Day 27

I've re-created my own version of the scene Mr Douglas came up with.

I now fully understand how the rocks can be procedurally created. Here are some results by tweaking the scale expression, step size and point jitter to get the shape I want for the rock structure.

The resolution can easily be changed in the amount of step size.

After getting comfortable with the scene I recreated the "rig" for the rock structure and bent it to get an arc shape.

Day 26

I've started modelling the foreground extruded rocks in maya. The modelling process has been going well so far. I'll update with screenshots soon.

Day 24

There are a couple of new things I've found out about, hopefully it can be of use to the scene. Firstly on Wednesday I've finally gotten a reply on odforce regarding interaction between geometries and flip fluids. (Flood breaking rock structures)

Terragen 2 is very easy to use. Here's a test render I came up with.

I've been having some difficulties painting the height map to get a decent base I want so that I can start modeling the foreground rocks as seen in the reference provided by Mr Douglas. I'm close to getting it though.

Mr Douglas helped me create a procedurally modelled rock using metaballs and rig joints to deform a box.

In Mr Douglas' previous test file he used a magnet to deform the metaballs. However in the new file he created I still don't quite understand what has been done thus, I shall ask.

...

I've asked Mr Douglas and he has explained how the file works. Now I know which nodes to tweak and put them into a control for easy transformations of the metaball.

I've also "finalised" the height map so that I can use it as the base for the rock modelling in maya. Mr Douglas approves of me using maya to model the rock structures in the foreground since their details are much more noticable closer to the camera. The rest of the random rock structures in the background can be created procedurally.

Day 22

Today I've edited the height map and made the terrain wider and less narrow.

I've also done some sculpting to the rock structure geometries which I have.

Day 21

Some experimentations and additions I've made to the terrain digital asset.

Day 20

Feeling a little sick today

Did more research on grand canyon looks. Just recalled the airborne battle scene from Rango where the enemies flew through the valley.

There are a lot more additions I'll have to add to the current height map as well as widening the valley too.

During breaktime I worked on my storyboard for the sideFX project in LA.

Also I'm still researching on using instancing for the rock structures' positioning and getting help from odforce forums.

Day 19

I did a base model of an extruded rock, low and high resolution versions.

I tried sculpting on the high resolution model. Results were not really as good as I've expected though.

I'll still try adding noise and randomising the surface of the rock.