Getting Started with WCS 6 Part 5A. Fields & Forest


1. Open the YNP project from the recent projects list.

2. Open the Plan Camera in the right view.

3. Open the Database Editor, select the YNP-100m DEM and Remove it from the project.

4. Do not remove from disk.

5. Select the remaining YNP-10m DEMs and Enable them.

6. Save the project as YNP5.

7. With the basics of WCS operation behind us, the remaining tutorials will take us through the project building process. Let's all start with the same Main Camera view. Go to the Main Camera popup menu and Edit View's Camera to open the Camera Editor.

8. Load Component from Disk .

9. Load the YNP Main.cam file.

10. Don't scale the camera's position, we want it just where it was saved.

11. Now that we all have the same view, go up to the menu and View > View Image > From Disk or use the Alt+] keyboard shortcut.

12. Go to the image folder on the Tutorial 2 CD and open GrowFloat.iff.

13. When WCS renders a scene, it evaluates polygons for coverage starting with Lakes and their associated Beaches. Beaches are built like Ecosystems, with an Overstory Ecotype, Understory Ecotype, and Beach Material. For those polygons not covered by a Lake Component, the renderer sees which polygons qualify for Ecosystem coverage. Ecosystems have an Overstory Ecotype, Understory Ecotype, and a Ground Overlay for the ground between. For the polygons that remain uncovered, Ground Effect is rendered.

14. So far, we have default Ground Effect rendering on our terrain because there are no other ground coverage Components in the project. Go to the Land Cover Task Mode and open the YNP Ground Editor.

15. Open the Component Gallery and load the Western Desert .

16. Save the project and run a preview render.

17. Let's change the light for a better view. Go to the lower Scene-At-A-Glance and expand the Lights category.

18. Open the YNP Sun Light Editor to the Position & Orientation page.

19. Set Position by Time to 2 PM.

20. If we're going to make this look like Madison Canyon in Yellowstone, we need to change the Western Desert ground to look more like a series of volcanic flows. Go to the Ground Editor Material Gradient & Driver page. This Ground Effect is made up of 2 Materials, Flat and Steep, that are controlled by a Material Gradient. The left color pin is the Flat Material and the right pin is Steep.

21. What controls the gradient? Edit the Material Gradient Driver texture and you'll see that a Dynamic Parameter, Slope, is the controlling texture. The slope texture goes from an Input Low of 0° to an Input High of 90°, which are the same numbers that show up in the gradient in the Editor. This texture is using terrain slope to place the Flat and Steep Materials.

22. What are the Flat and Steep Materials? Go to the Material page, select the Flat Material, and you'll see it has a Diffuse Color texture. If there's a texture, it supersedes the color well, unless the texture has transparency, it which case the color well color will show through.

23. Open the Color Editor and change the color to yellow, which is 255 Red and 255 Green. You can also pick a color from one of the Swatches, or create your own and add it to the Components\Image\Color Swatch folder.

24. Keep the color and Disable the Diffuse Color texture.

25. Select the Steep Material.

26. Change its color to blue.

27. Disable the texture.

28. Save the project and render a preview. Simple colors are a good way to evaluate Ground Effect and Ecosystem coverage.

29. It looks like our Steep Material slope needs to be decreased. Move the Diagnostic Data window into view and look at the slope values in the hillside. It ranges from about 20° to 30°.

30. We'd like a sharper transition between Flat and Steep Materials somewhere around 20°, so click the yellow Flat pin and change its Position to 20%.

31. Drag the blue Steep pin down to 30%. Flat Material will give way to Steep Material between 20% and 30% of 90°, or between 18° and 27°.

32. Save the project and render a preview.

33. That's the transition we're looking for, so enable the Diffuse Color textures.

34. Run another render.


 


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