Noob question... Ground plane

Serene Night

One of the things I have the worst trouble with is the ground. Is there a way to add texture to the ground plane? I see how to add backdrops, but I'd love to make the ground plane grass or stone or sand.

I know I can buy or import objects to add 'ground' for characters to stand on, but can I simply retex the ground field?

Jaderail

You need to add a Plane to have a ground plane. That is under Create > Primatives > select Plane and then set to the size you like.

Once you have created your Primitive Plane it’s, well plain. Select the Plane in your Scene Tab, now open your Surfaces Tab, Open Default. We now have a list of all the properties we can change. Let’s look at Diffuse Color First. Click on the Bar of white with the three numbers in it. You now have your color picker, chose a color you like. Ta Da new color. But lt’s just a little off what you want, click on one of the three numbers, and type a new one. The color changed again the three numbers are the RGB values for the color of the Bar. If you use a 2D paint program you may be familiar with them. If not look it them up on the net, they are a larger topic than I can cover.
But Wait thats just a Flat color, Change your color back to White 255,255,255. See the little down arrow beside the bar? Click that, you should have a menu that says Browse , None and Layered Image Editor. Select Browse, a file window opens for you, goto a folder you keep pictures in, select one that is square or very close to square. You should now see that picture on your Plane. That is how you can put a simple texture on your plane.

To add Depth and not just a colored Texture you will need To add a Grey scale Bump Map. This works for a quick fix. Take your texture convert it to Grey scale in a 2D paint program now Invert the Image. Use your new Bump Map in the Bump Setting in Surfaces for the Plane. Play with the strenght and settings untill it looks good to you.

Serene Night

Jaderail said:

You need to add a Plane to have a ground plane. That is under Create > Primatives > select Plane and then set to the size you like.

Once you have created your Primitive Plane it’s, well plain. Select the Plane in your Scene Tab, now open your Surfaces Tab, Open Default. We now have a list of all the properties we can change. Let’s look at Diffuse Color First. Click on the Bar of white with the three numbers in it. You now have your color picker, chose a color you like. Ta Da new color. But lt’s just a little off what you want, click on one of the three numbers, and type a new one. The color changed again the three numbers are the RGB values for the color of the Bar. If you use a 2D paint program you may be familiar with them. If not look it them up on the net, they are a larger topic than I can cover.
But Wait thats just a Flat color, Change your color back to White 255,255,255. See the little down arrow beside the bar? Click that, you should have a menu that says Browse , None and Layered Image Editor. Select Browse, a file window opens for you, goto a folder you keep pictures in, select one that is square or very close to square. You should now see that picture on your Plane. That is how you can put a simple texture on your plane.

To add Depth and not just a colored Texture you will need To add a Grey scale Bump Map. This works for a quick fix. Take your texture convert it to Grey scale in a 2D paint program now Invert the Image. Use your new Bump Map in the Bump Setting in Surfaces for the Plane. Play with the strenght and settings untill it looks good to you.

This is great!

I have a question. When I create the plane initially it says number of divisions. What should I put? Should it be fewer or more. thanks!

Jaderail

The higher the better, start around 24 and see if it has enough detail when you add your textures. Then just go up. Tip: best to work in even numbers to keep the divisions equal. 12, 24, 28 ect..

EDIT: I also have a Thread for basic starting questions. I just copied from it and added some for that post. Come see if you might find it useful from time to time. Daz Studio Basics 101

CypherFOX

Greetings,
I'm relatively confident of the answer, but D|S has no such thing as a 'ground plane', right? What's typically used as a ground plane is just a large flat poly, with bounded size?

I looked a lot for an infinite ground plane when I first started using D|S and was a bit disappointed that there isn't one...so now I have to play scene tricks to hide the end of the world. I'd really like to see a true plane in D|S4.5 or somewhere, but I don't know (and couldn't find out in an extended Google session) if 3Delight even supports them.

It's really just a 'nice to have'. Some potential examples is a tiled displacement map on an infinite plane providing an ocean to the vanishing point, or a grassy plain into the distance.

-- Morgan

Szark

Morgan You could always ask this to be a feature of Daz Studio https://bugs.daz3d.com/ Marking it as a Feature Request.

Oh and I am pretty sure that Daz Studio/3Delight has micro displacement meaning that a mesh will displace no matter how many polys make up the item. So for a ground plane One division (meaning none) will do fine. :)

Jaderail

You are so right Szark, I was thinking of Dynamic items, they need the higher count to collide with.

Szark

Arrr yes dynamic clothing, yes too true. :) One I forget until all all goes wrong then I remember. LOL

claudiogen

How do I go around if I want transparency behind the horizon. Have always a whitish color where the ground plane ends. I render .png and it's not transparent.

Thanks

FSMCDesigns

claudiogen said:

How do I go around if I want transparency behind the horizon. Have always a whitish color where the ground plane ends. I render .png and it's not transparent.

Thanks

What lighting are you using? Make sure you don't have the dome active (render settings - environment - draw dome) as long as you don't have the dome active, are using sunlight or a skybox, it will be transparnet if saved as a PNG

claudiogen

Thank very much FSMCDesigns. This works.
Claudio

 

 

 

 

gitika1

Jaderail said:

You need to add a Plane to have a ground plane. That is under Create > Primatives > select Plane and then set to the size you like.

Once you have created your Primitive Plane it’s, well plain. Select the Plane in your Scene Tab, now open your Surfaces Tab, Open Default. We now have a list of all the properties we can change. Let’s look at Diffuse Color First. Click on the Bar of white with the three numbers in it. You now have your color picker, chose a color you like. Ta Da new color. But lt’s just a little off what you want, click on one of the three numbers, and type a new one. The color changed again the three numbers are the RGB values for the color of the Bar. If you use a 2D paint program you may be familiar with them. If not look it them up on the net, they are a larger topic than I can cover.
But Wait thats just a Flat color, Change your color back to White 255,255,255. See the little down arrow beside the bar? Click that, you should have a menu that says Browse , None and Layered Image Editor. Select Browse, a file window opens for you, goto a folder you keep pictures in, select one that is square or very close to square. You should now see that picture on your Plane. That is how you can put a simple texture on your plane.

To add Depth and not just a colored Texture you will need To add a Grey scale Bump Map. This works for a quick fix. Take your texture convert it to Grey scale in a 2D paint program now Invert the Image. Use your new Bump Map in the Bump Setting in Surfaces for the Plane. Play with the strenght and settings untill it looks good to you.

Thank you!!

daveso

but ..there is something on the ground otherwise there would be no shadows cast on it. my object is sitting on something... its not floating. but it is not usaeble as ground? makes no sense to me . 

Fishtales

daveso said:

but ..there is something on the ground otherwise there would be no shadows cast on it. my object is sitting on something... its not floating. but it is not usaeble as ground? makes no sense to me . 

This is an old thread so a bit more info would be helpful.