How to create horizon haze in an animation ?

[ciurej41]

I'm working on an aerial animation of a large site, and the horizon line is visible in some camera paths. I'm using a dome light with HDRI sky to light the scene. Would VrayEnvironmental Fog or zdepth map work better to cover up the horizon line ? How would I use the zdepth map in AfterEffects so that the sky map is still visible. When I tried using VrayEnvironmental fog, the whole scene was covered in fog. Is there a way to eliminate the fog from areas closer to the camera? Any other ways to do it ?

 

Thanks in advance for any help on this

[siddharthkolte]

I would say the best option is the Zdepth pass, in After Effects, you could use the Zdepth pass with combination with the Alpha so that you can keep the sky map the same and just add Depth Fog for the 3d Scene. By using the Blurred Sky map as the color and making the Depth pass as the mask you can experiment a seamless transition from the fog to the skymap.

 

If you have a solid alpha when exporting from 3D you will need to turn on Invisibility option under the VrayDomeLight where you have applied the HDRImap.