Any advice on island/sea?

[hog]

I am thinking about a new project to continue learning DX9 so am posting on various sites for all the knowledge I can find:)

 

I want to create a program that will display an island surrounded by sea. The user will be able to control the camera and basically fly around the island and a bit of the sea both up and down etc. So....

 

1. I am trying to understand how to create a landscape in the shape of an island using Anim8or.

 

2. I do not know whether the sea should also be created in Anim8or or whether it is fancy code in VB.NET/DX9 which creates the sea.

 

3. I have not learned collision detection on a mesh yet? I know and understand some methods used with sprites tho.

 

Any advice would be most welcomed:)