[AJ]

Hello everybody! I love the site, and it's been really inspirational to see so much amazing artwork! I thought I'd take the plunge and post my first attempt at creating a background plate.

I am currently creating an establishing shot, using this image as a camera-map in 3D Studio, this will be my first reall attempt at creating a scene in this way. In the past I have always modelled a scene in the traditional way, piece by piece, rather than using an image as the basis.

The matte is created using photo-reference from the excellent 'Image After' website.



Here is a temporary photoshop comp. The shot is supposed to represent a WWII era village, so all modern elements have (hopefully!) been removed.

I will be adding personnel and vehicles to the courtyard area using green-screen and 3D Mesh objects.



This is the original image form 'Image After'.

Please do give me any feedback, especially technical tips if possible!

[Pilou]

Hello,
It looks good !
Just some small advice :
We can see too much lignt on the main roof in the middle, on the church roof and "heap"(?) near the right wall ; but as you said, this is not finished ;)
Go on ! :P

[rrische]

Just to clarify...are you going to "match model" the crude shapes
based on your design, then project your PS artwork onto the
geometry?

General comments...

1) Overall, the image seems a bit monochromatic. And maybe a little
bright? (considering the strength of the lights in the windows)

2) The walls etc. could use some more dirt and textural detail.

3) There seems to be a slight dark line on top of the mountain
on the right.

Good luck! Let's see more!

[rrische]

Just noticed something else...

When you color correct a daylight photo (which is in full sunlight)
be careful of what happens to your shadow areas. Because full
daylight produces the highest contrast, you want to pay special
attention to the dark areas, making sure they don't turn into black
holes. If you can, isolate the shadows and color correct them individually,
using some stormy, snowy photo reference as your guide for the key to
fill ratio. If necessary, paint in a bit of detail so those areas don't go
dead.

[AJ]

Thanks for the speedy feedback guys!

Yes that right Rick, I am modelling simple shapes in Max, in order to create a subtle movement across the image. In my PS file I have created the image as a set of layers, so that I could extend the buildings where necessary, to cover the areas that become visible during the camera move.

It's getting there I think, but the move I am trying to do is not best suited to the source image, so I am filling a few gaps in the bg layers!

I'ts a good point about the dark areas, my PS file is much lighter, but the image above had a bit of Brightness&Contrast done before posting it. I think I shall lighten the PS file a bit more so that those areas are not too dead. The temporary comp shows the kind of mood I am trying for, I think it's a fine line between realistic and cartoon, when it comes to this kind of scene.

The window lights are proving difficult, I think I will be leaving one or two of them dark, and the remaining ones will get an extra layer of 'glow' in AE during the composite. Right now, I think they look a little to uniform and also too yellow (or maybe just the wrong colour?).

[AJ]

I've got the shot to about 50% now. This is a render from Max.



And this is a low res wmv of the shot so far. http://naepatiocom/Mattes/vcm_test_r.wmv

I'm noticing some problems with moire lines on the roof, and a couple of other things that aren't moving in 3D very convincingly yet, but any comments or tips are welcome. :)

[Horg]

The animation is pretty good I think. The snow is kinda "rond" !?!?! One thing you could try to make it look more movielike, less 3d generated, is to have a constant camera move, instead of acceleration and deceleration.

[Luxo_Jr]

Looks very promising, but imo the snow looks too white for a start environment such as this. I wouldn't really worry about the window lights either, they seem fine as they are to me.