Fog

This week I have been trying to figure out a solution to our special effects render times. It took twelve and a half hours to render less than 6 seconds worth of snow. We are struggling for time as it is so this is a definite no. So I've been trying to come up with simpler solutions. one of which I'm fairly happy with to use as a base for the fog. This involved just using the Maya Software fog instead of Mental Ray's.

No Fog

With Fog (Decreasing Fog Near Distance)

Playing with displacement maps

Using this tutorial as a stepping stone I've been trying to wrap my head around displacement maps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONm2iX5TscE&feature=player_embedded


Here are some of the results:

Test Shot

A test render with all the assets and special effects in place.

Pillar Textures Finishing Touches

I have just finished texturing the pillars and have added slight bump maps to make it look more like stone. Next step is to add a little snow to them to make them fit in with the environment.

Pillars in the Environment With Basic Textures

Broken Pillars

I've modelled and UV mapped the broken version now as well. 

UV Mapped Pillars

I've just finished UV mapping the first pillar. Now I need to model the broken version.