workflow for creating terrain

WindchILL

I've only done very small scale projects, so I'm not sure how to even approach creating a large scale environment (as in terrain, not buildings). The visual style im looking for is similar to that of hand-painted environments like torchlight or dishonored. Should I start blocking in a scene in maya from a cube or some other primitive, then export to a sculpting app, or just start sculpting from scratch? For now I just want to focus on creating a "chunk" of the environment, but eventually I want to learn how to create an entire level.

I'm relatively new to modeling, so do i have the right idea in mind? through researching workflow techniques ive come across something called "world machine", not really sure if learning that application is necessary for the visual style im trying to accomplish, or if its usually just used for more realistic environments.

Nosslak

I'd just try sculpting the terrain in your sculpting app of choice. Just start with a very low density mesh and work your way higher (a common mistake for beginners is to jump directly to maximum level of detail).

World machine might be a bit overkill for a more handpainted/cartoon style landscape, but you could use it to generate so called splat-maps which will determine where each of your materials will be placed. But then again it's probably just better to paint those manually if your landscape isn't huge. Here's a nice article about landscape painting.

WindchILL

thanks for the resource, but that guy's approach was to paint the entire map first, then use his painting to dictate the geometry of his terrain. im not sure if thats the ideal method for the kind of game im trying to make. for example, when looking at torchlight's ground terrain, every area has a distinct "unique" look to it as opposed to a "repeated" texture. Im sure the artist for that game didnt create one GIANT texture map for entire levels, so im wondering how to achieve that look. is that done with texture blending? and if so, what software do you use to accomplish that?