OTOY Forums

crackfox wrote:you can use gradient ramp to drive the density and have it mapped on the camera z axis.
i couldnt quite get it to work but maybe beppe or someone might help you out to set it up.

I would really love to see a tutorial on that method.

coilbook wrote:I wonder why is it so hard for otoy to create zdepth with fog? So we can have no fog in front of the camera so many meters and then have gradual fog so our foreground character will be nice and colorful

One way to do this is using a plane in front of the camera with a Specular material on it with and Index of 1, Transmission 1, etc. , and a Scattering Medium. Everything in front of the plane is clear, and the fog begins wherever you place the plane. While not as physically accurate as true volumetrics, it makes simple fog, as well as volumetric lights. It's a bit old-school, but super easy, renders fast, and is good enough in many situations.

hi frank,

that is a very clever trick. thanks.

the shadows on the hills in the first screenshot make it looks as if the bg is darker than the foreground but on the whole this may work under certain scenarios for sure.
should be very cheap to render too...

cheers,

The shadows should look fine with this method but there's some funky stuff going on in that shot because of the shape of the landscape, the angle of the light, the position of the filter plane, etc. Here's another shot I made while fooling around after I had posted that previous example. Now there's some subtle "god ray" action through the clouds and more realistic depth cue.

frankmci wrote:The shadows should look fine with this method but there's some funky stuff going on in that shot because of the shape of the landscape, the angle of the light, the position of the filter plane, etc. Here's another shot I made while fooling around after I had posted that previous example. Now there's some subtle "god ray" action through the clouds and more realistic depth cue.

Thank you !