00:00 In this video, I will provide an
00:02 

00:02 overview of how you can blend your lake
00:06 

00:06 and rivers masks together and also how
00:08 

00:08 you can in your texturing how you can
00:10 

00:10 get runoff from the rivers into the sea
00:12 

00:12 such as what you're seeing here. To
00:14 

00:14 start with, I'm just going to jump into
00:16 

00:16 a different terrain setup. And as you
00:19 

00:19 can see here, this probably isn't the
00:22 

00:22 type of thing you'll be looking for. You
00:24 

00:24 can clearly see that the mask the mask
00:26 

00:26 for the lake and the rivers is separate.
00:29 

00:29 This is the node setup. I've just got a
00:31 

00:31 mountain range to start with. Then I've
00:33 

00:33 got a lake and a river. And the rivers
00:36 

00:36 are plugging in directly into the lake
00:38 

00:38 nodes and they're not being blended in.
00:41 

00:41 Anyways, you may have come across this
00:43 

00:43 problem or or this challenge if you are
00:46 

00:46 new to Gaia and you may not exactly be
00:48 

00:48 sure how to fix it. So I'll show you one
00:51 

00:51 way in which you can do it. There is
00:52 

00:52 more than one way as is often the case.
00:55 

00:55 So I'll now go down to my second
00:57 

00:57 sequence and just click on the end
00:58 

00:58 sequence node. See they're nicely
01:01 

01:01 blended. And I'll just go through this
01:02 

01:02 now step by step. So the setup of this
01:04 

01:04 terrain is pretty simple. But obviously
01:08 

01:08 this has just been done to show you a
01:10 

01:10 way in which you can combine and blend
01:12 

01:12 rivers and lakes together. There is more
01:14 

01:14 than one way to do this. And of course
01:16 

01:16 you could adapt this and bring this into
01:18 

01:18 a far more complex terrain. But this
01:20 

01:20 just shows you some principles and a
01:22 

01:22 process how to um blend your lakes and
01:25 

01:25 rivers. So to start with I just added a
01:28 

01:28 mountain range and then increased the
01:30 

01:30 height and apart from that I didn't
01:31 

01:31 really change anything else. So pretty
01:33 

01:33 straightforward. I then dragged off a
01:34 

01:34 mountain range and added a lake and then
01:36 

01:36 I dragged off a mountain range again and
01:38 

01:38 added a river. So lake and rivers I do
01:41 

01:41 not have them sequentially. They don't
01:43 

01:43 come one after another. I've got them
01:45 

01:45 parallel to each other in this sequence.
01:47 

01:47 And now that I've got them parallel, I
01:49 

01:49 can blend them together using a combine
01:51 

01:51 node. So just dragging from the out
01:53 

01:53 socket of lake and then plugging that
01:56 

01:56 into the outs socket of river. It gave
01:58 

01:58 me a combine node. Now there are
01:59 

01:59 different options you could use in your
02:01 

02:01 combine node. I've used an add. You can
02:03 

02:03 use a multiply as well. But the reason
02:06 

02:06 I've used an add and a ratio of 0.07.
02:09 

02:09 Now just something to consider. Some of
02:11 

02:11 this some of the river detail is
02:13 

02:13 actually still in the lake. But when you
02:15 

02:15 actually get to the texturing, really
02:17 

02:17 doesn't notice, especially from a
02:19 

02:19 distance. And what I found is if I use
02:21 

02:21 the add option, I get a much nicer color
02:24 

02:24 erosion like flow coming off the
02:26 

02:26 landscape into the lake. Now, if you
02:29 

02:29 really wanted to keep your lake really
02:30 

02:30 clean in this combine node, instead of
02:33 

02:33 using add, I just zoom in a little bit
02:34 

02:34 just so you can really see the effect.
02:36 

02:36 Instead of using add, if you use a
02:38 

02:38 multiply,
02:39 

02:39 you see you get a really smooth lake
02:42 

02:42 surface. But if I just go back to the
02:45 

02:45 final texture node, just wait for that
02:46 

02:46 to load. I've got this at 4K, so it take
02:48 

02:48 a bit longer. I find that the runoff
02:51 

02:51 from the landscape just I just don't get
02:54 

02:54 the effect that I'm looking for. I just
02:56 

02:56 don't think the effect is is as good.
02:57 

02:57 Now, there there are there's probably um
03:01 

03:01 different ways you could go about
03:02 

03:02 adjusting this, but in this case, just
03:05 

03:05 to keep it simple, I'm just going to use
03:08 

03:08 an add option in the combine node.
03:11 

03:11 Again, if I was going to bring this into
03:13 

03:13 something like Unreal Engine, I would
03:14 

03:14 probably drop the lake down even deeper.
03:17 

03:17 I would sculpt it a bit in Unreal
03:18 

03:18 Engine. Then I would add a plane that
03:21 

03:21 would simulate the water, or I'd maybe
03:23 

03:23 use one of Unreal Engine's built-in
03:25 

03:25 ocean or lake functions that they've
03:26 

03:26 got. So, as you can see, there's more
03:28 

03:28 than one way of doing this, but for this
03:31 

03:31 tutorial, I will continue by using the
03:34 

03:34 add option in this combine node. So,
03:37 

03:37 that's basically the the terrain setup.
03:39 

03:39 So before I get into the texturing, I'm
03:42 

03:42 going to need a mask that combines the
03:44 

03:44 lake and uh the rivers so we don't get
03:46 

03:46 that effect that we saw previously. Now
03:48 

03:48 to do that, pretty straightforward. I
03:50 

03:50 just dragged off from water from the
03:52 

03:52 lake node. And then from the rivers
03:54 

03:54 node, I just dragged off from rivers.
03:56 

03:56 You could use a depth as well, but for
03:58 

03:58 this I use the rivers node. And then I
04:00 

04:00 plugged those in together. And then I
04:02 

04:02 use a max setting and a ratio of one.
04:05 

04:05 And as you can see now we have got
04:08 

04:08 perfectly combined lake and rivers node
04:12 

04:12 working together and there's no like the
04:14 

04:14 lakes not sitting or the rivers is not
04:16 

04:16 sitting on top of the lakes which looks
04:18 

04:18 really weird and obviously unnatural.
04:20 

04:20 Final combine node here I'll come to at
04:24 

04:24 the end. And then what I did is I just
04:26 

04:26 created I just added some portals. So
04:28 

04:28 with the combine node selected just
04:30 

04:30 press P and then you can just add a
04:31 

04:31 portal. Obviously I've got one there
04:32 

04:32 already. So, it says remove the portal
04:36 

04:36 portal, but I don't want to do that.
04:37 

04:37 I'll just keep it like that. And then
04:39 

04:39 did that for the second one. Selected
04:40 

04:40 it, pressed P, and then added a portal.
04:43 

04:43 So, one final thing I did was I renamed
04:46 

04:46 the combine nodes. And that just makes
04:48 

04:48 your organization connection far more
04:50 

04:50 prescriptive and easy to follow. So, I
04:53 

04:53 just left click on this combine, press
04:55 

04:55 F2, and this I just called it landscape.
04:57 

04:57 This one, which is the masks, pressed on
04:59 

04:59 that, pressed F2, and I called this
05:01 

05:01 rivers and lakes. I could call it rivers
05:03 

05:03 and lakes mask like so. Next thing I did
05:06 

05:06 was just add a texture base. Then when I
05:09 

05:09 added that in, so I just right click and
05:10 

05:10 search for texture base. I added that
05:12 

05:12 in, press P and then connect in portal.
05:16 

05:16 I clicked on in and it gave me the
05:18 

05:18 options of the different portals. So I
05:19 

05:19 clicked on the landscape. Obviously that
05:22 

05:22 is the landscape my node and this gives
05:25 

05:25 the texture-based details all the
05:28 

05:28 details about the height data. So you
05:30 

05:30 can effectively texture your landscape.
05:32 

05:32 Then I've just got like a green set map.
05:35 

05:35 I just dragged out from texture base,
05:36 

05:36 added a green set map. But this one I
05:38 

05:38 used rock and 128. And then I needed
05:42 

05:42 something for the water. So for this I
05:44 

05:44 used blue and I used 023. Very simply
05:47 

05:47 combine these two sat sat maps together.
05:51 

05:51 And and importantly this is where I use
05:53 

05:53 the combine rivers and mass node which
05:55 

05:55 is this one here. And then that creates
05:58 

05:58 a mask for the water just to show in the
06:01 

06:01 water area and the landscape textures
06:03 

06:03 just to show in the landscape areas.
06:06 

06:06 Mine ratio for this was 0.53 in blend.
06:09 

06:09 Again, you could use something different
06:11 

06:11 and you can play around with the ratio
06:14 

06:14 if you want to maybe reduce the green a
06:16 

06:16 bit in the water like so. That's really
06:18 

06:18 your down to your direction. Now the
06:20 

06:20 next couple of steps just to finish off.
06:22 

06:22 So, at the moment, we've got landscape,
06:25 

06:25 we've got the rivers, and we've got the
06:27 

06:27 lakes all combining together really
06:28 

06:28 nicely. But if you are looking for
06:30 

06:30 something a bit more realistic, you may
06:32 

06:32 be looking to get like landscape like
06:35 

06:35 runoff into the water, which can of
06:37 

06:37 course occur naturally. So, to do that,
06:40 

06:40 we can use a color erosion node. So,
06:41 

06:41 just drag off from the combine, search
06:43 

06:43 for color erosion, and that should just
06:45 

06:45 plug that combine node should plug into
06:47 

06:47 the in socket. And what you can see is
06:50 

06:50 you get this between the landscape and
06:53 

06:53 the water. And you can play around with
06:55 

06:55 the settings. So I did change these
06:57 

06:57 settings. The transport distance is at
06:59 

06:59 0.17.
07:00 

07:00 The blend is at 075. Sediment density is
07:03 

07:03 at 019. And then you can see the other
07:05 

07:05 options there that I changed as well
07:07 

07:07 just to tweak it. And I mean this note
07:10 

07:10 just works out of the box. It's very
07:12 

07:12 straightforward to work with and adds a
07:14 

07:14 real nice touch of realism to your
07:16 

07:16 landscape. So finally here as a
07:18 

07:18 finishing touch, I was finding that the
07:20 

07:20 rivers were getting a little bit washed
07:21 

07:21 out. Now that does change depending on
07:24 

07:24 the blend of this combine node here.
07:27 

07:27 Perhaps if I just select on this combine
07:29 

07:29 node, the one before color erosion, and
07:31 

07:31 just drag it back, the effect is more
07:32 

07:32 pronounced. So you can still see the
07:35 

07:35 rivers there, but I wanted to bring them
07:36 

07:36 out a bit more. And to do that, you just
07:38 

07:38 need to create a mask just for the
07:41 

07:41 rivers on the landscape. And then you
07:43 

07:43 can add, you know, the water layer back
07:45 

07:45 on top. So, so if I just click my final
07:48 

07:48 combine node, it's a subtle touch, but I
07:50 

07:50 do like it. I'll do that once more just
07:52 

07:52 so you can see the effect. So, that's
07:55 

07:55 just color erosion. You may want to keep
07:57 

07:57 it like that. You may want your rivers a
07:59 

07:59 little more blended into the landscape.
08:01 

08:01 I wanted them to be more pronounced. If
08:03 

08:03 I just click on
08:05 

08:05 final mask, it just brings them up. You
08:07 

08:07 can see it just makes these rivers more
08:09 

08:09 pronounced. Now to get the mask for this
08:12 

08:12 final combine node. So all I did was
08:16 

08:16 from the water mask of the lake node and
08:19 

08:19 the river's mask rivers node I join them
08:23 

08:23 together in another combined node. If I
08:25 

08:25 just zoom out ratio is 0.5 and I use
08:29 

08:29 phoenix. So if I just you know if I just
08:31 

08:31 show you other options here it gives you
08:34 

08:34 all types of variations for the mask.
08:37 

08:37 You can actually use power as well. this
08:39 

08:39 I use Phoenix. And as you can see, what
08:41 

08:41 this does is it just creates a mask that
08:45 

08:45 reveals uh rivers on the landscape. And
08:48 

08:48 if you're wondering how I did that, to
08:49 

08:49 be honest, it was an element of trial
08:51 

08:51 and error. So that's how I I came across
08:54 

08:54 um this mask and then added another
08:57 

08:57 portal. So rename this to just the
08:60 

08:60 rivers.
09:01 

09:01 And back in this final combine, now in
09:04 

09:04 the second socket, I added the water
09:07 

09:07 node. Sorry, the water sat map or the
09:09 

09:09 blue sap map. So I used the same sap map
09:12 

09:12 again. So keeping that that the color
09:14 

09:14 consistent between the lakes and the
09:16 

09:16 rivers. Final combine node. I added just
09:20 

09:20 the rivers mask. So if you select the
09:22 

09:22 combine node, press P. You got option
09:24 

09:24 for mask. Click on mask and then it adds
09:27 

09:27 that final mask. So if you've got any
09:29 

09:29 questions or comments, please do leave
09:31 

09:31 them in the comment section. And thanks
09:34 

09:34 for watching.