Simulate the real world: erosion, talus slopes, snow.. Let us take care of the natural effects for you.
Simulate instead of sculpt
Use tools like erosion to create realistic CG landscapes. Then export to Unity, UE4, or your favorite 3D tool.
For nearly a decade, World Machine has been the go-to terrain generation tool for AAA games, VFX, and independent artists.
The latest version brings powerful new physically based materials, and one-click export to glTF.
Discover why thousands of artists create their worlds with World Machine.
- World Machine has allowed me to quickly and efficiently create massive game areas both terrestrial and otherwise. The feature set and work flow get better with each release. A must have tool for any environmental artist. -Jordan Edell, Senior Artist @ Specular Interactive
- I have used World Machine on a number of film projects and find it an invaluable asset for environment creation. -Jim Bowers, Digital matte painter
- World Machine was instrumental in creating the terrain for our Supersonic Sled demo. We needed a very large landscape and wanted something natural-looking but with enough control that we could place canyons and hills exactly where needed. World Machine handled all of that beautifully. -Steve Burke, NVIDIA demo team
- World machine gives us the power to create very realistic terrains in a short amount of time. . Its erosion filters are the best I have seen but also give a lot of control over the final look. i would recommend this to any development studio that needs very realistic terrains, quickly! -Kenny Lammers, Technical Art Director, Microsoft Games Studio
- World Machine works well with our proprietary terrain editor in that we can not only create height maps, but alphas for our terrain paint layers as well. This saves a bundle of time and with results that look more detailed and professional. -Rebecca Shearin, Senior Environment Artist, Electronic Arts
- I have been using World Machine since version 1.25 and haven’t found anything else that can compete for ease of use, versatility and stunning results. -Pete Swoboda, 3D Designer
How It Works
Unlike traditional brush-based terrain editors, World Machine uses a procedural approach. Shape the terrain using basic building blocks such as fractals. then hit them with simulations of nature to create realistic features.
Simply wire together action boxes to create your world.
Here’s a great landscape created in less than two minutes.
Shape
Import a hand drawn mockup if you’d like, or design completely within World Machine. You have plenty of tools available to tame those crafty fractal generators.
- Load from a file, or guide mountains with our tools
- Detail with fractal noise, then erode the results
- Sketch the location of major rivers and have them carve river valleys.
- 70+ tools available for your use.
Discover more features
Basic principles of creating realistic exterior renderings
Today we decided to share with you our experience and lifehacks in the exterior renderings. In this post, you will find some advice from us and get the answers on how to create beautiful and realistic exterior images.
1. Composition This is the main aspect that affects the rendering work. Choose dynamic views that show the volume and structure of the building as fully as possible. Choose a wide-angle lens in the camera. Stronger perspective distortions add dynamics to the frame and enhance geometric planning. When exposing cameras, think about the height of the shot. Imagine that you are filming a building, holding the camera in your hands. Therefore, the height of the camera from the ground should be 1.5-1.8m. To increase the role of the foreground, you can reduce the height to 0.7-1m.
- Foreground (small details, paving elements, low vegetation, etc.) Pay special attention to its elaboration.
- Middle ground. As a rule, the building itself is shown in the middle ground. It is the center of the composition and the key element of the entire image. It also requires attention to detail. Work on the interiors that are visible through the windows. Arrange outdoor furniture, add cut-out people. All this brings the image to life.
- Background. Many artists neglect the need to work out backgrounds considering them unimportant. This is totally wrong. The background forms the context of the architecture, shows the scale and proportion. Although high detail is not required in the background, pay attention to the relief forms and buildings’ study in the background
There is an exception when the background is the second important thing. These are cases when we show a building or object from a bird’s eye view. Such images are much more difficult to perform since most of the details and surfaces of the object itself are visible in the frame. In such cases, the background requires no less elaboration than the middle ground.
3. Lighting
In daylight shots, choose the sun position between 15-17 o’clock. A lower position produces long shadows, soft light, and a warm atmosphere. When illuminating the facade of a building, try to place the sun on the side. This technique also lengthens the shadows, gives relief.
A very important aspect is chiaroscuro. Additional volume and atmosphere can be achieved by illuminated and shaded areas. If you throw shadows from branches and leaves of tall trees on the facade, you get the impression that the building is located somewhere in the park. Although the trees themselves may not be in there. This is a psychological life hack that takes your work to a higher level.
When doing a visualization with evening lighting, break down the diagram into two parts:
- global illumination of the stage with the blue light of twilight and a sunset spot of the sky.
- artificial lighting, which is turned on in the evening.
While everything is generally clear with global illumination, artificial lighting can be difficult. It’s worth remembering which lights will be included without fail (indoor lighting through windows, street lights, headlights, lights of cars), and which lights are added for an artistic effect (facade lighting, tree lighting, landscape lamps, and so on) There is no universal advice here, but it is important not to overdo it so that the object you are trying to show does not disappear in the lights of a big city.
