Architects and visualization artists can now dramatically accelerate landscape creation. This tutorial from designer Trương Công Nhật demonstrates how to generate highly realistic mountain terrain, place complex vegetation, and finalize natural lighting effects in minutes using D5 Render’s intuitive real-time tools.
In the competitive field of Architectural Visualization (ArchViz), efficiency and realism are paramount. When working on projects situated in complex environments, such as mountainous or forested regions, accurately representing topography and natural features is essential for effective planning and client presentation.
To address this challenge, designer Trương Công Nhật of TCN Studio showcases an incredibly rapid workflow using D5 Render, demonstrating how artists can create a highly detailed, realistic mountain landscape complete with vegetation and atmospheric effects in under five minutes. You can explore more of the designer’s work on Trương Công Nhật’s Instagram profile.
D5 Render is particularly valuable in this context because it leverages real-time ray tracing, allowing immediate, photorealistic feedback on lighting and material changes—a massive boost to efficiency compared to traditional offline rendering.
The Power of Real-Time Terrain Sculpting
The foundation of any realistic outdoor scene is believable terrain. The process begins not with complex heightmaps, but with D5 Render’s built-in terrain tools, which function much like sculpting software but optimized for large landscapes.
Sculpting the Basic Mountain Shape
To quickly establish the primary topography, the upward brush tool is used to easily generate the basic mountain shape. Once the basic form is established, precision tools come into play:
- The flatten tool allows for the creation of gentle slopes or flatter plateau areas necessary for development or walkways.
- The smooth eraser and downward tools help sculpt and perfect the terrain, ensuring the transitions look natural rather than digitally generated.
This same set of intuitive tools allows users to rapidly modify existing terrain, for instance, clearing sight lines when a mountain obstructs a main building, or shaping depressions for water bodies.
Mastering Materials and Water Bodies
Once the topography is sculpted, applying and blending surface materials is the next critical step toward photorealism.
Blending Textures Seamlessly
D5 Render allows artists to easily modify surface materials based on altitude and slope. For example, the default material at mountain peaks can be swapped for a dark forest ground texture, while the primary slope material is adjusted to realistic grassland. Artists can tweak colors for aesthetic preference and continuously adjust altitude and range settings for both peak and slope materials to achieve a seamless, natural blend. Specific areas, like the floor and banks of a lake, can then be manually painted with specialized textures like beach material for added detail.
Creating Mountain Lakes
To simulate a mountain lake, the downward and flatten brushes are first used to create a clear depression. Then, the water itself is created by placing a simple plane model. Applying a water material and adjusting parameters—such as UV scale, base color, normal map, and flow—defines the crucial water surface ripples and color, effectively bringing the lake to life.
Efficient Vegetation Placement
One of the most time-consuming aspects of landscape rendering is vegetation. The tutorial demonstrates how to efficiently populate the environment using D5’s intelligent systems.
- Autoscatter Tool: This essential tool is employed by simply selecting the desired slope material and preferred vegetation. The tool automatically populates the mountain surface, handling the complexity of millions of trees and shrubs almost instantly.
- Detail Placement: While autoscatter handles the bulk, richer detail is added through strategic manual placement. Placing stone models near the water’s edge or visually impactful plants like palm trees near the primary building helps draw the viewer’s attention. Taller tree species are carefully positioned along the water’s edge using the path tool to create a layered, deep canopy effect.
Achieving Natural Light and Atmosphere
The final step in achieving a realistic natural environment is the simulation of lighting and atmospheric conditions.
D5 utilizes HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) lighting to capture real-world light data. The artist enables and adjusts the sun option within the HDRI settings to match the desired time of day and shadow intensity. Critically, the fog effect is enabled, and parameters such as density, height, and fall off are meticulously tweaked. This step simulates authentic mountain mist or haze, completing the sense of depth and realism for the entire environment.
Conclusion
This workflow confirms that achieving photorealistic ArchViz landscapes doesn’t require complex, proprietary tools. By leveraging the fast, intuitive features of D5 Render, artists like Trương Công Nhật can condense hours of traditional environment creation into just a few minutes, delivering high-quality results rapidly.
If you are interested in trying this powerful workflow yourself, you can start by accessing the D5 Render Free Download. For those interested in exploring other powerful, free creative software, check out our section on exploring other powerful, free creative software. Additionally, you can sharpen your skills in environmental design by reviewing our Environment & World Building guides for other engines.
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How to create realistic mountain and forest in 5 minutes: terrain, vegetation, natural lighting
