Thom in the Gobi Desert

[robcat2075]

Last year one of my benefactors got me Disney teacher Don Graham's "Composing Pictures", a very deep look at what makes images work.

 

On of the techniques he talks about is "passage" where a band of color or value will cross what would normally be a shape boundary. One example he gave was this classic Chinese painting "Clear Weather in the Valley". you can see the sky color descends down through the whole picture even crossing over the sides of mountains. Here, it's like a low-lying fog.

 

 

 

My other contest entry was an attempt to do something a bit like that with A:M. I made a set of flat planes for mountain tops and angled a volumetric effect to obscure as much of the bottom as possible, then added some volumetric lights at the intersections to further hide the contours of the landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: here's the PRJ for anyone interested.

 

JapaneseAerialPerspective11b_vol_lights.zip

[zandoriastudios]

Pretty cool experiment!

[NancyGormezano]

very clever - I 'm loving it. I never think to use volumetric on anything other than klieg lights.

 

What is the "trapezoidal thing" in the shaded wire frame image of your chor? I can't make out what that is.

[robcat2075]

What is the "trapezoidal thing" in the shaded wire frame image of your chor? I can't make out what that is.

 

That's the shape of the volumetric effect. It's a rectangular box, maybe you're seeing it inside-out.

[NancyGormezano]

What is the "trapezoidal thing" in the shaded wire frame image of your chor? I can't make out what that is.

 

That's the shape of the volumetric effect. It's a rectangular box, maybe you're seeing it inside-out.

 

Ohhhh I get it now...I was thinking you were using volumetric = ON with a klieg light, or sun type light - I wasn't thinking it was a volumetric effect object...duh on me.

[itsjustme]

Very cool stuff, Robert!

[NancyGormezano]

I've noticed that not all volumetric shapes work with all volumetric objects. At least they don't work for me. Not sure if they are supposed to.

 

I also haven't got it down in my head as to what the differences are with respect to Dust, mist, steam.

[robcat2075]

I've noticed that not all volumetric shapes work with all volumetric objects. At least they don't work for me. Not sure if they are supposed to.

 

I also haven't got it down in my head as to what the differences are with respect to Dust, mist, steam.

 

I find they are rather inconsistent in their behavior, and there may indeed be something non-functional about some combinations. More investigation woudl be needed to be sure. I found some that appeared to do nothing began to look normal after I scaled them much larger. I don't remember which ones.

[pixelplucker]

Fantastic style, I voted for that in the competition. Didn't know who made it but the effects are nice.

 

Great stuff!

[robcat2075]

I've added the PRJ to the top post

[NancyGormezano]

I've added the PRJ to the top post

 

Thanks - much appreciated, very helpful! I had to play of course.

 

Essentially for each of these images, I took what you had, but made the mountains (and Thom) Front Projected using one image for the camera rotoscope, turned ON fog using a different image (and had fog start behind one of the mountains), and changed the color used for the steam Effect. Each image uses a different combo of images, and different color for steam. I also changed the colors for the other volumetric lights - but the steam color effect seems to dominate all.

 

Poor Thom.

Edited July 18, 2012 by NancyGormezano

[robcat2075]

That desert looks scorchin'