How to Build a 3D Landscape Model

Landscape models can be made in 3D modeling programs using a variety of methods. One method involves the use of height maps, which convert the brightness value of one portion of an image into a value representing 3D depth. You can also use your program's "soft selection" feature to pull up mountains and hills from a plane with many segments. (Soft selection allows one point of an object to affect nearby points when you move it.) Making landscape models provides homeowners with the means to clearly visualize actual landscapes they are considering creating.

Open your 3D modeling program and click the "Create" menu, followed by the "Plane" item. The plane object will form the basis of the landscape. (Your program may label the "Create" menu as "Draw" or something similar. Search the program's help file for "creating objects" to locate the specific menu.)

Click the slider or related control for increasing the number of segments in the plane until the plane has between 20 and 40 width segments, and the same number of height segments. This action ensures the plane will have enough points to form a plausible landscape.

Locate a JPG image of a cloud, whose value (i.e. light and dark) information will provide the depth data for your program's landscape modifier. Make sure the image's dimensions are at least 500 pixels in width and height. Alternatively, create a height map using these instructions: Open Windows Paint and press "Control-E." Type "600" for both the canvas' height and width dimensions (in pixels), then press "OK." Click the "Ellipse" tool, followed by clicking the bottom-most rectangle in the tool's parameter selection pane. This action will produce a filled-in ellipse, rather than a single-line outline. Draw an ellipse of any color that covers about one fifth of the canvas. Click the "Airbrush" tool, then click the white color in the palette. Drag the mouse pointer over the ellipse's outline to soften it. Save the image with any filename.

Click the plane to select it, then click your design program's "Modifier" menu. Click this menu's "Displacement" modifier to apply it to the plane. Modifiers are modeling tools that shape 3D mesh, including the mesh in plane objects. The displacement modifier converts light and dark data from an image into depth information that displaces mesh.

Click the "Bitmap" button in the displacement modifier's parameter panel, then navigate to and select the cloud image file from Step 3. This action links the modifier to the cloud image.

Click the slider or other control that increases the "Strength" parameter of the displacement modifier until the plane warps from the data in the image.

Click the "Display" menu's "Render" function to produce a shaded view of the landscape.