Gaea School: A return to the Vosges mountains

 We're taking a break from the usual diary format to do a deep dive into a complex Gaea setup. This is based on the sample provided by the brilliant Maarten Nauta.


The following graphic shows how deeply nuanced and interesting terrains are generated from massive graphs, that are literally too big to view in totality in the graph editor.

Look at the size of this graph?!

1. The base terrain noise

This stretch of the Vosges mountains is built on a Perlin noise base, which is then eroded (Er2), and the result is squished using two transform nodes.

Perlin - Erosion - Transform1 - Transform 2

The transforms change the scale of the erosion patterns and can move them up, down, and around.

The next block begins with a Chokepoint node. Apparently (because I've never used one), this is how you combine collective graph inputs without a long processing tail—it's memory efficient.

Chokepoint

Next, the input goes through a warp, which adds subtle but specific noise patterns. The Warp is masked to the lower reaches of the terrain with a Height mask, which is applied to a Combine node that blends the Warped input with another Perlin noise node.

Meanwhile, a Snow node is applied to a height-masked area.

No node quite like a Snow Node

Masked lower reaches

The result: subtle levelling of the downcutting.

Time for another family to join the tree(graph)

A Mountain node is added and gets quite a lot of jiggery-pokery.

Mountain -> multiple terrain bumps

The mountain node goes through multiple transforms, which combine to create a cluster of mountains; each transform is additive, so one mountain can become three.


Three Radial nodes are combined (blended) into a mask that acts as a mask, so that small portion of the terrain gets a messy height boost.

Not easy to see, but the radials create a slight rise.

A Draw node adds another terrain bump, followed by the next Erosion2 node, then outputs to a Chokepoint Node, labelled "baseshape".

Next up: Apply Fractal Terraces on a sloped area, using a blur for the modulation and a slope for the mask.

Terraces, but only on this sloped area. Clever!

Erosion 2, again.

Thermal2 node applied, with an exclusion mask for the fractal terrace area.

Mask

Creative masking in the next step: Take the Thermal2 output and create a mask that leaves a flow trace on the slopes, like so:

Creative masking

The result

Next new input terrain: A sandstone cellular structure:

Another elaborately set up mask from a flow adjusted every which way, then combined through a Bomber node. A Bomber node is a scattering and stamping tool that takes an input shape or heightfield and "bombs" (multiplies and scatters) it across your terrain surface.

Another set of targeted (via slope nodes) tweaks for Thermal Erosion and Roughen. 

The biggest takeaway for me is the importance of masks, mostly slopes, in this example. This terrain is, on reflection,  too big for a single article. Most of the remaining graph is pulling out  specific regions for colour treatment and material output.

Moving into the colour space for materials and masks.

More on Gaea, soon. This weekend: Some more personal project stuff. Possibly more on the MSVA.

The never-quite-finished Shamrayev. MSVA-like construction.

End of an era: we finished Attack on Titan.

 Noah and I just finished watching Attack on Titan, a brilliant, complex fantasy anime series.  It's awesome and leaves you with a lot to think about, with themes like human nature, war, violence, politics, and freedom, among others.

I spent some time working on the scene I created for Noah, featuring a great wall inspired by Attack on Titan.

Wall updates

I'm taking a pristine array-generated wall and adding random damage by adding carefully placed (not actually random) boolean cuts. 

Wall from a distance

MSVA

A starting point -- a single "spine" on which modules are attached. The Project: Hail Mary space vehicle has three separate spines, joined to an engineering module.

Space vehicle layout

Tyr's day

5.2.2 due

Today, another Blender update should drop: 5.2.2, which I imagine fixes any serious bugs uncovered since 5.2's release. I was surprised to learn that Blender 6 is entering Alpha. Blender 6!!!

Start of Week (missing from yesterday's post)

Halo: Raptor

I am still beavering away on the test version of the Gaea-generated service road area. This week I will work out a better strategy for adding lots and lots of undulations around the service road canyon. Right now, all my tests are too sparse and too flat. Getting more density might require a more procedural approach, rather than manually painting the terrain.

Modular Space Vehicle Asset Set (MSVAS)

Allow a couple of hours (this week) to plan the next steps. I think that the first thing I need is a design language for the space vehicles, which are part of my 2288A.D. Orbital Elements universe. Once I know what a 2288-era vehicle looks like, I can start planning how many engine pods, how many cargo pods—that sort of thing.

The big inspiration right now is the Project: Hail Mary space vehicle, which looks like a real thing, and yet looks cool. <I just grabbed a link to the original design by Paul Chadeisson, which was on his LinkedIn account, but found that my account has my old email address as primary. So I tried to change my primary to a working address, but got stuck in a loop trying to update it...>

Not this, but you get the idea

Blender School

I need to do more training/learning/practice. There are so many things I could or should be doing. So many that it's now impossible to choose what to do. Nature Generator? More rock sculpting? A newer addon that I've hardly touched or even forgotten about? Come up with a training timetable for the month, then jolly well stick to it.

Therapy

You guessed it. Terrains...endless, almost pointless, terrains

Workflow: World Creator --> Gaea --> Blender 

This is becoming a bit of an old chestnut—a bowl-shaped terrain you can plonk the camera in the centre and do a 360-degree pan without the terrain suddenly vanishing.

Wider (20mm)

They're not bad, but I really need to get the masks in True Terrain matching again. Maybe I should beg Richard to take a look at it when he has time?

Time-off, Time-out

 I'm resting a bit this weekend.

Watching TV

Clara and I started watching Apple TV's adaptation of Hugh Howey's Silo novels—which I haven't read. I wanted to watch it because it looks like it will help me with the development of my Orbital Elements project - research into living in archologies. It's a great show! By episode three, it reminds me of Lost: a mystery show that uses flashbacks to broaden its storytelling palette. Less so here, as the flashbacks stay within the confines of the Silo, while Lost had this amazing global setting. Rebecca Ferguson arrives late to her vehicle, only appearing in the final moments of episode one; how very West Wing.

By the end of episode three, it's clear that Ferguson's character is a fellow neurodivergent. It works! Ferguson has a knack for physicality—the nods, twitches, and sudden loss of constraint that could look manufactured—but it always feels authentic. It's the same acting superpower you see in play when you watch Barry Keoghan. I don't know where that level of physical coordination and control comes from. I get how a musician makes an instrument an extension of their body—lots and lots and lots of practice—but I don't understand how great actors can measure and learn to express themselves with such nuance. Magic, I guess, or lots of video cameras pointed at them while they rehearse.

TV 2026: Everything looks amazing because of clever creatives with computers

The Silo doesn't just have a great troupe of actors (whispers: so many British/European thespians!); it also has brilliant art direction, staging and craft. The place is fascinating and convincing. It reminds me of an essay I read about Utopias, and their limits. The Silo is a spatial utopia: a society can be an emergent quality of the living space, and if changing that space threatens to change the society, then such a utopia will fall to totalitarianism. Silo, right now, hides this fact behind rituals and a shared fear of those who would try to change...anything. 

Blending

Saturday morning's effort: create some strange statues for a future project using Hitem3D.

Hitem3D Marble Athena Statue

Shipping containers are a recurring subject for a quick modelling effort. The first one I built in SketchUp, when it was still Google's excellent free modeller.

Shipping container modelling. About 2-hours work

I'll be using it as the basis of an environmental design project, one day, week, month, year soon.

This morning

Before heading out for a walk, I created a base terrain in World Creator and imported its heightmap output into Gaea, creating a 1GB eroded bowl.

Imported into Blender/True Terrain 5.2

At a wider (25mm) focal length

A bit dark, eh

I'm still looking at ways to reduce True Sky's and True Terrain's combined habit of making terrains a bit sludgy, soft, and dark.

Whoosh. Another week flashes before my eyes

 It's flown! Here we are on Friday, seemingly moments after Monday's close. This might be the power of routine. Compared to the Summer break, everything runs on rails of routine, so you stop noticing the flow of time.

This week

Progress on the Halo terrain. I need to start a third iteration of the canyon/service road element. This time, I need to spend much longer filling in the land above the canyon with peaks and undulations. My main beef with the previous two attempts is that they don't include enough terrain detail.

Cheeky to show (NDA) but it's rejected, right? So it illustrates the lack of detail around the canyon.

Train travel

Clara and I took the train to Worksop because our broken-down car has been towed there for repair. We dropped off the service documentation at the garage and lugged most of our luggage back. While waiting for the train, I snapped photos of track maintenance engineers because their safety packs look really cool, maybe a bit Sci-fi.

Rough source!

It struck me that the figures would be a good test of Hitem3D. Exactly how usable would outputs from quite poor sources be? A test worth doing, I thought. I  wasn't expecting this to work at all -- look, his feet are essentially missing!

So that worked out pretty amazingly...

The first engineer with the best photo is the best by far, and I think it shows. That said, they are collectively very useful for background elements. I'm impressed! Also, a bit scared of what this does to the 3D industry. There's going to be a whole lot less work going forward. 

Fluent back in the house

The hard surface modelling tool, which wasn't initially working in Blender 5.2 looks to be fixed.

Quick test element: some tiny issues on the mesh, as usual.

Apparently, I bought this add-on in the opening weeks of the Ukraine invasion. Since then, I  have used it occasionally. Mostly, I get into a mess and need to learn how to make the most of the mesh/normal repair tools. Occasionally, it's done an amazing job.

Unfinished but a positive step

It's possible that I got lost in the details too soon. That said, this is a very simple project that was never intended to be elaborate or detailed, so all's good. 

I definitely turn up the juice too soon, causing the many small iterative steps to take too long as we wait for renders to complete. Get more done in the viewport. I must be more careful with in-situ previewing, not after a 5-minute render, only to spot a glaring error that should have been obvious from the start.

Crit time

• The wall needs to look older, with more chipping and stain patterns. The tiles are okay as a starting point, but they need to blend into the wall rather than look like bathroom tiles.
  
  
• The sky is good, but I may match the source images better by backlighting the scene and pushing the lower part of the wall into deeper shadow.
  
  
• I added post-effects using Photographer—a real crutch for me. Too soon, but I like the vibe of the harsh film noise, enabled instead of using Blender's noise reduction, which tends to mush renders too much.

My son is supposed to be the figure walking along the wall. He didn't turn up for a scan when I asked, so we'll see if he becomes part of the scene. Maybe I should create a body for the scene and capture a detailed head (via Hitem3D) to place on it. Naturally, this gives you a lot more detail on the head, where it counts.

That's enough for now. I will finish the project off, but not today. It's time to get back to work on the terrain testing for Halo: Raptor.

Start of Week

Last week I did updates to the service road path painting. I got sign-off again. Which didn't work out great last time, but hay-ho. To use the path as a displacement mask, it needs to be much more detailed, so today I will upscale it to 16-24k super detail.

This path needs to be translated into a workable terrain, proving that Gaea 2.0 has the chops for this effort. For an isolated section like this, it certainly does. The question remains: can Gaea handle very large, detail-specific terrains?

Product idea

I'm engaged with my writing project again. It has me thinking about 23rd-century space vehicles. The idea I had a couple of years ago (see here) to create a set of modular parts that enable quick kit-bashing of space vehicles keeps pulling me in. It would take a lot of prep, but it seems much better focused than when I first started.

I'll do some more sketching and planning regarding module types and numbers. There are some geo-node add-ons that provide a framework for these sorts of systems, where a user can just interact with a UI and Blender's geometry nodes system does all the heavy lifting.

Bits what bolt together

Another mini-project

 Time for a weekend project! Get something finished; don't make it too elaborate or time-consuming. Get familiar once more with the feeling of having finished a project.

I will recreate or riff on a scene from Attack on Titan—a deeply political and philosophical science fiction/fantasy anime that I was introduced to by my eldest son.

screen captures

final season

Walking along a vast city wall, with great mountains and forests in the background.

First stab at the basics.

1. I created a rough mountain layout in World Creator.

2. I took the heightmap from World Creator and imported it into Gaea 2.

3. I used Gaea's node system to create a satisfying mountain terrain.

4. In Blender, I used True Terrain 3 to instantiate the Gaea mountain range into a terrain mesh.

5. Wall modelled using a simple block repeated with an array modifier.

6. Imported a model of me for scale. In the final piece, I hope to use a model of my Son.

That was about an hour's work. More tomorrow!