Quadspinner Gaea Exploring Ways to make a Crater cowsmanaut 2026-09-21 | Quadspinner Gaea Exploring Ways to make a Crater
Gaea Displacement missing rotation and satmaps not working on old files cowsmanaut 2023-11-17 | This is some information to help those dealing with older files where Displacement rotation is missing, and where old Satmaps seem to be broken. Note the update having a fix for displacement is not a promise, it's a "we'll see what we can do". So don't hold anyone to that. Another solution to the missing rotation on displacement is to add a transform node to rotate the terrain, though 90 degree increments are the only thing I advise there. This helps with my double displace method to give full deformation.
Creating a table with Gaea WIP preview. cowsmanaut 2023-02-12 | I'll post an update once I've gone further and talk a bit more about the process of making this table once I've finished with the legs of the table and work out the remaining steps. So for now, here's a preview of what I'm working on with Gaea. Not the usual fare :D
Quadspinner Gaea - Creating more aggressive rivers cowsmanaut 2022-09-22 | Link below.Feeling under the weather (thankfully not covid) so thought I'd drop this free video to pass the time. In this video we take a look at adding greater thickness to your rivers and even variable thickness for larger terrain renders. Keep in mind you can use the depth from the snow output to help you colour them :)link to Mastering flow advanced tutorials:artstation.com/a/12158549As always, I hope you find something useful in my videos. Thanks for watching :)
Quadspinner Gaea - Creating geometric shapes (hex and Star) cowsmanaut 2022-06-04 | If you ever needed some mathematic precision, I take a moment here to create a triangle, star, and a hexagon. Hex based games sometimes start with a need to think in hexagonal tiled space, so being able to set something up there might be useful. However, mostly this was just a fun challenge.
Quadspinner Gaea 1.3.1 - Slopeblur cowsmanaut 2022-05-03 | This is my favorite new tool. I'd been asking for it for a while and now it's here and I can't control myself. In this video I dig into what the slope blur tool is and some ways you can use it. Digging through the basic settings... but trust me.. experiment with this tool it will blow you away.As always, I hope you got something interesting from this video, and I'll see you in the next one!
Quadspinner Gaea 1.3.1 - Arboreal node deep dive cowsmanaut 2022-05-03 | In this video I run through every setting in the new Arboreal node, talk about how you can use it, and even create an example of how to colour your new trees. All using the new bleeding edge version of 1.3.1note: and update to the node was made, here are the relevant changesblog.quadspinner.com/gaea-1-3-1-2-bleeding-edge20 mins on regular mode, or 10 mins if you set me to double speed ;) Hope you find this usefull.. see you in the next video! :)
Gaea - Island scene Walkthrough V1.3 cowsmanaut 2022-04-02 | This is a new walkthrough using the 1.3 version of Gaea showing a potential usage of the island node. I've covered this node in the past, but with some new tools we have a few other possibilities. As always, remember to pause and rewind if you miss a step. The actual file for this has been recently posted on the Quadspinner discord (tutorial section) if you want to hunt it down before it's burried in other posts. ;)hope you find this useful!
Quadspinner Gaea - Patching edges to make multiple tiles seam together cowsmanaut 2022-02-03 | For those of you seeking to make terrains with manually created tiles (instead of using the existing tile system) and want to patch these tiles together. The reason you may do this is that you have a design element you need to specifically make for each tile, or you are making an infinite runner game that is non square long terrains. Either way, this should give you a way to seamlessly connect multiple different tiles.Hope you find this useful :)
Quadspinner Gaea - Trees cowsmanaut 2022-01-24 | Breaking down two examples of Tree creation inside of Gaea until we get the Arboreal node from Quadspinner actual :D As always, I hope you find this useful :)A special thank you to those of you who have supported my Artstation course. It means a lot to me, really! I'm working hard to make more advanced content worthy to be added to the next set.As requested. link to the store here:artstation.com/a/12158549
Quadspinner Gaea - Dealing With Shape Borders cowsmanaut 2022-01-11 | Sometimes zero borders is not enough. In this video we look at some other creative approaches to zero out those edges. :)As always, I hope you find something useful in these videos :)
Quadspinner Gaea - edge and crease selection cowsmanaut 2021-12-11 | In here we have Hint two for the Gaea stone wall challenge, but also a number of ways of isolating edge and crease areas of a surface. Isolating data for gaining greater levels of creative control of your terrains is important. Hopefully, you find some interesting ideas here and find this video useful.
Quadspinner Gaea - challenge hint 1 cowsmanaut 2021-12-10 | For those taking the challenge to try to figure out how I made the brick texture entilrely in Gaea. Here is your first hint. Nodes are colour coded by area, and I can tell you Voronoi is used in an irregular way. Good luck! I'll post a second hint soon. :D
Quadspinner Gaea - SnowCaps Breakdown cowsmanaut 2021-12-03 | This uses methods to control steep angles, add detail texture to rock formations, and control snow distribution for added realism and design quality. The next step from here would be using actual photos to enhance the rock.Hopefully this breakdown gives you some new insights into your own work. Please do excuse the minor pause while I had to get my voice back. It was that or cough in your ears 0_0 and sadly I don't have enough time to re-record these days.
Quadspinner Gaea - Detailing Steep Slopes cowsmanaut 2021-12-03 | I've been experimenting with some techniques to deal with a classical issue I always struggle with on Height based terrains. Steep slope detail! Hopefully, the content here gives you some ideas to use in your own projects!
Quadspinner Gaea - Advanced Texture Masking cowsmanaut 2021-11-21 | (Losing my voice a bit so had to pause a few times. Please excuse. )In this video I'm showing some techniques I've been using for about a year or so and teach my students but haven't really shared on my channel before. Dealing with Banding issues and getting more out of a single satmap node.Hope you find it useful.
Quadspinner Gaea - Draw Node Remake cowsmanaut 2021-11-12 | You may have noticed the draw node is missing in Bleeding edge 1.3 but fear not! If it doesn't come back, you can still remake it in a few easy steps :)Hopefully this will help some of you inspired to think about how other primitives in Gaea are constructed with other base nodes ;)
Quadspinner Gaea -1.3 First look cowsmanaut 2021-10-09 | NOTE: THIS IS NOT A REVIEW. Also, I display some compassion for the team having suffered over this past year to remind those feeling entitled that the people making this software are humans too. If you don't want to hear it, go watch something else. I don't get paid to do these free tutorials and comments telling me to F-off are a bit much.This is just an overview of the new version and some of the changes. I'm just exploring the interface and settings to see what has changed and to share a bit of info on why it's so cool to see this update.For direct breakdowns of the new nodes, I'll be making separate videos for those so you can have a focused look at them. :)
Quadspinner Gaea - IceFlow node cowsmanaut 2021-07-19 | This node isn't quite documented at the point of this video, so I figured I would just reveal some of what I've managed to figure out with it and how you might use it.
Quadspinner Gaea - New Beach Cliff cowsmanaut 2021-07-03 | I've had a LOT of requests to update this. As Gaea continues to update the nodes and settings, sometimes old tutorials will become outdated and the name of nodes may change. So I've finally gotten around to redoing this from scratch. (edit: The second snowfall has "Use Snowfall mask" on and has an input to the snowfall mask from the transform node to make sure more snow appears at the top than the bottom. I did this to prevent too much added masking at the base. I mainly wanted the lines comeing down. but it probably won't have too much impact if you don't do this)Hope you find some value in this breakdown and feel free to drop some questions below. I'll answer when I can :)
Maya to Blender - Transforms cowsmanaut 2021-05-28 | This is video 2 in the series covering the transforms (Move, Rotate, Scale) and basic duplication between the two software. This included using math to move objects and matching transforms. I hope you find it useful. I'm making these to help myself and my students translate faster between the two softwares as well as help out co-workers transitioning to blender. :)If you feel I've missed something or there is a feature you would like to see translated sooner rather than later, put it in the comments below and depending on my free time I'll see if I can cover it.
Maya to Blender - Navigation cowsmanaut 2021-05-28 | This is the first video in a new series translating information and tools between both Maya and Blender users. This is meant to help others transition to one software or the other. These will be made as time permits. I'm keeping them short and as basic as I can to allow myself the time to continue making them. So fingers crossed :D If you feel I've missed something or have specific features that might be worth translating sooner rather than later between the two softwares, please drop it below and again, time permitting, I'll see if I can add to these.
Quadspinner Gaea - island breakdown cowsmanaut 2021-04-11 | I have made several islands in Gaea but never thought to create a video about it. So this one is to give you a few ideas on how you can create an island form to render in your engine of choice :)As always I hope you find something useful. Also there might be some sounds from my dog sitting beside me.. the challenges of working with your pets at home :)
Quadspinner Gaea : Export issues and going to Unreal cowsmanaut 2021-03-08 | This is an updated video dealing with the latest version of both unreal and Gaea. It's been a while I'd debated a redo on this so the information can be updated and refined. Hopefully, you find something useful here. I was trying to avoid sneezing and coughing (allergies.. no covid) so I had to pause a few times, so hopefully not a distraction. Keep in mind the need to resize the terrain in Unreal to meet the needs of your characters. Sometimes we have larger or smaller characters which impact how the terrain will feel and it's always easier to scale terrain than scale rigged characters :) (Z scale in unreal is height)
UE4 Fire Study (realtimeVFX) cowsmanaut 2021-02-15 | Just in response to doing Torch fire in realtime within UE4. This is completely possible with simple methods and some creative thought. I may create a breakdown of the effect. I have one of a different kind of fire using similar methods on this channel but this version is actually much simpler in a number of ways due to having learned much more over the years. :) If you think a tutorial would be worth the time, let me know below.
Quadspinner Gaea - Creating Rivers cowsmanaut 2020-12-30 | Two methods of making a River in Gaea. These are just general ideas. Add your own flare and troubleshooting to improve the results as needed. This is based around a question posed in the Facebook group for Quadspinner. Hope you find some useful info. Cheers!
Quadspinner Gaea FeatureScale cowsmanaut 2020-12-19 | In this short video we look into feature scale options in Gaea. How do we make something look like a hill vs a mountain, vs an island? Well, there are a few settings, but a lot of it is how we decorate the surface, and nuture the features we expect to see at the scale we want. Hope you find some useful info in this video. Cheers.
Quadspinner Gaea - Finding and Eliminating spikes cowsmanaut 2020-05-03 | Often at higher resolutions you will find you are getting spikes in your builds. This comes from sharp edges. In this video I talk about what causes them, how to isolate and of course potentially eliminate them. Hope you find it useful
Quadspinner Gaea- Biome short breakdown cowsmanaut 2020-05-03 | Supplementary breakdown of the Biome node which is a bit hard to mentally process. This is not an indepth example, just a quick guide to what it does and how you might think about using it. Dax has suggested he may have a video coming with an example, so check the official Quadspinner for that when it arrives. I hope you find it useful.
Quadspinner Gaea - Sharpening Through Highpass filtering cowsmanaut 2020-03-18 | This is in response to a question posted earlier this evening that actually crossed into a topic I've been meaning to talk about anyway.. so here we are. Creating a fake highpass can provide you with a lot of power over smaller details to sharpen, warp, or even move them to other landmasses. all depends on your imagination! :DHope you find something useful here!
Unreal Height based FlowMap Followup video cowsmanaut 2020-01-02 | Just a quick tip and working example video to show the effect in a little more detail as requested. Again, the general advice is to not use this for situations where you are working from far going to close up, For a mountain this would work from far to mid-range, then you switch to an actual modelled Lava flow or whatever. The only reasons for this are the 8bit maps (you can try 16 and see) and the fact that to get the detail down to the pixel level you want for a huge mountain would be somewhat expensive. :) However for cinematics, or smaller sections of landscape this would be fine, ie. hills, cave walls, etc.
Creating Flow from Height maps in UE4 cowsmanaut 2019-12-30 | This video covers my solution to creating a UV for flow and tiling of textures based on a height map. In this way you can use your existing mountains or other height maps to move and tile textures like lava, ocean foam, rivers and the like based on height. Note, If you use Gaea or world machine you can generate the normal map for the entire height directly in that software, or you can build the normal map in Substance Bitmap to material or other means to skip that set of calculations in UE4 and have better quality. This example was in the case of you having nothing but ue4 and a height map. :)As always, hope you find something useful here.
Creating UnderwaterTexture in UE4 cowsmanaut 2019-12-28 | This is a quick breakdown of a low-cost shader in Unreal Engine 4 using POM and UV distortion to mimic a lake-like surface. This is just one of the new shaders I've been putting together for my game. Hope it gives you some ideas :D
My Masters Project reveal (not a tutorial) cowsmanaut 2019-12-08 | For anyone curious what I've been up to. I'm working on my masters degree while still teaching full time, and for my project I've chosen to do a game. So, I'm just showing some of what I've been working on, and a bit about my process for this part of the project for anyone who might be interested. If there is an aspect of this project that you would like to know more about, or how I accomplished it, drop that as a comment below and I'll do my best to break it down in the future. Cheers
Arnold Clouds with AIstandarVolume and Gaea cowsmanaut 2019-11-19 | This is a quick breakdown because it's nearly 1am and I need to wake up early, but I felt guilty not having the time to get this done sooner. Just remember to pause the video and you can copy down the values if you want to put it together.So if this short breakdown is enough, great! If not, you can say so in the comments and I'll try to carve out the time to do a more involved breakdown. I have a bunch of backlogged tutorials I'd like to get to soon, just a matter of time. So good UE4 and Maya UV distortion techniques to create cool effects, so hopefully I can sit down and do this in a couple of weeks.As always, I hope you find something useful in these. Cheers!
Quadspinner Gaea - Deeper information on steep erosion cowsmanaut 2019-10-27 | In this video, I'm answering a question about slope angle vs Height scale from my previous video on steep erosion issues and fixes. Dealing with 2D erosion is about increasing 2D surface area. So, I'm providing examples of what that means, and how you can apply this technique over a mountain which has multiple angles, vs a cliff which has just one. Hopefully this clears it up more for everyone. Cheers!
Quadspinner Gaea - Steep Erosion issues and fixes cowsmanaut 2019-10-26 | Dealing with cliff faces and other steep angles in 2D height map based software is always a problem. So in this video we explore a way to get some of the detail better in those problem areas. You can find a second video here youtu.be/jlB3qTr9Xt4it explains a little futher with a more detailed exampleHope you find something useful in the video, see you again when I find the time :)
Quadspinner Gaea - Detailing Erosion And Texture cowsmanaut 2019-10-24 | As I mention in the video, not a lot of free time, but trying to get you some new content to play with. This is a breakdown of my through process in dealing with steep slope erosion (a second video on this soon) and dealing with texturing to deal with layering of different surface details and integrating the borders of different zones like grass and rock. I hope you've found the content useful.
Everything about Normals in Maya, and the kitchen sink cowsmanaut 2019-07-07 | This is a long video with a beginner to intermediate knowledge, intended as supplemental to my classes and was not meant for everyone, but I have not hidden it on the off chance other may find some use int it. You've been warned. :) Read below for details.. (yay free education)This deals with everything from shading display issues, to how normal maps work in maya, to dealing with face weighted normals for game assets and modular parts, and even using normals to control double sided shaders and Fresnel shaders. This is meant for beginners primarily, but there might be a few tidbits you didn't know about even if you've been using Maya for a while. There are a few scripts and other tools out there related to these issues that you should also look into.I've tried to talk relatively quickly without missing out information, but hopefully not too fast. Be ready to pause, and take notes if you find the content worthwhile.
Quadspinner Gaea Texture exploration cowsmanaut 2019-06-29 | skip the rant - 3:38This video is very spur of the moment, so there is a bit of a rant at the start, my computer is complaining because it's warm in here and we all know computers don't like bing warm.. but.. I hope some of the content in here is interesting anyway. (there is a point where I say "Fredograph".. uff..)So, here is my general thought process when texturing and how I go about exploring a texture. You said you wanted to see more of my thought process.. here's the chaos that is my brain ! :D
Painting a Space Scape cowsmanaut 2019-06-27 | This was by request. Step by step of my painting process and tricks for a space scene with nebulas and a planet.. etc. This video is 1 hr long, and includes a few tips at the start. If you have questions, drop them in the comments and I'll try to answer what I can.
Quadspinner Gaea Breakdown of Mountain Rocks cowsmanaut 2019-06-23 | Just a short breakdown of the Rock face technique applied to a 3D form instead of as a flat texture. I hope you find it interesting. Have you pause button ready if you want to follow along :D
Quadspinner Gaea Rock Face Texture Breakdown cowsmanaut 2019-06-21 | In this video we breakdown my submission for the rockface challenge and an alternate easier method as well. As usual with breakdowns, this is not an actual tutorial, but you might still learn something along the way. So load Gaea, and get ready to press pause so you can follow along with me :)Thanks again to those who joined my on the facebook rockface challenge :)D
Quadspinner Gaea River double scene breakdown cowsmanaut 2019-06-17 | You know the drill. This is not a tutorial but a breakdown. If you want to follow along just hit the pause button :) Some of the techniques in this video I'll breakdown further in a later video once I've refined the process. Rivers can be done a number of ways already, and more are coming. So we'll see more of that in the near future :)As always, I hope you found this useful. I've posted this one on request from the Facebook Gaea group.. if you haven't visited there, go check it out :D
Gaea Beginners experimentation and iteration in masks and texture cowsmanaut 2019-06-04 | In this video, we are talking about the same iterative process and experimentation as it applies to masking and texturing. If you want to make the terrain we are starting with follow the earlier video with similar title :) (it's in the gaea playlist)As always, I hope you've found some value in these videos :D
Gaea Beginners experimentation and iteration cowsmanaut 2019-06-04 | In this video we talk about the value of iterating on shapes and exploring ideas. Seeking patterns of behaviour in the software. How to learn with abandon!As always, I hope you gain some value from this video!
Quadspinner Gaea Breakdown satellite mountains cowsmanaut 2019-05-31 | So this breakdown is just looking at my thought process to make this larger scale terrain. This is not a tutorial per se, but just explaining what I did and why I did some of it. Some may find it useful. cheers!
Quadspinner Gaea Beginners Mesh Export issues cowsmanaut 2019-05-29 | So this video talks about export of meshes and height maps and someof the issues people are encountering. If you've exported a mesh, or map and it doesn't look right, chances are the answer is in here. I go into a bit more detail on the topics I talked about before, and why I do what I do. So I hope you find some use in that information. See you in the next video :D
Quadspinner Gaea Rocky Cliff Face cowsmanaut 2019-05-27 | In this breakdown we look at ways of making more rough and less channeled looking erosion for Rocky cliffs. We look at the new iterative displacement as of Gaea version 1.0.19.Hope you find something of use in this video, and I'll see you in the next one!
Quadspinner Gaea - Cracked Earth Breakdown. cowsmanaut 2019-05-22 | I had a question this evening about cracked earth, I never tried it in Gaea before so I had to problem solve based on images. I talk about the problem solving process here and breakdown what I did to make some Cracked earth. As always, hope you find something useful in these videos.
Quadspinner Gaea Iceland Complex build breakdown cowsmanaut 2019-05-13 | If you don't like long videos don't watch. This is a complex build breakdown. I explain my reasons for doing certain points which make this similar to a tutorial in that respect but still not really a tutorial. ;) Because it's a complex build, I take a little longer to break it down. If you just wanted the method to make grassy mounds, you can stop pretty early, however, I convert those to heavy dirt mounds, and then add big erosion shapes too to make this. Eventually leading to making detailed grass and dirt textures and complex break up beyond just using slope. I hope you find some value in this breakdown. :)
