Creating Landscapes

In this  tutorial I'll show you how to make some
basic elements of an outdoor environment.  The
addition  of  organic areas  can  give  more of an 
open  feel  to  your  map  but  use them sparingly
as  they  can  send  frames  through  the  roof.


For  this demonstration  we'll  start out  with a basic square
room just to get the point across.  I've hollowed out a basic
'box'  and  added a barrier wall  along  the edges to seperate 
the internal structures from the sky shader and to give the
illusion of separation from the background.  


   

The  next step  will be to make a  surrounding rock structure that
will extend beyond the barrier wall.  Start with a basic brush that
exceeds  the  height  of the barrier wall.  Now  by  using  the brush
option  on  the  tool  bar  change  the brush from a six sided object
to  an elongated pentagon or whatever.  The  reason  for  this  is  to
add  more  faces  to  the   brush  so  that   you'll  be   able  to   make
the  object  look  more   organic.  With  the  brush  selected  hit  'e'
to   use  the  edge  tool  or   'v'   to  use  the  vector  tool.   By  pulling
the  edges  or  vector  points  you  can  change  the  shape  to look
more like an actual rock face.  I've created five basic shapes that
will  be  used  to cover the  barrier  wall.  Remember  to  flatten  the 
back  of  your  "rocks"  so  that  they'll  fit  nicely  against  the  wall.


   

Now let's cover that barrier wall with rocky goodness!