Devin Johnston Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Over the next two months I'm going to be working on a very complex series of animations that will involve motion tracking of multiple video sequences. One of those sequences will be from the 20th floor of an office high rise and the idea is to be able to walk out onto a large balcony, look out at the surrounding environment and then over the handrail down the side of the building to the courtyard below. As I see it I only have 3 options, one is to use a helicopter and try and video this sequence 240' in the air, second I could use the helicopter to take photographs from the same location and later stitch them together to create some kind of background. The last option would be to create most of the surrounding environment in 3d using photographs where I could to extend the background and horizon. I'm leaning more towards the third option but I need some advice from those that have tried something similar, please help! I should mention that I'll already have use of the helicopter so shooting video and pictures won't be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Schroeder Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Depending on where this is at, you may be able to get the buildings from Google Earth. They may not be the best but it all depends on what you need them for and how close you'll get. If you do the modeling route, model from photographs. Create a texture sheet for the building, then import that into Max on a plane of the same size. Extrude as needed to add the large details. There is no need to model from scratch and try to figure out scale. Similar to how they do them for video games. Check out Stefan Morrell's posts on CGTalk: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=444791&page=7&pp=15#post4855106 and http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=4939232&postcount=115 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noise Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 If I understand you correctly, I would suggest taking as many photos as possible and stitch them to make the background plate. In max, map the background elements onto cards which are placed in the 3D environment to represent the location of the buildings, this will provide paralax when the camera moves it should look real. Because the camera move is quite extensive it rules out camera projection from a matte painting, this would be alot quicker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 Thanks Niall I beleave that's what I'm going to do, there doesen't seem to be any other option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 There's a company here in chicago called skypan that use remote control helicopter and gyro-stabilized camera rig to do high level panoramics. They get some great imagery. They specialize in exactly what you want and work pretty much exclusively with the arch-vis industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I should mention that I'll already have use of the helicopter... Well that solves the commuting issues you used to complain about. I think you would want to do one of the 'build it in 3D from photos' methods, especially since you will be looking down the tower. The glass seen below will become very reflective, so you want a proper environment to reflect. I've done similar by camera matching aerial photos and then modeling. I use a base satellite map for proper size and orientation and placement of buildings and other large structures. Obviously Google maps is good for that, or USGS data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noise Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Devin I would be really interested to see how you tackle this after the project is complete, if you're willing to share your workflow ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Thinking further, I would say you really need an environment vs. footage (quaint term, that) because with tracked video your new shots will be forced by what you already have. Going onto a balcony and looking down would allow for some great shot opportunities, but only if you had the ability to tweak them. As a start, you can use Google Earth to take panoramic views from the correct location and height, stitch them together and map to a cylindrical or cubic background and the satellite image on a groundplane so there's something approximate to see. That makes the process feel closer to the final from early on, which helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 based on your description of the shot, I'd recommend the balloon/drone approach. Heli's are great for turntable shots or establishing background plates but not so good when you need to break from the horizon. The ground based solutions will give you more flexibility and highres plates that will work out much better for stitching and projecting. There are lots of ways to make the connection and transition between high and low shots that would be less complicated and just as effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I agree with John. And Ernest. I think if you can get panoramic photography from a decent height then that will take care of distant and midrange. Combine that with modeling for closer buildings and satelite photography for mid-range ground plane and verifying location of buildings. It would be great if you can keep us up to date with progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Thanks for all the good advice guy's! I ended up taking 360 degree panorama's as well as regular photographs from the altitude that my balcony animation would be at. There's no way trying to film the sequence and then motion track that would have looked good, the helicopter is just not accurate enough to get that kind of shot. We ended up flying for about 2 hours all to get about 1.5 minutes of video, in the end it will be well worth the time spent but now comes the hard part of motion tracking all that footage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Is your footage for the persons eye view that you described in the first post? Or is that for a look at the exterior of the proposed building? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Sorry I forgot to mention that the point of hiring the helicopter in the first place was to get footage for an exterior motion tracked animation. It just happened that they wanted an animation from the balcony and I was able to use the helicopter to take pictures from the correct height. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy L Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 oh good. Because it would be weird otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 So I've created a 360 panorama out of the pictures we've taken and I'm using spherical mapping to project it onto my environment. Everything looks great until I look over the side of the building down to the courtyard. The client wants' to walk out to the edge of the balcony and look down onto the courtyard below, I had hoped that I'd be able to adjust my site to match up with the spherical map but there's too much distortion. I was thinking of using a flat plane and mapping some Google earth images to it but I doubt it will match up with the spherical map very well. Anyone have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noise Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Is there any way that you could post some stills of the camera dolly ? Viewport screen grabs might be enough ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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