Which 3D modeller has easy height map capabilities?

[salaam]

I have just tried using a height map on Blender.
Imported the image and I have no clue where it is.
Blender is just too complicated for me.
Any free easy to master alternatives?

[digitalphaser]

Check here:
Terragen, Leveller, Robot Frog 3D, HME, Freeworld3D, Advanced Landscape Editor, Kashmir3D, Large 3D Terrain, PnP TerrainCreator, EarthSculptor, Artifex Terra 3D

Photoshop with 3D feature is very simple hm to mesh.
Unity 3D too.

[theinonen]

Blender + displacement map in Google will return some tutorials.

Displacement is usually done with shaders at render time to make materials look more realistic and the actual modelling is done the traditional way. When looking at digitalphasers list, can be seen the other use is usually for creating different terrains.


There are software to assist creating different image maps from images to use with shaders, and can be useful for experimenting or just to play with.

Like this one


And here is render in progress.

[digitalphaser]

Displacement map is another story.

Height map used to create a real 3D mesh from the gradient image.



Yes. Basically it used to create landscapes. But you can also do stucco, medals, buckles etc...

[theinonen]

There is not much difference if you are displacing the mesh directly or if the mesh is displaced at render time. Render time is very slow on the latter but result will be similar.






(Using the image from your post.)

[Mike Bailey]

Salaam, have a look at Sculptris, a free modeling program from Pixologic, you can import greyscale images as alpha's to modify sculpting brushes. Watch the video about texturing and painting, Alphas at
http://pixologic.com/sculptris/features/

[salaam]

Thanks team, all very helpful