1 Tutorials LightWave 3D A quick Sunrise with Skytracer Qua Jan 26, 2011 3:13 am
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by Christian Bloch |
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Why CG? It needs a lot patience to capture a time-shifted sunrise in the real world on video. You have to climb up onto the roof at 4 a.m., point the camera at the horizon in darkness, and wait. Now just don't poke the tripod! Waiting... Quite shivery this morning, isn't it? ... Waiting. ... Ahh - there comes the sun - but it's slightly off screen. ... doesn't matter - waiting ... Where do all these dark clouds come from? Pleeease, no tempest now! ... More waiting?! Come on, let's climb down and give it another try tomorrow... About 5 failed attempts later, even the most hardcore video fan gives it up. But with LightWave's unique Skytracer this shot can be done in five minutes. In addition, this effect is surprisingly easy done. 1. Camera set-up: First, move the camera to (0,0,0) coordinates by using the 'reset' button. That's needed because Skytracer calculates the position of the sun exactly from this point of view. For this tutorial the heaven should cover the whole frame, so turn your camera up a little (-20° pitch here) and set the zoom factor at something like 2.8. 2. Prepare the light: Create a new Null-object (^A) and parent the light on it. Reset the light's Y and Z position to 0, so that the light sits on the X-axis. Now move the Null-object a little bit back and right (maybe to 1,0,3). 3. Let the sun rise: Now we need just a single keyframe at the Null-object to animate the rising sun. So go to frame 60 and alter the Null-object's banking angle to -120°. Now the sun moves along a perfect arc. The Light Intensity should also be animated, so we put an envelope on it. Let it rise for the first half of the animation, from 50% at frame 0 to 100% at frame 30. To give it a smooth ease-out set the Tension on the second keyframe to 1. 4. Create the heaven: Activate the Skytracer plug-in in the backdrops panel. It is that easy. There you just need to tell Skytracer that our Light is his sun (respectively 'Light1') and the scene is actually finished already. Feel free to play with the other Skytracer settings, but the Defaults are chosen well and provide a nice look, too. 5. Moving clouds: Because we want to fake a time-shifted sequence, the clouds should move visibly. To achieve this, we need another Null-object and set 2 keyframes on it. How you move your clouds is totally up to you, but you should stick to a straight 2-key-line. For example, move the Null in frame 0 far away (-5,0,-20) and set it in frame 60 to (0,0,0). Pressing F5 brings back the Skytracer window, where we have to parent the cloud layer 2 on the Null(2) object. By repeating these steps with a third Null-object you can animate the other cloud layer as well, and bring even more motion into the animation. This should be enough for a quick introduction in weathermaking... Surely, there are many ways to optimize this scene for more realism, and you can experiment with a lot of styles by playing around with the skytracer settings. I hope this tutorial could evoke your interest for some exciting Skytracer experiments. Of course, I'm all ears to your feedback. |