360 Degree Cyc. Good idea....?

[mixermanic]

Heh - posting a lot tonight (just discovered these forums :P )

I am involved in producing a CG feature film, a good 30 mins of which is set in a small area of 19th century Paris (mainly in one street, but occasionally in the surrounding 2 or 3 streets).

An idea I had for this was to model these streets and a few surrounding buildings and then create a 360 degree matte painting for the rest of the area. There are a couple hundred shots in this half hour sequence, with the cameras looking at the area from above, walking around the area etc. This would save doing separate matte paintings for every scene, and we could then have a "generic" scene so if any shots change or need redoing, we could do it relatively easily.

Is this a good idea or a terrible one? :)

Martin

[matt the painter]

well in the return of the king the pellenor fields was a full 360 environment made up of photographs taken all around new zealand. It's a good idea if you have the right 3d software like maya. This new dvd that just came out explains how to do that on maya. http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/eha04.html

[rrische]

This is a question asked on almost every film I work on.

Pro- It's an economical way to create backgrounds for many
shots using one piece of artwork.

Con- It winds up being less realistic because in a real environment,
color and exposure will vary with each different shot. Even if the
background is very well done, I think the audience can always tell
something is up.

[mixermanic]

Even if the
background is very well done, I think the audience can always tell
something is up.

This wouldn't matter too much in a CG film where the art is highly stylised anyway...

Now, just got to work out how to do the day/night thing... :)

M