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Author
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Topic: Natural 3-D Buildings.....how??
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Visual Gabe
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posted 06-03-2000 10:54 PM
For years I have tried, over and over again to add good looking cgi buildings behind my actors.. Every single time I have failed! Time after time! They look to fake! I know you have to have the right texture and the right lighting but I need help on the design.
Any ideas??--------------
Thank u very much!!
Visit my site at: http://www.ragefilms.homepage.com |
Chimpoid
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posted 06-03-2000 11:11 PM
I really cant think about what would help without seeing them.
Firstly scale is a big one. Make sure that the buildings are believably scaled. Secondly when you say texture maps do you mean real textures or JPG images of textures. A bump map can make a whole lot of difference.
Lighting causes shadows. Very important. Make sure that your actors are creating believable shadows on the backgrounds.
Lastly remember that buildings are dirty.
Dirtreyes by digimation can do an awful lot to help the look of real world scenes by adding that dirty feel to them.  Chimp
p.s. Send me and image or something and I will check it out for you.
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Benny
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posted 06-04-2000 12:13 AM
Well first you have to determine what kind of buildings you want, and according to the story itself.
Make alot of skectches of what you want and see what you like the most.
Start to model you buildings after the sketches and add all the necessary elements to add to the photoreal feeling such as Light, Surface, Camera lens and all that, also think about the fact that reality is chaos, as in, reality is not a sparkling clean invironment, there is dust on the TV screen, a bunch of pencils dont have to lay beside each other but be spread out on a table and also have diffrent length, a building is not clean - most of the time they have durt, cracks and other details added to them and all those details are important to add if you want your CGI world to look photoreal.
Light and Shadows are also important, always make sure it matches the live action and pay attention also to the amount of light, not only direction.
Align the CGI to the live action is also important, always make sure you have the right angles/perspective on your buildings, this is where the CGI camera settings are important as well such as Lens and Focal length.
last but not least, add motion blur and/or noise to the final CGI rendering because other wise you CGI might stand out to much from the live action.
Theres a few pointers, need more help drop me a line  ------------------
.Benny.
.CGI & Film Director.
.Taurus Filmproductions.
http://taurusfilmprod.hollywood.com/ Email me:
C_Keeper@hotmail.com [This message has been edited by Benny (edited 06-04-2000).] |
Bird_Productions
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posted 06-04-2000 01:23 AM
Sorry this may sound like a stupid comment but first I must ask how you are trying to add the buildings into your footage. First Good textures are a must. Next are you just rendering the image then trying to add it in as an alpha channel? If so I probally wouldn't go about it this way as you don't get the right shadows between your CGI and your actors. I would go about it by taking a frame, putting it into your view port and using the Shadow/Matte map so that it gives your end product the relaistic shadown and reflections. But as I said If you are allready doing it this way I don't really know what could help out. Good Luck |
brandon8me
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posted 06-04-2000 06:07 AM
A couple of other ticks to try is, blur the 3d footage a little, all renders are to crisp, unless you render with depth of field. Color match the elements in the composite, and also adjust the brightness and contrast. Another tip is instead of trying to get the entire 3d element rendered in one pass, break it up and render in multiple passes. Maybe render just the color, and then render just the shadows, that way you have more control in the composite. If you need to make a change, say where the shadows fall, all you have to do is rerender the shadow pass, instead of the entire image. |
Visual Gabe
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posted 06-04-2000 12:41 PM
Hey, thanx a lot!! Do you think I can add blur,dust..etc.. to my buildings in Infini-D 4.5?? Or whats an other good program I can use?? |
brandon8me
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posted 06-04-2000 03:33 PM
If you can render with depth of field in Infini-D that would be good, and if your background is deep, it will be ideal because objects will get more out of focus as they get farther away. But most of the adjustments I find are made in compositing. Its quicker to see the results, so you can experiment more. After Effects is a good program to use to composite, or Axogon Composer I hear is good. I wouldn't recomend premeire, its desined for editing not compositing, I easily get up too 15 layer of footage while compositing and you can't see any results untill you render the sequence. |
Crono
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posted 06-04-2000 04:38 PM
First.....someone else from El Paso..I'm scared nowAnd whats also scary is that I've been wandering about a similar problem myself, but for a more futuristic city, like from Blade Runner or from William Gibson's books. If the buildings are in the distance, you can probably get away with simple one color textures and such, but you would need to add "atmosphere", basically make it blurred due to all the stuff in the air. The closer the buildings are though, the more you would have to work on the texture maps and bump maps, and lighting, etc. The lighting can be a problem especially when you composite everything. You ask for other 3d programs...there is blender, at www.blender.nl. Its free..sorta. You HAD to pay for all features, but as of June 21st, they're aparently making it completely free. It looks very powerful, but is hard to learn, but most of all, FREE
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Visual Gabe
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posted 06-05-2000 08:14 PM
Hey man thanks a lot. You guys are a lot of help!! I also want my city to by futuristic (in a sense) See my film takes place inside a computer.. All the people are animated in Poser 4 and the world is in Bryce 4. I am using Infini-D for my modeling. Oh yah and compositing in After Effects... Hey Crono were exactly do you live (just the area) and dont worry im not going to stalk you or anything like that and whats your age??
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Gabriel--- Rage Films--
http://www.ragefilms.homepage.com It's all good!! |
Nick Jade
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posted 06-05-2000 08:29 PM
man, Blade Runner was so good, but my brother hated it!The buildings in that movie were awsome, the gigantic video screens were sweet. [This message has been edited by Nick Jade (edited 06-05-2000).] |
Benny
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posted 06-05-2000 08:34 PM
The atmosphere in Blade Runner is amazing the buildings, rain all the time and the colors. Great design if you ask me ------------------
.Benny.
.CGI & Film Director.
.Taurus Filmproductions.
http://taurusfilmprod.hollywood.com/ Email me:
C_Keeper@hotmail.com |
Crono
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posted 06-05-2000 11:55 PM
Inside a computer eh? Try watching Reboot, its all 3d animation, taking place in a computer. (but also very corny). Or are you look for buildings like this?:
http://www.decipher.com/startrek/cardlists/basic/large/federation.html Um, I guess this should be taken off-board, but I live on the Northeast and I'm 17. my email is: idfumbler@yahoo.com |
hbtl_ofndr
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posted 06-06-2000 02:14 AM
El paso, that place is full of losers!!!!Hey, I should know I was born there!! Seriously though, there has been some very good advice on how to make your CGI town look real, but if adding bump maps or real images to them is the solution wouldn't it be just as easy to use real footage? ------------------
Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most.
-Ozzy Osborne
(via Hackers) |
Visual Gabe
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posted 06-07-2000 06:37 PM
Well i guess the main key is the design and the texture(dust,blur,lighting,alighnment with real picture...) Any other design ideas i can see on a site or something...------------------
Gabriel--- Rage Films--
http://www.ragefilms.homepage.com It's all good!! |
cdolsen
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posted 06-07-2000 06:44 PM
take some photos or stills of buildings and use them as skins for the modelstry to take the photos at mid heigth (use a telephoto) to minimize distortion. careful of time of day and cloud shadows. you might try scanning photos from mags and the like [This message has been edited by cdolsen (edited 06-07-2000).] |
Nick Jade
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posted 06-07-2000 08:52 PM
I dont think Im ever going to use CGI buildings.... Ill just build ones, Blade Runner used models and stuff and I think it kicks the butts of most movies today.
(The music by Vangelis made that movie http://www.i-disc.net/no/no0020/no250002202.shtm -Blade Runner Theme)
[This message has been edited by Nick Jade (edited 06-07-2000).] |
NJRFilms
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posted 06-07-2000 09:26 PM
Benny: You ever have time to make any more buildings? If not, no biggy. that movie has been pushed back, so i can test out some more fx. |
