Ever wanted to build your own world where things are easier and life is better? Well, soon you can. 🌼

00:00 Intro

00:10 The 5 Steps to Realistic CGI landscapes

00:30 Step 1: Base Geometry

Working to scale

Filtering packed raster heighfield maps

Fixing the shape of the mountain with linear colours

03:00 Step 2: Basic Lighting

And on the second step they creating the sun and the sky

Creating realistic sky gradients

Natural outdoor lighting in 2 steps

05:35 Step 3: Chicka-chicka-Shading Landscapes

Making a realistic rocky material

Making a realistic forest material

Making a realistic water material

Making a realistic snow material

14:00 Step 4: Mixology

Using the Shuffle Node to separate colour channels in Arnold

Mixing landscape materials based on terrain maps

Creating a whitewater shader for rapids and waterfalls

25:00 Adding the displacements back in

28:01 Step 5: Details

28:52 Growing a forest for example

36:24 Step 6 (of 5): Atmospheric Phenomena

Creating the Volume Object

Creating a realistic atmosphere material in Arnold

Adding clouds to your landscape

42:04 How to level-up your landscape

42:46 Next up: Realistic Clouds