I’m interested in creating realistic terrains, based on stylized fantasy maps. I’ve seen several tutorials on procedurally generating terrain, but is there a way to paint in a baseline height map for placing mountains and rolling hills in a more precise manner? If not, is it possible to paint something in photoshop, and import that as a starting point?
Edit: I see there is a file input where you can bring in a height map, is that the best method, or are there other ways to sculpt your terrain within WM?
Beyond that, are there any good primers for workflow for something like this?
You can do either. The two devices you’re looking for inside World Machine are the File Input device, which lets you import both heights and images into WM, and the Layout Generator, which lets you sketch shapes to control your world.
There are several example worlds included with WM showing how to do this; in “Open Examples”, take a look at the file Techniques->Creating Larger Worlds->Coastal Mountains showing how to sketch the locations of hills and mountains.
Do you have access to sculpting software like 3D coat or Zbrush? I highly recommend doing a rough shape or sketch that way and export a heightmap. This way you get exactly what you want, where you want.
From there you can add new, procedural shapes to enhance the rough sculpt.
