Creating An Island

By Teng Xiong

Introduction

In creating our island, we will be using two programs, Photoshop CS2 and Lightwave 7.5. Because the interface differ from version to version, you must have an understanding of where the commands are located if you’re using other versions of these two programs.
Switching back and forth between modeler and layout is very common in making the island.
There will be a lot of test rendering in layout.

Features in this tutorial

examples are underlined and in black text such as this:

example

Steps in using the program's menu will be yellow in color such as this:

step 1 > step 2 > step 3

program shortcuts will be yellow in color with brackets around them:

[CTRL + V]

In Photoshop – Creating the Elevation Map

Create new file with dimensions of 512 x 512 because Photoshop filters work best at resolutions that are multiples of 128.
Set the color to 100% black and 100% white.
Render “Difference Clouds”

Filter > Render > Difference Clouds

example

Render “Difference Clouds” a few more time using the “Last Filter” [CRTL+F] option under the Filter menu until you get something that you’re satisfied with.
Because the black and white areas blend in together to make a lot of gray, you want to brighten up the image to make a distinction of white and black.

Image > Adjustments > Equalize

example

This is good as an elevation map for a mountain range, but because we are going to make an island, we'll need to manually edit this displacement map ourselves.

There are two ways to edit the displacement map depending on how you want your scene to be set up. If you want a close shot of the island, making a shore line is the best way to go and if you want something like an aerial shot showing the whole island, its best to edit the displacement map with more while in the middle and black areas surrounding it.
Remember that the white areas are the highest spot on the displacement map, while the black areas are the lowest spot on the displacement map.

example:

shore dispacement map

island displacement map
We are now done using Photoshop and will continue with Lightwave.

In Lightwave Modeler – Creating the ground

For this tutorial, there will be an emphasis on the island as a whole, so we'll be using the island displacement map rather than the shore displacement map, but the procedure for both will be exactly the same.
In Modeler, create a box with a width and a depth with no height. The box should be segmented into twice the width and the depth.

Create > Box > [n]

example

Triple it with the triple tool.

Construct > Triple or [T]

Name the surface to "temp"

Detail > Surface or [q]

example

and save as "temp.lwo"

File > Save Object or [s]

In Lightwave Layout – Creating the elevation

Open Layout
Import the Ground object

File > Load > Load Object... or [+]

We need to add a texture displacement

example

Item Properties > Add Displacement > Textured Displacement

Double click the textured Displacement
Load the image into the Texture Editor and have these settings activated

Use automatic sizing
Turn off pixel blending
Y-axis

Depending on how high you want your island, set the amplitude to what ever number you like.

For our example, we'll use the amplitude setting of 5 giving our highest point to be 5 meters tall.

example

With the newly tranformed ground, we want to save the ground as it is so we can edit it in modeler. Save it as "ground.lwo"

File > Save > Save Transformed Object...

Back to Lightwave Modeler – Refining our ground

Load in "ground.lwo"

File > Load Object... or [l]

What we want is to create an artificial horizon, so that the orginal square shape of our ground doesn't show through our water since our water will be transparent.
To do this, select the outer row of points and run Spherize(you might have to load in the plugins before you can use this feature). This will force all the points to become a one meter ring.

Modify > Spherize

example

Then using the Stretch tool, open up the numeric and depending on much you want to stretch your ground by, multiply that by 100 and that is your percent for the horizontal and vertical factors; the amount you put in the Y-axis will determine how many meters below or above the distortion will be on the Y-axis.

Modify > Stretch > [n] or [h] > [n]

example

There will be some distortion in areas that are elevated, so selecting the second row of points, repeat the same process:

Modify > Spherize and then Modify > Stretch > [n] with both the horizontal and vertical factors at 0.0%

Polygons are very noticable, so we want to round off all the hard edges by smoothing everything.

Construct > SubPatch or [tab]

Name the object with the surface name "ground" and save.

Back to Lightwave Layout – Texturing the ground

Important things to consider

Since we know the measurement of the highest point, we are able to choose how high our waterline is going to be.

For our example, the height of the waterline will be at 2.5 meters, midway between the highest and lowest points.

From this point on, there will be a lot of test rendering.
After you apply a new layer of texture, test render to see if the scene looks okay, and then save. Doing this process for every layer of texture is important so you won't lose a lot of work.

In Layout, we want to start off with a new scene. If Layout was closed, start it up again, but it wasn't closed, we want to close it.

File > Clear Scene or [N]

Load "ground.lwo" into Layout.
For this next part, position the camera until it's at an angle that you're satified with.
Once you have this angle, save your scene as "island.lws".
When you have the scene saved, open up the Surface Editor.

[CTRL + F3]

example

For our island, we want to start working (color-wise) from bottom to top, so we'll want a dark muddy brown color.

example

And then we should add in the default crumple under the Bump Channel.

example

At the waterline, we should add some lighter brown fractal noise in the color channel and give the texture a falloff of 150% in the Y axis

example

Now comes the experimentation part: add 3-4 more layers of color fractals, varying all of the settings and color a little each time.

This is done by using the "Add Layer" under the Texture Editor

example

It should now look something like this:

example

Now let's add some serious crumple with a falloff of 100-150%.

example

Next, add the grass using the veins texture in the color channel.

example

Now just add 2-3 slightly more layers of grass textures with varying settings.

example

Back to Lightwave Modeler - The Water

To even start adding water to our scene, we have to go back into Lightwave modeler and creat a disc that is as wide as our ground.

example

Give it a surface name like "water" and save it as something like "water.lwo".

Back to Ligtwave Layout - Pouring in the water

With the water object created, go back to layout and load it up.
Once loaded, make sure "move" is selected, and type in the waterline in the Y-axis box under the item position.

example

Under the surface editor, the parameters should look something like this:

example

And the bump channel should have a texture similar to this:

example

Important: For the rest of the test renders, make sure the ray traces are on.

Rendering > Rendering Options...

example

Because water gets it coloring from the the reflection in the environment, we should add a backdrop color.

Scene > Backdrop or [CTRL + F5]

example

To make the underwater parts show well, we should add "Real Fresnel" to the water with all the default parameters.

Surface Editor > Shaders or [F3] > Shaders

example

Continuing Lightwave Layout - Other things on the island

Once the basis of the island is made, you can pretty much add anything you want on your island.

For this tutorial, I'm just going to add one coconut tree.

example

Back to Lightwave Modeler - The Dome of Heaven

Once you have all the objects you want on the island, it's time to create the sky, rather than just having a plain backdrop.
In modeler, we need to make a ball that is the same size as the water disc.