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March 3, 2005
LSGL work session #5
by sven at 6:44 pm
Time in studio: 2 hrs
Accomplished:
- experimented with process for set-dressing
Commentary:
Experimented with the process for doing "set dressing" today. It looks like it breaks into three steps: (1) open a template "camera in cave" scene and adjust the horizon / framing; (2) introduce critters into the scene; (3) animate the light source. Check each step in AfterEffects before progressing.
In Lightwave, i'm finding it useful to have Viper open and save stills as .psd files, which can then be easily imported into AfterEffects.
The most important thing in terms of getting the still shot framed right seems to be looking for where the horizon line is.
Applying "hue / saturation" and "brightness / contrast" to the still shot within AfterEffects seems to still be working very well.
I discovered the joys of the "clone" command when I was putting the Elder Things in place in Lightwave. ...I really need to create some low-res stand-ins!
When the critters have been put into the shot and I have the lavamen walk through, I haven't quite figured out what to look for, in order to make everything look proportionally correct...
In terms of lighting, I think I'm beginning to get a sense of the final design: Have a point light about 100' up, with about an 800' fall-off. That emulates light coming from the surface world, filtering down through the ice. Then there's a smaller light associated with the position of the camera, with about a 50' fall-off.
Still shots look, well, still. But if I animate the light associated with the camera, so that light seems to be coming from the lavamen as they walk -- then I'll have something that looks pretty interactive going on. Just be sure to stick to the 1-2-3 process described above!
Next Steps:
- type documentation for "set dressing" process
- try animating the light source
posted by sven | March 3, 2005 6:44 PM | categories: let sleeping gods lie, movies