Video summary

This is the BEST way to make low poly terrain | Blender Tutorial

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Summary of the Blender tutorial (low-poly terrain + automatic face coloring)

Problem with a Unity-only approach

Unity’s built-in terrain tools can make it difficult or impossible to:

  • Create overhangs or caves
  • Achieve clean-looking color painting
  • Assign colors per face
  • Auto-color based on terrain steepness

Recommended workflow: build the terrain in Blender

  1. Add a plane and scale it to the desired terrain size.
  2. In Edit Mode, subdivide the mesh repeatedly (e.g., Edge → Subdivide) until you have enough detail
    • The tutorial example increases subdivisions up to 10, then subdivides further as needed.
  3. Switch to Sculpting mode to shape the terrain.
    • Blender sculpting uses mirroring by default, so disable Symmetry/Mirroring under the Symmetry menu.
  4. Use sculpting brushes and adjust brush size/strength to create features, including overhangs.

Automatic face coloring based on steepness (Shader Editor)

Goal

Color faces based on the Z component of each face normal (steep vs. ground).

Node-based approach (Shader graph)

  1. In the Shading tab, create a new material.
  2. Add a Normal Map node.
  3. Add an XYZ Separate node to extract the Z value.
  4. Add a Math node set to Greater Than:
    • Compare the Z value against a threshold
    • Output becomes white/black depending on whether the face is above/below that threshold
  5. Build the blending logic in the shader graph:
    • Add two Hue/Saturation/Value nodes (one for ground and one for cliff).
    • Multiply each color by its mask value using Vector Math (Multiply).
    • For the cliff mask, invert the input mask using a Math node (Subtract) from 1.
  6. Combine both results with Vector Math (Add) and connect to Base Color.

Result

  • Faces automatically get colored based on steepness.
  • You can tweak the threshold to change where the blend occurs.
  • Sculpting can continue, and the coloring can update accordingly.

Engine export note

When importing the Blender-made terrain into an engine:

  • The Blender shader may not work directly, depending on the engine.
  • The suggested solution is to recreate an equivalent shader in the target engine.

Unity Shader Graph example

  • The video specifically mentions rebuilding the same steepness-based shader logic in Unity Shader Graph.

Main speakers / sources

  • The creator/host of the “Blender Tutorial”: explains the workflow and shader setup.
  • Referenced sources:
    • Unity (terrain tool limitations)
    • Unity Shader Graph (example of recreating the steepness-based shader)

Original video