Slip-Space Rupture - A Blender Compositing Test

[MarkyMarkV]

My attempt at recreating some sort of slip-space jump from Halo, or any science fiction movie for that matter.

Earliest version of this render. Notice the change in particle size, color, and glow.

Almost identical to the next picture except a little less contrast, and no stars or black space.

Final Version of this render. Black space and stars in the background round out the effect of this slipspace rupture

And here's a reference from Halo 2.

I lit the ship w/ a sun lamp from below, 4 point lamps (above, below, right, and left) tinged pink, and a spotlight to create a sort of light-ray effect from behind. The particles are in a swirling pattern, emitted from the vertices of a circular plane, like so.

Considering this is only my second attempt using the compositor, and really the first time I've ever used particles with a purpose, the test was a success. The only thing I can think of to improve on this is to add a white spherical plane behind the particles and set it to glow in the compositor to fill out some of the empty space.

Critique appreciated.

 

[David Jimerson]

Hard to say without seeing it motion. Last frame looks pretty decent. Middle two look like something from a 1980s Doctor Who episode, though. Too much regularity; neon colors; looks like a zoom-in on something very small, and the ship looks composited in -- curtains and carpet don't match.

 

[AdrianF]

I presume you're using a generated background as the whole image has a purple glow. Perhaps try using a background image and then using the mix node, this might give you a more realistic backdrop? You could try getting feedback at Blenderartists, plenty of knowledgeable folks over there who could give some good pointers.

 

[MarkyMarkV]

and the ship looks composited in -- curtains and carpet don't match.

I did composite the ship onto the background, but the lighting is identical for both layers. I separated the particles from the ship layer, and duplicated the lights for each so that I could tweak each layer individually, and get the look I wanted. Are you saying that maybe the lighting of the ship is unnatural in terms of the particles? Because the particles themselves don't give off light.

 

[Blender_Fanatic]

Nice work!

 

[jghenderson]

I have 2 issues with it. I think the space rupture is too geometric, and the lighting on the ship is unnatural. You definitely need some shadows on the ship. Nice work though! Keep it up!

 

[bgodoy]

In terms of compositing, I think what you need to do is make sure you light things a little more realistically. For example, in the 3rd shot, instead of lighting the ship in its entirety it should be backlit (since the particles are being emitted from there). Very much the same way a rim or hair light would illuminate an object. The current lighting seems a little overexposed and your model doesn't really benefit from that. In future projects don't be afraid to hide your models in shadow (of course with your lighting in mind). Rather than lighting your scene as a whole, you should be looking for points or areas in which your project already emits light then light accordingly. After all, that's all compositing really is... The goal in mind is photo realism (or should be in most cases).
I know you say the particles don't emit light but you should probably set up your lighting in a manner that would emulate such a scene.
Of course I'm just being critical here and only touching on the lighting aspect of your scene, however, if you really want to take a quicker approach I would say to render your objects separately, add a light wrap and slight edge blur to your ship then color correct. Hopefully this helps you in some way.

Edit: Here's a link to a spot made for Halo 4 (along with various others) on fxguide.com. If you watch the 2nd video (the making of) you will probably get a better idea of some of the things I'm talking about. Obviously, this is a big budget production and it is simply an example as to how you might want to approach compositing your objects. I haven't read the whole article myself but I think you will enjoy this.

-B