WCS & VNS Tutorials | Landscapes

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WCS 5 techniques work in WCS 6
WCS techniques can be applied to VNS
VNS 2 techniques work in VNS 3
That doesn't mean there isn't an easier way to do it in newer versions!

General Topics

Suspended Wires & Cables

Visualizations involving power transmission lines or ski lift cables challenge many users. The best solution is to model the cables. This allows precise control over position and catenary, is the most true-to-life, and looks the best in animation and stills. Here we'll look at transmission wires rendered as 3D Models, Walls, and Vectors.

SuperConductor (Revised Sept 2009)

SuperConductor is a render controller for rendering projects on a render farm. It requires WCS 6, VNS 2, or VNS 3. The link downloads a ZIP file in the WCS/VNS tutorial format. Extract it to your WCS folder and overwrite any older files.

Tree Modeling Software

There are times when the trees you need are not available. Maybe you just need foliage images. Or perhaps your project will have a mix of tree images and tree models. There are several solutions available depending on your budget and how much time you have to create the models.

Tree Images from 3D Models

Rendering tree images from 3D tree models has several advantages. Tree models can be rotated and material colors changed to give you a variety of objects in a short amount of setup and render time. If you don't have a dedicated 3D application for rendering, here's how to use VNS or WCS.

WCS/VNS FORMAT

Walls for Fences

Walls can be used to create see-through fences. A fence photo and matching transparency or opacity mask is applied to the Diffuse Color and Transparency channels, respectively, of a Wall Component.

Animated Streams

Animated water is achieved by moving a vector-aligned texture through time. This QuickTime movie from the Getting to Know WCS 5 video explains the process.

VNS 3

GIS Applications for VNS 2

This is an extension of the tutorials included with VNS 2 and later versions. These videos will take you deep into the VNS world of shapefile import, Search Queries, and Thematic Maps using real-world data. You'll learn how to use VNS's advanced GIS tools to create lakes, streams, roads, and Ecosystems with shapefile vectors and attributes.

Added 10 November 2015

Variable Channel Width

Using a Terraffector to carve out a constant-width river channel has its limitations. Here's a demo project that uses a georeferenced grayscale texture to drive Terraffector intensity (hence, channel width). In real-world applications you can use this method with a grayscale image of your river channel.

Feathering Vector Ecosystems

VNS 3 represents a major shift in the way effects are rendered on polygons. This discussion shows how Ecosystem blending and Edge Feathering Profiles work with render order and how best to use them.

WCS/VNS FORMAT

VNS 2

GIS Applications for VNS 2

Wraparound Wall Texture: Building Exterior

For those who have already completed the Planar Textures on 3D Objects and Walls tutorial, this is a more advanced application of a planar texture on a Wall Component. This time we're going to wrap a building exterior image entirely around a building lofted with a Wall Component.

WCS/VNS FORMAT

Crepuscular Rays

Crepuscular rays are shafts of sunlight streaming through the clouds or around mountains when the sun is low and blocked. The scattering of sunlight by particles in the air makes the effect possible. This tutorial sets up a simple project with Components as a basis for exploring this effect.

WCS/VNS FORMAT

Planar Textures on 3D Objects and Walls

Many users don't have an application for building 3D models with UV-mapped textures. For simple models, textures can easily be applied in VNS. But you can't just slap any texture on a model surface using defaults and expect it to look right. You have to tell VNS where and how to apply the textures.

WCS/VNS FORMAT

Importing SRTM Data

For areas of the world where 90-m terrain data is not available, SRTM-3 offers a low-cost solution. This tutorial covers the import of a single tile, however, the method is most useful when importing many tiles. The VNS 2 DEM Merger allows you to merge and fill data voids in a few simple steps.

Using a Fractal Depth Texture

There may be times when you need detail in some areas but don't want to wait while detail renders everywhere at a high Maximum Fractal Depth. A typical example is a road through the countryside. Here's how to use a Maximum Fractal Depth Texture to save render time.

Combining Landsat Bands in Photoshop

Color corrected satellite images are great for fast and easy draping over terrain if you're using VNS, which is designed to handle non-geographic projections. Here are the basics.

WCS 6

WCS/VNS FORMAT

WCS/VNS FORMAT

Using a Fractal Depth Texture

Combining Landsat Bands in Photoshop

Color corrected satellite images are great for fast and easy draping over terrain if you're using VNS, which is designed to handle non-geographic projections. Here are the basics.

VNS 1

Mars a 'la MOLA

Import NASA Mars Global Surveyor MOLA data and drape a Color Map of the Martian surface over the planet for added realism.

WCS 5

Mars a 'la MOLA

Import NASA Mars Global Surveyor MOLA data and drape a Color Map of the Martian surface over the planet for added realism.

Placing Planar Images on 3D Objects

Using Texture Size, Center, and Axis to properly place Image Objects (aka texture maps) on 3D Objects.

Panoramas

WCS takes the hassle out of creating landscape panoramas with its Panorama Camera.

Matching Multiple LW5.6 Objects.

With a little bit of planning and the right method, you can use a LWO DEM exported from WCS as a reference to model 3D Objects on in LightWave. This allows you to bring the LWO 3D Object back into WCS in its proper location. The same technique can be applied to any 3D modeling program that reads and writes LWO, 3DS, or DXF objects.

Importing DXF Terrain and Matched DXF Objects.

So what do you do with DXF terrain and objects aligned in another program? This short tutorial will take you through importing and referencing the DXF DEM and creating a 3D Object vector to correctly place the DXF object on the terrain.

Beach Basics

Beaches are a great addition to the WCS 5 tool arsenal but can be confusing the first time around.

Turning Area Terraffectors into DEMs

Area and Linear Terraffectors aren't visible in OpenGL views and can quickly absorb your memory at render time. Permanently outputting them to DEMs solves both problems.

Of DEMs and Wizards

It all starts with digital elevation models (DEMs). Here you'll learn how to unzip SDTS data without corrupting it, using the Import Wizard to bring it into WCS, and the importance of importing all terrain data at the same time.

Parts 2-8 are no longer available online. They were included in Getting to Know WCS5.

Articles

Wukoki AD 1150, Keyframe 32 & 33.

Recreating the northern Arizona landscape before and after pueblo construction with WCS6 and LightWave. Online supplements in my Resource section.

Rebuilding Kinsale: 1601, 3DArtist#45 & #46.

Rebuilding Kinsale, Ireland, with LightWave and WCS for a recreation of the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. VNS was released as the second magazine installment went to press and renders with the new software were posted as an online supplement.

The Ninth Hole, 3D Artist #43

There are a few tricks to blending vector bounded green, sand trap, and rough Ecosystems. Project files.

Beachcombing, 3D Artist #42

Adding sandy beaches, tidal zone rock textures, and a sailboat to a bay in the Gulf of California. Project files and more information on Beaches is also available.

Tips & Tricks for WCS5, 3D Artist #44
A little bit of everything.

WCS 4

Converting SDTS into USGS DEMs