Can I limit volumetric haze to the foreground only?

[Kelley]

I'm trying to add some haze to a night scene, but all settings convert it to daylight [camera background color being white] I tried other colors, but they don't look right. I tried black, which preserved the 'night-ness' but loses the sense of haze in the fore ground. How to get a light haze with a night sky?

[John Bigboote]

Have you tried fog? You could also experiment with using multiple flat 'gels' or large colored patches that 'aim-at/constrain to camera' but are mostly transparent (95-99%) and cast no shadows/reflections. Cool scenerio.

[KenH]

Fog uses the camera background color as it's color. So, I guess the only work around for this is to use white as the camera background color. Then to get the black background, you could use ablack sphere around the scene.

[Kelley]

Fog uses the camera background color as it's color. So, I guess the only work around for this is to use white as the camera background color. Then to get the black background, you could use ablack sphere around the scene.

 

I was afraid that was going to be the answer. A black sphere? mayhap. At the moment, I have taken the Ground Plane, colored it black, nrotated it 90 degrees and installed it as a background. I was hoping that if the fog was set to a far distance of 8000cm, the Ground Plane would obcsure the worst of it.

[KenH]

A black sphere would surround the scene.....ie your camera/set/lights would be inside the sphere. That way, no matter which way you turn, the background would be black. But if you're not moving the camera, the plane should do it.

[HomeSlice]

You can use a Fog Image. As long as the alpha channel for the fog image is subtle enough, it might do the trick.

Then you can have a black or mightnight blue camera background, with a light smoky color for the fog.

You can also use a Dust volumetric Effect and place it anywhere you want, though Volumetric Effects take a little more futzing with to get a nice effect.

[Kelley]

...though Volumetric Effects take a little more futzing with to get a nice effect.

 

Thanks, Holmes. I'm struggling with your Volumetrics Tutorial right now. [the struggle being with the 'futz factor', not your excellent toot.]

I also want to try a simple white panel with a gradated Transparency screen. We'll see what we see.