Atmospheric Shader to Fake Fog

Here is a link to the Pixar website that has the fog.slo file and general instructions on how to use it.  For our project, just grab the fog.slo file and place it in the top level of the shot directory you're working in. 

1.) Whatever objects you want to fade into the background, you have to import the material into the Maya scene and attach it from the Hypershade.

2.) Select the shading engine of the material and add the "Atmospheric" attribute from the extra renderman attributes pulldown.

3.) Attach the fog.slo to the Atmospheric attribute.

4.) From there, you can select the Atmospheric node in the hypershade and adjust the color the object fades into and the distance from the camera that you want the fading to start.

-R.J.

Naming conventions

Kelly asked me to post about naming conventions so that it'll be easier for us to communicate and help each other out.  The system I've been using for lights and cameras is:

objectLightIsFor_specialInfo(if needed)_TYPEOFLIGHT

ex) a yellow key light for gus would be: gus_ yellow_KEY
ex  a blue fill for the background would be: bg_blue_FILL
ex) a light for specular: snowSpec_KEY
ex) for environment lights: colorbleeding_LIGHT   occlusion_LIGHT
ex) cameras for specific passes: colorbleeding_CAM, SS_CAM, occlusion_CAM

I've found that identifying the type of object at the end in all caps makes finding and organizing things in the outliner much easier and faster.  Let me know if you have any concerns.

R.J.

Subsurface Scattering and Colorbleeding settings

For SubsurfaceScattering:

• Create SSset (Select Gus skin geometry > Create > Set options > name SSset)
• Create SSlightSet (Select all lights except for environment lights)
• Under RenderMan Controls > SSRender
  • Set Camera to SSCam
  • Set Object Set to SSset
  • Set Light Set to SSlightSet

For Colorbleeding:

• Create radiositySet (Select all geometry except for glass surfaces > Create > Set options > name radiositySet)
  • NOTE: Don’t forget to add all bounce cards to the set!
• Select colorbleed environment light
  • go into Attribute Editor and click the arrow next to Bake Shadowing (rmanRenderRadiosityPass)
  • Set Camera to radiosityCamShape
  • Set Object Set to radiositySet
  • Set Shading Rate to 10.0 for now (2.0 for final renders)

Final Render Settings

Here are the settings to use for final renders. DO NOT use these for testing lights. It's best if you half the resolution and take down shading rate to speed up lighting process until rendering final images.

In Render Settings:

• Common
  • File name prefix: <RenderLayer>/<Scene>_<RenderLayer> (right-click)
  • Image Format: Tiff16
    Frame/Animation ext: name.#.ext
    Frame padding: 3
  • Resolution: HD 720
• Quality
  • Shading rate: 1.0
  • Pixel Samples: 12.0 x 12.0 (to smooth out DoF and motion blur)
  • Filter: mitchell
  • Filter Size: 4.0 x 4.0
• Features
  • Motion Blur: ON
  • Ray Tracing
    • Trace Bias: 0.01
    • Max Spec Depth: 2

Depth of Field Settings:

• F Stop: 8 (maybe)
• Focus Region Scale: 1.0

Settings in RenderMan Controls:

• RenderRadiosityPass
  • Shading Rate: 2.0
• SSRenderPass
  • Shading Rate: 1.0
  • Pixel Samples: 4.0, 4.0

LightRig for Opening Shots (shot1-13)

Hey Guys:
The light rig for opening shots are already exported into the address: assets/lights/09.0_lights/09.0_lights.proj
There are two files,  one for the environment, one for Gus. which are:
shot09_EnvLightRig.ma
shot09_GusLightRig.ma

So to use the Light Rig, just import those two files into your lighting shot.
and here is the light link information:

shot09_EnvLightRig.ma:
 1.RenderManEnvLight1             linked to all the objects   used for emit Diffuse
 2.RenderManEnvLight2             linked to all the objects   used for emit Spec
 3.skyLight              linked only to the sky plane   used for light up the sky image plane
 4.groudKeyBlueLight/groudKeyYellowLight        linked to the cliff   used for light up the snow cliff, both only emit diffuse, and only yellow one have shadow
 5.groundKeySpecLight   linked to the cliff   used for light up the spec component of the snow, only emit spec
 6.groundAdditionalKeyLight   linked to the cliff   used for add additional brightness to foreground in order to create sense to depth and layer for shot09(you may not need this light in your shot, if not, just hide it)


shot09_GusLightRig.ma:
 1.gusKeyLight             linked to gus/sled  
 2.gusKeySpecLight             linked to gus/sled   give the charactor a soft spec highlight instead of a round spec highlight (thats why i used area light instead of spot light)
 3.gusFillLight              linked to gus/sled   used for light up the sky image plane
 4.gusBackLight        linked to gus/sled  you may need to move this light for your own shot
 5.gusBackSpec   linked to gus/sled  give Gus a soft spec highlight on the back side of the helmet. you may not need this light in your shot.
 6.gusBounce   linked to gus/sled but UNLINKED from the eyes

I putted the rigs into shot03 for a test, and here is the rendered image:

this is a rendered frame form shot9, which can be taken as the color reference.


You can see, it doesn't really match the shot but it still gives you a OK start for lighting.


Hope this helps! and just ask me if you have any question about the rig : )




 

Lighting Intro shots assignment

Lighters! Check out the project spreadsheet for your shot assignments:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Akw17UNxZ6apdG5NUVFFNFNuUUVDX0ctWlFlMzg4dEE#gid=0

It would be helpful if you can update this throughout your process. Don't forget to send renders to Dave for feedback!

Lighting progress

Shot 9:

Shot 17:

Shot 25:

Shot 26:

Shot 30: