Help needed: Schematic map of hilltops in a 3D world

[Prion]

Hi all

For a scientific illustration I need to create something that sounds simple enough to make, only I cannot do it and don‘t have the time to learn cheetah3d right now, although it is high on my list of things i’d like to do (whenever I grow up or have enough free time; two equally unlikely propositions it seems).

I am attaching a quick sketch that hopefully illustrates what I am trying to achieve. The hilltops are actually covered by water, only some reach the surface, the seamounts protrude from the seafloor to a different degree (i.e. top at different water depths, only some reach the surface), have different sizes, some are connected by water currents, others are not.

Could someone show me how to do this in Cheetah3d? Getting the idea across is more important than attaining any degree of perfection, I‘d be highly grateful for any advice. I guess by now it is blatantly obvious that I am very new to all of this, so please be gentle.

Thanks

Chris

 

[frank beckmann]

So many ways.
a. You can use a 16bit greyscale raster image at a high density plane (100x100 iterations+subdivision modifier) to create the mountainy landscape: https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/12543/
https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/8895/
https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/468/
b. or use the brush tools on high density plane to sculpt the landscape or
c. grab some points - enable soft selection and drag +Y axis
d. We have some decent threads about landscape shader materials: https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/4729/
e. For the watery cube take box with either tinted glass (dielectric) shader or the membrane shader if you don´t care about realistic refractions.
Let´s see if we have already something we can work on:

Cheers
Frank

 

[ZooHead]

Here's a file for you to deconstruct.

 

[Prion]

The internet may have its dark sides but your response exceeds my expectations, two helpful replies complete with examples no less, thank you so much. Expect me to be back with questions before too long, many thanks again
Chris