How do I go about creating a landscape like this?

This is something I got requested to do as a commission for a map. I’ve been using Blender for close to 6 years but I’m not quite sure how to approach the concept of making landscapes or maps. How would I go about creating this in Blender?

Basic modeling can be done by creating a map using contour lines.

After that, I think you can process it in various ways depending on your needs.

2 Likes

I would suggest sculpting, and for details, use brush alphas. I got some good terrain alphas at Blender Market.

1 Like

The outline of the map can be done with a spherical gradient texture distorted by a noise texture. The inside can be done with a Voronoi texture distorted by a noise texture.

Maybe “clean” the map and adjust some values like this (and maybe blurring):

…to get something like this (take a look at the green biome bar… top left… and it’s “geometry” :wink: )

Additional decimate or remesh… might be a good ide too…

2 Likes

If you do not need that exact map i make psudo-random maps using the nodes

here is a link to a blend file on my G-drive that makes a " earth-like" exoplanet
height map and a albedo map ,in simple cylindrical map projection
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n0vsfsZ7z4pe2JCcJRMcoLhf53JwEP5o/view?

the blend file is NOT documented so you will need to try to fallow along with the nodes

the blend file is NOT usp=sharing