesome though.

The colormap image is in this thread (half way down):

http://cartographersguild.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=252

I'd like to see a comparison with the POV render, too!

[Robbie]

Duh...I should read more.

Anyways, here's my first attempt...I still need to tweak the water and the displacement...I'm using default global illumination and final gather...I think I need to increase the samples though. I'll try another render after I get back from todays conference festivities.

[Robbie]

I lied...I rendered a sky time sequence while I was in the shower. I need to animate the water and tweak the water, and still need to fix the displacement samples and edges, but that will come later. I also think the lighting may be a bit harsh, but I dunno.

[pyrandon]

Man! I really need to learn how to do this sort of mapping! Amazing. Tons of potential. Nice work, you guys.

[heruca]

Awesome stuff, guys!

[RobA]

I just got around to animating a fly-over.

It looks horrible (and is way too big) as a gif, so I converted it to a FLV and posted it over on my blog. The FLV of the rotation animation I posted earlier is there as well. The entry is here:

http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog/arc...-Flyovers.html

-Rob A>

[keithcurtis]

That is really, really fun! I wish I had better 3d skills.

[RPMiller]

I concur! Very cool! It really brings some life to the area.

You should make it a dragon flyover.

[ravells]

Excellent flyover!

Ravs

[pyrandon]

Okay, so here I am six months later trying to figure out how to do this 3-D thing.

I have Bryce 6, and I am trying to make some simple images of a town & landscape...and my first step is already a failure!

I turned the basic landscape into a grayscale image (attached)--but when I attempt to Import Object, none of the formats available to save from Photoshop are usable by Bryce. Do I need to do some intermediate step? Can anyone give me a clue? I can find no tutorial on-line to help with this and am completely lost when it comes to this area.

Thanks!