Adding realistic clouds to sky or rendering

[Tim Saunders]

Here's a quick photoshop fix I figured out because I wanted clouds in the reflection image I was using in my scene.

 

1. First I start with the original image. blue sky.jpg

2. Then I stretched thesky so I would have more sky in the reflection. This can be done a number of ways. I just added the color, then used the healing tool to smooth it out. blue sky-taller.jpg

3. Now find a sky image that has some good contrast such as this one that is offered for free by 3dallusions.com 3D Allusions - ReMOSitory sky_020.jpg

4. Now, to copy only the clouds into your image, in the sky image, push ctrl+L (levels). Now if you click the bottom left ink dropper (set black point) then click on the darker areas of your sky image. You will notice the blue in the sky turns black. If some areas are still pretty blue, click one more time in a blue area with the black dropper. Your result should look something like this. sky_020black.jpg

5. Now push ctrl+a (to select all) then ctrl+c (to copy), then in the channels palette create a new channel. Now push ctrl+v (to paste the black sky as a channel).

6. Now on the bottom of the channels palette, click the dotted circle which is the "load channel as selection" button. You will notice the imagenow has some areas selected. It may look like it isn't selecting everything you want it to, but it is. Click back on RGB channel, then drag the selection with the move tool on to your original image.

7. Adjust the whiteness in the hue and saturation adjuster (ctrl+u). Adjust the size of the clouds (ctrl+t). If you need the clouds stronger or more opaque, then duplicate the layer. sky-fixed.jpg

 

This should work on pretty much any sky.

 

Please note, the imags I attached to this tutorial are downsized for the forum standards and not the original image size. You will want to find your own images to use in your renderings

[Tim Saunders]

Here is a rendering with the same concept applied to get a foggy look.

[TheAllusionisst]

Nice one Timothy and good luck in the AVC! I was also wondering if anyone has used the Aurora plugin which is intended for this type of operation: Aurora

 

Of course Tim's method is completely free

[Geoff]

Cool, I'll be using that.

Thanks for the tip

Geoff

[Chris Potts]

Look useful tips...I alway took photo of sky or download from website then slap into background sky using by Photoshop but I never thought of that...I will try use your tip

 

Cheer, Thank for Tips....

[antonio_frias]

I tried that out and it works great! Thanks

[pBarrelas]

Nice tip!! Thanks for sharing mate!!

[3DSMaxresources]

Thanks man for sharing the trick to all.

[redzuan3828]

Thank alot Timothy Saunders

I can image to use this tip on other things

very usefull.

Thank again

[Claudio Branch]

If you compare the underside of the clouds in the third image with the final image, you will notice that you are losing the dark gray shadows.

 

I am seeing the color of the sky behind the cloud where the original shadow was. This does not look correct.

 

Thoughts?

[WAcky]

Keep the layer the clouds are on at 100% opacity and try the different blending modes. If that doesnt work, Try double clicking the layer to bring up the blending options dialogue. No play around with the sliders at the bottom and see if you can get the desired affect. Note: Hold Alt to split the sliders up for more control.