#Moving Clouds
11 messages in this thread
Don – Had another thought, based on your comment about buildings or something
in the background, that you might want to check out. Try using fog as a depth
cue and defined correctly should obscure the end. – John
OK! It worked very well in still rendering.
Here's what I've done to get the effect:
I created an oversize box(larger than viewing area). Apply the Smoke IPAS as
follows: Size: any number 1000 to 2000 works well
Iterations: 2 or 3
Exponent: 1.5
Speed: 0.3
Color1: 10R188G233B Cyan background or sky blue
Color2: L235, H&S 0 White puffy cloud color
The still rendering looks as good as any of the clouds I captured on 35mm
slides. Next I'll try the animation for exponent and speed settings to get a
realistic cloud movement. The atmosphere settings didn't do anything for me
but could be added for your own effect. Fog would be better if I could control
its concentration at ground level but what does fog have to do with getting the
realistic cloud look anyway? The horizon line didn't seem to be a problem as I
once thought. To create a concentration of clouds at the horizon try to angle
the skybox object and the ground box object as a very long < with the camera
viewed into its opening Then fog might have some ground concentration too. I'm
getting ideas as I type this response. Not too often does something like this
fall into place so easily. Got to go now and try some of these thoughts.
In the meantime I think you'd be safe in placing your order for the IPAS
routine #2 for this project.
Wow, Don, nice work on this effect! Am saving your message for further
reference…
-Alan Iglesias
I'm going to print this message out and try it myself! Thanks for the tip,
Don.
– G
Don't mention it!
PS: Is the check in the mail yet. <g>
Don –
I've been away for a little while and seemed to have missed your initial
technique message on "moving clouds". Can you re-post it if you have a chance?
Thanks.
Larry
Here's a repeat:
OK! It worked very well in still rendering.
Here's what I've done to get the effect:
I created an oversize box(larger than viewing area). Apply the Smoke IPAS as
follows: Size: any number 1000 to 2000 works well
Iterations: 2 or 3
Exponent: 1.5
Speed: 0.3
Color1: 10R188G233B Cyan background or sky blue
Color2: L235, H&S 0 White puffy cloud color
The still rendering looks as good as any of the clouds I captured on 35mm
slides. Next I'll try the animation for exponent and speed settings to get a
realistic cloud movement. The atmosphere settings didn't do anything for me
but could be added for your own effect. Fog would be better if I could control
its concentration at ground level but what does fog have to do with getting the
realistic cloud look anyway? The horizon line didn't seem to be a problem as I
once thought. To create a concentration of clouds at the horizon try to angle
the skybox object and the ground box object as a very long < with the camera
viewed into its opening Then fog might have some ground concentration too. I'm
getting ideas as I type this response. Not too often does something like this
fall into place so easily. Got to go now and try some of these thoughts.
In the meantime I think you'd be safe in placing your order for the IPAS
routine #2 for this project.
The latest update on Moving clouds:
Used the settings in my previous message to render a 300 frame flc. The look
was very bad due to 8 bit color banding. (I wasn't surprised) movement was a
little fast. Horizon concentration of the clouds was very realistic. Now on
to Targa, The look was perfect, however still too fast on movement. It was a
good storm brewing effect with the cloud colorset a little more gray. Putting
the sky box object at an angle was the secret ingredient to creating the
photo-realistic effect. ie. Very large white puffy clouds overhead and smaller
more tightly packed clouds near the horizon. Need to slow down the speed more
but with a lightning strike or two I think an artificial electrical storm
could be made to look real. Hmmmm I wonder if plasma IPAS can be used some
how????
Repeat courtesy of WINCIM Autofiled and clipboard <g>
Don –
Thanks muchly! I don't yet have the IPAS Particle #2 Set, but it sure sounds
like my next (does it ever end?) investment. I've had a lot of fun with the
Image Processing and Procedural Modeling IPAS sets too.
I've toyed with the idea of using captured images of clouds as maps on egglike
objects for clouds but I'm not sure I'd get that fluffy edge effect. Another
thought was using rotoscoped actual clouds as an animated texture map on the
inside of a hemishpere representing the sky.
Thanks for reposting your message.
Larry
Thanks Don, I'm glad your excited… its great when things work out. I was
holding off till the project was locked in but I think I may go ahead as there
are some other things in #2 I'd like to have and this is kinda like the iceing
on the cake. Thanks again – John
The latest update on Moving clouds:
Used the settings in my previous message to render a 300 frame flc. The look
was very bad due to 8 bit color banding. (I wasn't surprised) movement was a
little fast. Horizon concentration of the clouds was very realistic. Now on
to Targa, The look was perfect, however still too fast on movement. It was a
good storm brewing effect with the cloud colorset a little more gray. Putting
the sky box object at an angle was the secret ingredient to creating the
photo-realistic effect. ie. Very large white puffy clouds overhead and smaller
more tightly packed clouds near the horizon. Need to slow down the speed more
but with a lightning strike or two I think an artificial electrical storm
could be made to look real. Hmmmm I wonder if plasma IPAS can be used some
how????
Don,
See my earlier message addressed to ALL about creating realistic
lightning strikes.
Danny…