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I want to add sand around the small rocks in this scene but I'm not sure the best way to go about it.

enter image description here

Ideally, I'd love to increase the rocks by millions, but obviously that would increase the poly count like crazy. Is there a way to add sand/gravel without looking like blobs with noise texture?

Here's a reference I am using:

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Could you post some reference images? $\endgroup$
    – cgslav
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 15:41
  • $\begingroup$ Good idea. OK I have posted the reference photo. $\endgroup$
    – lakerice
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 15:48
  • $\begingroup$ I think you would find blenderguru's Make Mars tutorial interesting. $\endgroup$
    – sambler
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ That's actually what I was following but I had to modify it to have more rocks and be in a valley...and also to use my own rocks instead of the "rock essentials" which he tries to make you buy :) But it's a good tutorial though. $\endgroup$
    – lakerice
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 18:04

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You can perform this in several ways: you can create a particle system, you can UV paint where you want the sand (with a sand texture image), you can paint influence areas to switch from selected textures or you can make Blender automatically blend two (or more) textures based on your model geometry (height, normals, etc). The following node setup shows an easy way where i use model's height to blend a gravel image with a grass image (higher levels of topography have grass, lower levels have gravel). You can control the blend position by controling the color ramp, and you can control the image scale on the Mapping Node's point scale. I've remembered this solution because in your reference image, the sand is always at lowest height levels. You can switch raster textures with procedural textures.enter image description hereenter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ This is an interesting and good method, but how would I be able to make convincing textures up close like the reference photo I posted? Is there a way to make it less poly when the camera is far and higher poly when it's close? $\endgroup$
    – lakerice
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 18:08
  • $\begingroup$ if I understood correctly, you just need to play with the scale of the textures. You can fake 3D small details, ripples or dunes with a to scale bumpmap or normal map. You can attach a bump texture to a bump node, then connect it to the diffuse nodes (example a single diffuse node will have a color texture, like RGB or procedural, and a bump map with faked 3D detail). $\endgroup$
    – MCunha
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 18:23
  • $\begingroup$ as about increasing resolution based on distance (also known as level of detail), you can search tutorials on microdisplacements - like this one: youtube.com/watch?v=dRzzaRvVDng) $\endgroup$
    – MCunha
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ about what i said earlier, dont forget to connect the mapping node to the bump texture you use, so it keeps scale no matter the distance $\endgroup$
    – MCunha
    Commented Nov 8, 2017 at 18:27
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry for the super late reply...took me a long time to get it just right. Totally worked though thanks! $\endgroup$
    – lakerice
    Commented Nov 22, 2017 at 2:11

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