Bringing Middle Earth to Life

Mountain flyover shots like this are created entirely in CG by effects artist Stefan Menzal. Here he explains how he did it using free landscape software called Terragen. Stephan's unique skill with this program and attention to realism and detail is what makes his work so close to reality.

Terragen is a scenery generator which allows to create photorealistic artificial landscapes. It has been used in a variety of commercial applications including film, video games, multimedia and books. It has an easy-to-use interface, many mature settings and good render capability allowing remarkable results even at a beginner level. A few settings include athmosphere&clouds, lighting (ray tracing), water and also surface morphology; all adding to the vast variety of possible landscapes.
     
Although Terragen is widely used for still shots, animations are also possible by means of camera path scripting using external programs. Campath is the prime example here, making almost every camera orientation and movement accessible. Its working principle is to move the camera step-by-step on the pre-defined path and let Terragen render a picture each time. The resulting frames then enter the usual editing process where the film is cut.

View more of Stefan's breathtaking work on his webpage, please click here.