How to make these kinds of landscape mazes in ZBrush3
The basic link
http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mg060711mp
A DETAILED LINK
http://albums.mouseplanet.com/Contributed/quest_overview_parr.jpg
Examples with how you make them would be appreciated and/or talk of theory of how to make them in ZBrush3 would also be appreciated.
Thanks
SpaceMan
it depends on the usage… if you’re just wanting to make a scene for distant overhead viewing like in those pictures, then you just need to draw an alpha layout and displace it onto a dense plane… and then make a bunch of very simple items for things like rides and buildings and either subtool them or insert mesh them into your scene
if you’re wanting to make something closer up or even make scenes from a point of view within the park, then it will get a little more complex and needs will be based on the specific scene
Would the first part of your usage be more like a map of things and their placement? (I noticed that ZBrush3.1 is being released around mid July so I have not downloaded Z3) so when you say dense plane with alpha(s) is that the same as the plane 3d tool? I’m thinking after reading your post that maybe a map should be made first then the detailing of the objects after that. In Z3 would the new image plane tool help to detail the 3d structures from a drawing? Any other ideals?
if you’re wanting to make something closer up or even make scenes from a point of view within the park, then it will get a little more complex and needs will be based on the specific scene
Can you supply more info on this?
Thanks
SpaceMan
when I say a dense plane, I just mean a 3d plane tool with alot of polygons… turn it into a Polymesh3d and then hit divide a few times… dense just means alot of polygons which makes for smooth deformations and a lot of detail
with an alpha, you can draw out the layout you are looking for from a straight, top-down overhead view… draw it by hand or in photoshop or take it directly from a photo… it doesnt matter… then that alpha can be applied directly to that plane to deform it and recreate that layout in 3d… white areas in the image will be raise, and black areas will stay where they are
and if you want to make close-up scenes from perhaps a ground perspective, then that will be a completely different approach… everything you want to see in the scene, you will have to create… just drawing an alpha and then displacing will not work from such a perspective… if you want to see trees and buildings, you will have to actually make trees and buildings and place them in your scene according to your vision
I hope that helps… I dont know what else to tell you without knowing what you’re trying to do in alot more detail
Thanks for the help 
I think the best way to exlain what I want to do is an excerpt from this link to StormTheCastle.com
http://www.stormthecastle.com/mainpages/for_writers/worldbuilding.htm
EXCERPT
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Make 3d scenes and dioramas for your world
I am a diorama maker. I love creating little scenes with wizards, barbarians and all sorts of evil creatures. When I wrote my first novel I took on the ambitious project of creating a tabletop diorama for one particular area of the world I had created. It was a project that covered a custom built table that was seven feet long and four feet wide and it took a lot of time to build but the reward for this project was also big. Having an actual layout of a scene in the novel allowed me to breathe life into the novel. I could now see the terrain and the characters as they moved over it. I could envision the weather and the plant life. It made it much easier for me to draws pictures in my reader’s minds. You don’t have to do a project as ambitious as the one I did, you could just do a small scene but this type of world building in a visual sense will add a sense of depth to your writing.
and another excerpt
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Create a video game that you can walk around in
This sounds like a lot of work, and a couple of years ago this was not an option for a hobbyist; but today the technology and tools are here that allow you to actually create some pretty amazing worlds in just a few hours. There are plenty of free resources that allow you to make indoor and outdoor worlds without spending a penny. You just need to invest some time. The technology has developed to the point where it is almost plug and play. Let me give you an example. You can sketch out in a world building tool a city. You can make it a certain size, place terrain and buildings in it then add all sorts of pre-made extras. In a weekend you can have a small and complete world that you can actually use a pre made character to walk around in your world.
There are two distinct benefits to putting the effort into doing this. First of all you can build a pseudo realistic rendition of an area of your story and this can help you to visualize it better. And visualizing it better means you will describe it to your reader better. But secondly, and even more importantly, the process of creating this world in a medium other than pencil and paper will take your imagination and creativity to new levels. As you are building your world you will see it in a new way. This will bring you new ideas, ideas that you would have never thought of with just a word processor.
