00:00 Hey everybody, Martin Quad Spinner here
00:02 

00:02 and today we'll be focusing on two nodes
00:04 

00:04 that have recently gotten some fancy new
00:06 

00:06 improvements. The thermal shaper and the
00:09 

00:09 shaper node. These two nodes are
00:11 

00:11 probably less used than some of the
00:13 

00:13 major ones discussed previously because
00:15 

00:15 they aren't designed to give you end
00:17 

00:17 results, but are actually there to help
00:19 

00:19 you lock in the base shape that you will
00:21 

00:21 be working with. We'll start with the
00:22 

00:22 shaper node. It has quite a simple
00:24 

00:24 effect on the shape of your mountain.
00:27 

00:27 You can basically turn a linear rising
00:29 

00:29 slope into one that rises exponentially
00:31 

00:31 or logarithmically. So for the sake of
00:34 

00:34 an example here that's very simple. I
00:36 

00:36 got a cone that is just a linear rising
00:38 

00:38 slope and we can use the shaper to then
00:42 

00:42 make it logarithmic or bulky or we'll
00:46 

00:46 make it more exponential or more pointy.
00:50 

00:50 So those would be the simple terms I
00:51 

00:51 would say. It either makes your mountain
00:53 

00:53 more bulky or pointy. Now the node has
00:56 

00:56 gotten some improvements on the actual
00:58 

00:58 level of control you get with these two
01:00 

01:00 settings right here local effect and
01:02 

01:02 maintain fine details. What we can see
01:05 

01:05 here is that when we have this local
01:08 

01:08 area it finds the actual peak or the
01:11 

01:11 sharp areas and then actually applies
01:13 

01:13 the shaper to that area.
01:16 

01:16 Now we can here using this we can
01:19 

01:19 actually select the size of the local
01:21 

01:21 area. So you can see how this little
01:23 

01:23 peak has become a little bigger or it
01:26 

01:26 becomes a little smaller. The detail
01:28 

01:28 size is not really noticeable here as we
01:30 

01:30 don't really have a lot of details um to
01:33 

01:33 maintain. But when we actually take a
01:35 

01:35 mountain range, we'll be able to see a
01:37 

01:37 bit more. So what I think Shaper and
01:39 

01:39 also thermal shaper is good at is
01:41 

01:41 reigning in a lot of the extreme shapes
01:43 

01:43 that these primitives, the noise
01:46 

01:46 primitives can give you. So we can use
01:48 

01:48 the actual shaper to kind of rein in the
01:52 

01:52 uh the whole shape and make it a bit
01:54 

01:54 more useful. So here we're actually just
01:56 

01:56 bulking up by point4. Um we're not using
01:58 

01:58 any of the local or maintain fine detail
02:01 

02:01 effects. And you can see it just bulks
02:02 

02:02 up the whole terrain. Those peaks become
02:04 

02:04 a lot more rounded out and we get a lot
02:07 

02:07 more kind of like a fill in the body of
02:10 

02:10 the mountain. So you can see here, for
02:12 

02:12 example, it's a very steep pointy peak
02:14 

02:14 and now it's just a lot more of this
02:17 

02:17 like full bulky terrain. Now when we
02:20 

02:20 enable the local effect setting, we'll
02:23 

02:23 see that a lot of that bulk in the
02:24 

02:24 center areas is going down again and we
02:26 

02:26 actually do maintain the peaks. Uh and
02:29 

02:29 we're just affecting the peaks like
02:31 

02:31 width and like bulkiness rather than the
02:33 

02:33 whole terrain. And when we do detail
02:36 

02:36 size, you'll see that we actually
02:37 

02:37 maintain a lot of that cool rocky
02:40 

02:40 sharpness on top of these peaks. So you
02:43 

02:43 can see that those don't change, but the
02:46 

02:46 actual overall terrain does get more
02:48 

02:48 bulky. Now, let's head over to the
02:50 

02:50 thermal shaper. I personally believe
02:51 

02:51 that the thermal shaper is probably
02:54 

02:54 going to be used a bit more as it can
02:57 

02:57 give you very cool results now with the
02:59 

02:59 new improvements. So, we're just going
03:00 

03:00 to run down all the different types of
03:02 

03:02 settings and uh go with it. So, we got
03:05 

03:05 this mountain range here and we're going
03:08 

03:08 to throw on the thermal shaper. Now, it
03:11 

03:11 is kind of an effect similar to thermal
03:14 

03:14 erosion. However, it is more of a filter
03:17 

03:17 rather than a real simulation. So, here
03:19 

03:19 with the influence, we can actually
03:21 

03:21 control the strength. The shape is
03:23 

03:23 actually similar to the shape control
03:25 

03:25 where it can bulk or slim down your
03:27 

03:27 mountain. And then we have two new
03:29 

03:29 options on this new node which are scale
03:31 

03:31 and micro detail preservation which
03:33 

03:33 we'll get into later. So we see here
03:35 

03:35 that with an influence of 75 and a
03:38 

03:38 slight slimming down of the shape here
03:41 

03:41 uh we get these cool awesome like
03:43 

03:43 triangular peaks that we kind of know
03:45 

03:45 and love from thermal erosion. So you
03:48 

03:48 can really see how it's affecting our
03:50 

03:50 terrain. And this is where I mean that
03:52 

03:52 this node could actually be very useful
03:54 

03:54 for a lot of people. Um, especially with
03:56 

03:56 this micro detail preservation, we can
03:59 

03:59 actually create very cool shapes while
04:02 

04:02 at the same time maintaining all that
04:04 

04:04 cool detail from the, you know,
04:07 

04:07 primitive underneath.
04:09 

04:09 Here's the opposite, but bulked up. So,
04:12 

04:12 you can see this also is very useful for
04:14 

04:14 creating maybe rolling hills or that
04:16 

04:16 kind of, you know, very soft looking
04:19 

04:19 terrain.
04:22 

04:22 And here we're actually going to turn up
04:23 

04:23 the scale. So when we turn up the scale,
04:25 

04:25 we'll actually see that the um the
04:28 

04:28 thermal kind of gets applied at a bigger
04:30 

04:30 level. So when we turn down the scale
04:32 

04:32 again, um the thermal is kind of
04:35 

04:35 sharpening individual ridges. And then
04:37 

04:37 when we turn up the scale to a higher
04:40 

04:40 and higher amount, it starts not
04:42 

04:42 focusing on these individual ridges as
04:44 

04:44 much as it just starts, you know,
04:46 

04:46 thermal roading these whole mountain
04:48 

04:48 ranges down. So that's kind of what
04:50 

04:50 scale does. it is focusing on the larger
04:53 

04:53 um actual shapes and now it's focusing
04:55 

04:55 on the smaller shapes. So you can see I
04:58 

04:58 personally think that this setting alone
04:60 

04:60 is making such a massive difference. Um
05:03 

05:03 the thermal shaper is now absolutely a
05:06 

05:06 powerhouse in creating cool mountain
05:08 

05:08 shapes. I mean this is straight up just
05:11 

05:11 a primitive and the thermal shaper and
05:14 

05:14 we have already gotten like very useful
05:17 

05:17 almost usable results pretty much. Uh, I
05:20 

05:20 would say they're usable. I would say
05:22 

05:22 you don't have to change too much to
05:23 

05:23 this terrain to already create a pretty
05:25 

05:25 realistic render. Now, let's go and turn
05:29 

05:29 up the micro detail preservation. So,
05:32 

05:32 you can see all those rocky details from
05:34 

05:34 the primitives
05:36 

05:36 which are here uh become visible again.
05:39 

05:39 Basically, just it's a it's very
05:42 

05:42 interesting. I I I couldn't tell you
05:43 

05:43 exactly the math behind it, but it's
05:45 

05:45 almost like there's like a sort of
05:46 

05:46 highpass that gets maintained by using
05:50 

05:50 this micro detail preservation. So, all
05:52 

05:52 the little tiny shapes uh stay in there.
05:55 

05:55 If we turn that off completely, of
05:57 

05:57 course, it becomes very smooth and still
05:59 

05:59 pretty cool. Then we have the actual
06:02 

06:02 intensity input right here, which is
06:04 

06:04 pretty much just a mask. Um it could
06:07 

06:07 actually be useful for mountains that
06:08 

06:08 have a lot of cliff detail. you want to
06:11 

06:11 kind of add some thermal, you know,
06:13 

06:13 shaping. However, you want to maintain
06:15 

06:15 the cliff detail. Now, in my case, I
06:17 

06:17 took this like slope map. So, let me
06:19 

06:19 just create this under layer here. So,
06:22 

06:22 I'm basically saying these slopes
06:23 

06:23 shouldn't be affected. Of course, the
06:25 

06:25 slopes on this terrain are kind of
06:27 

06:27 ridiculous. So, you get this huge uh
06:30 

06:30 peak that like doesn't get changed. So,
06:32 

06:32 you can see right here, everything
06:33 

06:33 becomes kind of thermal roaded. However,
06:36 

06:36 this area right here,
06:38 

06:38 this area um does not. So, you get this
06:42 

06:42 huge peak sticking out of the terrain.
06:44 

06:44 Not very realistic. But for actual
06:46 

06:46 mountains with like nice cliff detail
06:48 

06:48 and you just want to add a little bit of
06:49 

06:49 thermal erosion, this intensity input
06:52 

06:52 right here can really help you um get
06:56 

06:56 nice results. Uh because if we mask it
06:58 

06:58 simply, uh you'll see that you know it
07:01 

07:01 doesn't mask very nicely. putting it
07:03 

07:03 into the intensity, however, does work
07:05 

07:05 very nicely and it blends smoothly
07:07 

07:07 between the two like areas in a sense.
07:10 

07:10 So, for this example, I'm just going to
07:12 

07:12 create something that I was inspired by
07:14 

07:14 B National Park. Um, it's these really
07:18 

07:18 bulky mountains over there and it's uh
07:20 

07:20 it's really cool. It's part of the
07:21 

07:21 Rockies and um yeah, Shaper is going to
07:24 

07:24 kind of help me set up my base shape
07:26 

07:26 here before adding erosion and coloring.
07:29 

07:29 So, at first I'm using a shaper to bulk
07:31 

07:31 up the mountain a bit, using local
07:33 

07:33 effect to kind of rein in those pointy
07:36 

07:36 details on top. Then I'm using the
07:38 

07:38 thermal shaper to further wither down
07:40 

07:40 the mountain into more of a bulky shape.
07:43 

07:43 As you can see here, we're kind of
07:45 

07:45 withering down a lot of that foroid
07:46 

07:46 that's mixed into that primitive, making
07:49 

07:49 sure we don't have like huge cliff faces
07:51 

07:51 like here.
07:54 

07:54 Now, I'm going to have my erosion. I'm
07:56 

07:56 going to add some cliff detailing with
07:59 

07:59 sandstone and warp. Just going to add
08:01 

08:01 that on top on this slope mask. Should
08:04 

08:04 probably do this. There you go. Um, then
08:06 

08:06 we're going to add another erosion. This
08:08 

08:08 set to max. Um, this will fill in the
08:10 

08:10 gullies with debris as you can see here.
08:14 

08:14 Then we're going to add a rivers which
08:15 

08:15 will add some cool river detail running
08:17 

08:17 down the mountain. Super cool. And
08:21 

08:21 finally, we're here to actually texture
08:23 

08:23 this thing. So, very quickly, just going
08:26 

08:26 to have
08:28 

08:28 my rock and grass texture situated.
08:31 

08:31 Going to have dusting as my main snow.
08:34 

08:34 Going to add that all together here with
08:36 

08:36 some uh actual greenery added via trees,
08:40 

08:40 which I'm kind of liking to do now. Just
08:43 

08:43 get a tree output, get the mask, warp it
08:46 

08:46 a bit, and then use that as your uh
08:49 

08:49 green that you stick on the mountain.
08:53 

08:53 And then we have our color. We can also
08:55 

08:55 add our snow. And here I'm going to
08:57 

08:57 actually make this the underlay. Voila.
09:01 

09:01 It's really easy to work with the shaper
09:02 

09:02 and thermal shaper nodes now and get
09:05 

09:05 like super quick like adjustments to
09:07 

09:07 your base shape. If I wanted to make
09:09 

09:09 this mountain a bit more, let's say
09:12 

09:12 pointy and a little less bulky, I could
09:14 

09:14 just go back and just change the shaper
09:17 

09:17 and then I would have that effect
09:19 

09:19 instantly. It's just um very fun to see
09:23 

09:23 how these nodes that are, you know,
09:25 

09:25 meant to really help you in the
09:26 

09:26 beginning get that base like the base
09:29 

09:29 shape situated. It's really fun to see
09:31 

09:31 those nodes now get some more control
09:34 

09:34 and you can actually control very
09:36 

09:36 specific points and like the micro
09:38 

09:38 detail and stuff that you maintain. So
09:41 

09:41 definitely go check out the shaper node
09:43 

09:43 and the thermal shaper node on Gaia
09:45 

09:45 2.203 guys. Hope you enjoyed this video.
09:48 

09:48 We hope it was helpful and let us know
09:50 

09:50 in the comments what you'd like to see
09:51 

09:51 next.