Snow City

[rapscaLLion]

Hey!

Just wanted to get some criticism or comments on one of the pieces I am working on... I've been doing a bunch of short shots of varying nature to put in my demo reel. This shot is a camera move made via photogrammetry (camera mapping on basic geometry). The base image is here:
http://imageafter.com/image.php?imag...cturals002.jpg
I have changed my mind on how the shot begins, because it's not exactly clear why this lone wall is way up high like that, so I'm removing it, and the shot will now begin in the attic of an old building, and exit via a broken window to the view of the city. But for now, this is it.

Just want some feedback on how it looks with the camera move, parallax and such. There are a few minor errors that I've found so far (might be hard to spot in this low res quicktime) but I'm not worried about them because the fierce particle snowstorm I will comp on top after will sufficiently mask them.

Thanks

rapscaLLion

[rapscaLLion]

That bad?

[stevenbray1]

Sometimes feedback is ssssllllooowwwwwwwww.

Looks very good. The only issue I can see is that the roof tops are too sharp. They need rounding off. Other than that it looks very real. Nice work.

[ShadowMaker SdR]

I agree with Steven. It looks very good. My only 'issue' is that the camera could be a little more knowledgeable as to what it is going to shoot. What I mean is, that the way it is right now, it's like a documentary: the camera goes up and comes over the roof and 'hey, there's something down there. Let's tilt down to see it'
In a feature film, the camera man would know in advance that after scaling the wall, his focus point would be in the distance below, so he'd anticipate that by tilting down the camera while still moving up.

Does that make sense to you?

[ShadowMaker SdR]

BTW what software did you use? And how much geometry is in there now? How much additional painting did you have to do to fill in the gaps? Can you do a breakdown?

[rapscaLLion]

Thanks!

I have completely changed the camera motion, iit begins high up tilted down at the street, and titls up while moving down to reveal the city. I have also added the snow, touched up some geometry and am going to add a vehicle on the street (a tank maybe?) as motivation for the camera move.

I am using Max and Photoshop... the geometry is brutally simple, about 30 boxes, triangular prisms, cylinders and planes. I have only done three versions of the main texture, each one painting was minimal, just enough to show what I needed. I will of course do a detailed breakdown when it's finished, as this is for my portfolio.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[puntje]

very very nice
at first sight i thought it was areal photo :s


but how do you do such kind of stuff
is it just photoshop brushing?
or is it something else, llol i'm new into this sbuisness but it kind of intersting me

ty

[rapscaLLion]

Well, it's basically some simple 3D geometry in 3DS Max, then I project the image onto the geometry, which gives the image depth, allowing me to (within tight limits) move my camera in 3D space. It's slightly more complicated than that, but that's the general idea.

[renderizer]

Well, pretty good, but I think that the camera motion is a bit jerky (maybe that's just me? do I need more sleep?).

One more thing: I believe that the crumbled part of the wall should follow the brick structure a bit more. The way it is it looks a wee bit too smooth.

[puntje]

can anyone give me a specific tutorial on how to do this?

i think the snow is added in photoshop, but some points are still not clear to me
is that a 3D village or a picture?

this is al so new for me, but i'm willing to go for it
ive learned to model but now i want to do something with my models enz

ty

[renderizer]

The snow in this example wasn't added in post, it's already in the original plate.

Well. This technique is called camera projection (or camera mapping) and is by now a very common production practice. You basically take an image and import it into your 3D package as a background plate, and then start inserting very simple stand-in geometry that roughly resembles the shapes you find in the image.

Then you create a camera and use this camera to project the same base image back onto the created geometry as a texture (hence the name camera projection).

The idea is that you can introdiuce a slight shift in parallax by applying a subtle movement to you your scene cam, while the projection camera(s) are locked down. But: if you move it too much, you'll break the illusion.

With complex scenes, you'll most likely have to do this in several passes, as the camera move will reveal parts that would remain hidden in the base image. So you might have to break the plate up into distinct elements and paint in additional detail.

Was that clear? I'm not so sure...

Anyway, here are a few links to camera mapping tutorials using different packages:

http://www.newtek.com/products/light...a_mapping.html

http://www.3dfluff.com/cameramapping...mappingtut.htm

http://www.maxoncomputer.com/tutoria...alID=265&site=

http://www.digitalartform.com/archiv...rojecti_1.html

http://www.a3d.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/...rojection.html