DrawTerrain V02

DrawTerrain is a geometry node system that helps you generate terrains with a few brush strokes.

It allows you to visualize your composition evolve in real-time and iterate until the very end.
Thanks to an adaptive subdivision system, you can optimize your terrain and keep it interactive and real-time.

Why did I make DrawTerrain?

I wanted a way to simply make terrains with the possibility to change them at any points without the technical burden of the complete suits of terrain creation.

And also have complete control over my shapes and composition until the very end.

As a Concept Artist, you need to iterate fast and be flexible, that's a big reason why DrawTerrain exist.

Who is it made for?

Concept artists, illustrators, matte painters and anyone who likes making terrain! 

Because you can also export your terrain as a Heightmap, it is meant for artists who want to take things to the highest peaks as you can then import it in your favorite terrain creation software like Gaea for example!

The setup works for Blender 4.1+, I also include a compability version for 4.0 but this one will not be receiving updates anymore.
I will continue to develop and optimize DrawTerrain as Geometry node evolves and gives us more tools to make this faster

As for all my tools, I try my best to make them accessible to people from any technical background and any experience level in Blender.
They also are what I call workflow agnostic, meaning that they don't lock you in an ecosystem but are made to be integrated in most ways of working.

For more detailed documentation and showcase, head to :
https://quentinpointillart.notion.site/

Quick showcase of how DrawTerrain works and what you can do with it:

The V02 update brings a substantial amount of new features and especially in the shading department.

A whole shader system based on 1 neatly organized node group. Allowing you to blend up to 5 layers together, use Heightmap, Erosion, Flow, Soil to give life to your terrain, or use PBR textures of your choices !

Easy to setup, just drag and drop from your asset library, or call the modifier in the modifier tab, then pick a curve and start drawing.

The adaptive subdivision is your best friend for large scale terrains.
It will allow you to manage your memory and help go around Blender memory limitations by subdividing only where it matters. Most of the time, the peaks are the areas that break the silhouette and having more geometry around there helps the Noise and Chaos feature to give a more natural look.

A quick overview of the basic settings available:

Delete Unused Geometry is very useful to create assets to integrate to other parts of your terrains.

You can also add a second modifier to create a path, road, or just more disturbance in your terrain.

To further optimize your scene, you can work with multiple planes with different levels of subdivision. This will help you control how your scene behaves while keeping the shapes you need.
Don't hesitate to overlap your planes a bit to make sure the transition is more accurate.

Things start to get interesting when you stack planes on top of each other and change the settings of the DrawTerrain modifier.
You can then start to have very complex setups with sedimentation, sand, snow etc to break up your shapes.

As a bonus, you can export the heightmap generated by DrawTerrain to Gaea or your favorite landscape creation tool to push the detail to the next level or realism but knowing that your composition already works and your final shot will be amazing!