I've read just about every tutorial there is on the terrain editor in C8 pro, but I still can't make heads or tails of it.  I'm trying to make a relatively simple rocky river bed (gravel and sand and occasional small boulder on the river bottom).  I'm trying to make a scene on the bottom of a river and just can't figure out how to do it.

Any help would be immensely appreciated!

If you're trying to render a relatively tight shot of the riverbed; I'd recommend using the surface replicator. In a nutshell; model the rocks and boulders first; then create a terrain in the basic shape you're after. Use the surface replicator to disperse the rocks on the terrain, all nice and random.

Carrara's terrain editor won't give you that much detail up close. If you're new to Carrara; Mark Bremmer's tutorials cover the process and are well worth picking up :)

If you have some pictures of what you're after; you could also convert them to grey-scale and make displacement maps as an alternative. (You may have to actually model the terrain in that case)

JT

Ha! Thanks for the props JT!

Yes, the surface replicator is the wat to go. You can control distribution very accurately with Terrain shader. My last series has a specific tut on that. In brief, you create a custom channel in the terrain shader and then control distribution (black and white) with altitude. Use that shader with the replicator and then the replicator will take care of the random placement within the river bed. 

Thanks!  I've got Mark's tutorials and am trying to look them over again, but the VTC installer is hanging on me.  (Harrumph!)

I'll keep trying.  Thanks for the advice!

Here's a quicky during my coffee break that uses primitive shapes instead of stones. 

That looks infinitely better than anything I've come up with so far.  I got the tutorials running and I'm viewing them again, but still hitting my head against the wall.

I'll keep trying, though and see what I can come up with.

Okay, here's my first attempt that even gets close (with really poor rocks, but again its just a first attempt).  As you can see, its doing the exact opposite of what I want.  How do I get the replicator to switch from white to black in the shader?

Hola DM, 

I don't have time at the moment but tonight I'll record a quick video that shows the process. 

Mark

Thanks Mark!  I'm looking forward to it!

Apologies for the delay. Right after I said, "..tonight I'll record a quick video..." the phone rang  with a crazy deadline that I just finished. I'll pop up the movie tomorrow. 

Quote - Okay, here's my first attempt that even gets close (with really poor rocks, but again its just a first attempt).  As you can see, its doing the exact opposite of what I want.  How do I get the replicator to switch from white to black in the shader?

You can edit the shader and in the shader options, if your black and white distribution is a texture map, you can just check the "Invert Color" option in the texture properties. If your black/white distribution is procedural, then it might be trickier, because it will depend on the type of procedural shader you are using.

Its not a regular texture map (I don't think), and I don't see anyplace to invert the colors.

Apologies for making you wait. You can find the tutorial at this link.

Thank you, Mark!

Your tutorials are the best, as usual.

Thanks Mark!  That did the trick!  Now I just need to play with the shaders a bit and add some type of water for semi-blurry underwater images.

Awesome!  Props to both of you.  DocMatter, very nice.  I look forward to seeing the finished piece.  Mark, what kind of screen capture software are you using for you tutorials?

Thank you,

Robert

Never Give Up!

I've got several but for that tutorial, I used Camtasia.