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VHashishV
05-09-2003, 04:59 AM
I have seen the visual effects challenges "Outpost", (AMAZING) and was curious.

How to take apart a 2d image to map in onto 3d geomitry without knowing the camera map points?
I mean, If you took the shot, you measure out a few camera points, and lay in numbers. i read people about useing projection maps with Maya or lightwave to project the "Plate" onto geometry?
But my question is, How do you get the geometry to scale, and with Max?

Is it just guestimation? Start with a plane and just start pulling verticies? Just start laying in some lines to match the contours of the 2d in the background? like contures and then what? just start guestimating some depth to them?

I can understand the mapping part of it, but i dont understand how to get the geomitry to scale, or to fake it with Max to then be able to model over it to then be able to pan teh camera and the 2d is faked to 3d with the new model compisited in it.
Please excuse the spelling :p

Any tutorials or some idea on how to start? I know very little about Maya and nothing about lightwave. It could be as stupid and simple and i am just being to in aw of what i saw, or it is not easy to do in max, or it cant be? But i dont believe it cant be. Just cant see it with max.

Any help would be great.
EricChadwick
05-09-2003, 02:28 PM
Can I assume you've read the 3ds max help file about Camera Match Utility?

Other than the ideas laid out therein, if you haven't any measurements at all then it's all guesswork. Trial and error. Whatever you can get away with. Often fudged just enough to make the shot work.
VHashishV
05-09-2003, 06:27 PM
I have looked over some of the work done in that challenge. Soo cool, and i saw some of the wire frame's and it was almost like dead on accurate to the image, some i saw some people photographed it themselves so i was curious, but others had just grabbed a plate from a websight and just layed in a wireframe.

Yeah I have done a few of the camera match tutorials, but they gave you the numbers to punch in for the camera points. Otherwise they say measure it out. Maybe i just dont have the eye for it. :( Never was a good guestimator.
Hay isnt there a way to measure out from like shadows? I think i remember that as a boyscout... What am i saying.
Dave Black
05-09-2003, 07:03 PM
You could match it using trigonometry, via the shadows...Bright idea I must say....you're certainly thinking outside the box.

You know, a colleague of mine always is telling me:

"It does'nt have to BE perfect, it just has to LOOK perfect".

I think this is one of the instances. Many of us can be very anal when it comes to this sort of thing.

Really, a good guesstimate can do just fine.

-3DZ

:D
VHashishV
05-09-2003, 08:28 PM
Ok so I was not just finding useless info up in my skull. I thought it could be done. But I think you need to know the time the pic was taken in order to get the right angle? But I guess it could help somehow.
The only other thing is the depth. I mean, some pics, the rocks might be like say, 50ft away, and the background maybe a few miles. But yet you want the models to be on some of the pics that far away. I guess you just scale them down, but the same rock face, that is close that has allot of contours, to match those contours. Every time I move a line or vertices, it goes all to hell.

Practice makes perfect, but also gray hair.
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