Terragen problem

DangerousPower · 01-24-2008, 09:08 AM

hello everyone,

I': pretty new to terragen but ive been watching tons of tutorials but my problem(quistion) still remains when i watch on google video i can find movies of terragen landscapes that were recoreded in 3d (like hang gliding) when i make a map and press "3d preview" i looks really bad where do i click to get the screen that let's u record like the one from the movies ? thanks

**zuluclayman** · 01-25-2008, 11:31 PM

You need to have the CamPath plugin installed http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/campath.html
This allows you to plot a camera path through your terrain. Once you have saved the camera path as a script from the File menu in CamPath you will be asked where you want the bitmap images to go. Nominate where you want them to be saved. These are what you will use to make your movie.
CamPath then generates a script - name it and save it.
It is a good idea to create a folder to hold your script and your images so you know where they all are for later.
You will then be able to use the "execute script" command from the "Terragen" drop down menu in the main menu bar. This is when Terragen will begin rendering all the bitmaps you will use to make your movie BE WARNED - it takes a long time to render the images. I rendered a small test movie today that had 513 bitmaps at 320 x 240pixels and it took 3 hours to finish the rendering!!!
The larger the pixel count and the longer the camera path = the higher the hour count to render. I started the render just before I had to go out so it was OK. If you had a large flythrough planned I would consider doing the rendering overnight.
Once you have your bitmaps you can then put them into whichever video editing software you have available (I have used Macromedia Flash in conjunction with Premiere Elements but you can just use Windows MovieMaker if on PC or iMovie if on Mac). The main thing is to get the frame rate to 25fps so that the movement is smooth.
I found this to be an excellent tutorial for making a movie from Terragen:
http://www.nicolas-hoffmann.net/tuto...ex_english.php
It is not quite as easy as you may think to make a good movie but it's lotsa fun trying and experimenting!

01-25-2008, 11:31 PM	#2 (permalink)
zuluclayman Design Team Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Newcastle, Australia Posts: 265 OS: Windows Vista Home Premium My System	Re: Terragen problem You need to have the CamPath plugin installed http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/campath.html This allows you to plot a camera path through your terrain. Once you have saved the camera path as a script from the File menu in CamPath you will be asked where you want the bitmap images to go. Nominate where you want them to be saved. These are what you will use to make your movie. CamPath then generates a script - name it and save it. It is a good idea to create a folder to hold your script and your images so you know where they all are for later. You will then be able to use the "execute script" command from the "Terragen" drop down menu in the main menu bar. This is when Terragen will begin rendering all the bitmaps you will use to make your movie BE WARNED - it takes a long time to render the images. I rendered a small test movie today that had 513 bitmaps at 320 x 240pixels and it took 3 hours to finish the rendering!!! The larger the pixel count and the longer the camera path = the higher the hour count to render. I started the render just before I had to go out so it was OK. If you had a large flythrough planned I would consider doing the rendering overnight. Once you have your bitmaps you can then put them into whichever video editing software you have available (I have used Macromedia Flash in conjunction with Premiere Elements but you can just use Windows MovieMaker if on PC or iMovie if on Mac). The main thing is to get the frame rate to 25fps so that the movement is smooth. I found this to be an excellent tutorial for making a movie from Terragen: http://www.nicolas-hoffmann.net/tuto...ex_english.php It is not quite as easy as you may think to make a good movie but it's lotsa fun trying and experimenting!