Combine background picture and ground

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Combine background picture and ground

Postby punkduck » Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:53 pm

I was asked, how I combine background and ground so that it appears seamless (and without using an HDRI image).

Examples:

http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/download/file.php?id=5407&mode=view

or

http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/download/file.php?id=5424&mode=view

Normally you have to do the following steps:

  • Find an appropriate background image.
  • Find a seamless image for ground, or create one using a graphic tool.
  • Manipulate background image, so that it is even at the bottom.
  • In Blender: load background image as plane. Use emission shader. The example picture of Wonder Woman is made with a factor of 0.4 plus an additional orange color for the sunset, the other one with 1.0. Without emission shader, you will see shadows on the background.
  • Create a plane for the ground.
  • Do the setup like I explained in the first picture below.
  • With hue/saturation you can change your ground to fit the background (It is the same ground I used in both examples ...)
  • place character, camera, sun, lights.
  • adjust background (size it or move it up or down)

That's it. Look if the perspective is working correctly.

You can also use cheap dirty tricks when you still have problems to combine background and ground and use a natural border element, like a wall. They are doing that even for professional movies ... so don't be ashame :mrgreen:

(I started like this in my beginners pictures .... http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/download/file.php?id=3628&mode=view)

background1.jpg


background2.jpg
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Re: Combine background picture and ground

Postby wolgade » Sat Aug 12, 2017 10:20 pm

Nice technique and completely new to me. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: Combine background picture and ground

Postby punkduck » Sun Aug 13, 2017 11:38 am

wolgade wrote:Nice technique and completely new to me. Thanks for sharing.


I just looked for something similar in 3d compared to 2d in GIMP.
When I create a texture I use "feathering" mode in selections, which is essentially the same ...
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Re: Combine background picture and ground

Postby o4saken » Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:57 am

just sharing the way i do things, because sometimes its difficult to find a seamless texture that fits the floor. I normally duplicate the background image, rotate it by 180, so that the image is now completely upside down, and try position this as the floor (as then the image just looks like it extends, but you need to make sure the camera can only see the very bottom of the floor image which then extends into the main background), sometimes it looks better if you also flip it on the horizontal axis.. then its basically just keep moving them till you find a way that they fit together without you being able to see the seam... this is how i did my zombie apocalypse:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14182
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Re: Combine background picture and ground

Postby punkduck » Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:32 pm

o4saken wrote:just sharing the way i do things, because sometimes its difficult to find a seamless texture that fits the floor. I normally duplicate the background image, rotate it by 180, so that the image is now completely upside down, and try position this as the floor (as then the image just looks like it extends, but you need to make sure the camera can only see the very bottom of the floor image which then extends into the main background), sometimes it looks better if you also flip it on the horizontal axis.. then its basically just keep moving them till you find a way that they fit together without you being able to see the seam... this is how i did my zombie apocalypse:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14182


Also a good idea, thank you. For my last Wonder Woman picture with the WW1 background I first tried to make her fully visible staying on the muddy ground. But with my method this was not possible (ground was blurred too much and didn't fit to the background). My method normally only works for smooth grounds (sand, pebbles etc.), I guess. I should try your method as well.
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Re: Combine background picture and ground

Postby punkduck » Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:08 pm

I finally managed it to do a full render of my Wonder Woman character staying on muddy ground, combined with an historic background. The problems is: the background should not be reflected in the water of the muddy ground. Only a few objects of background picture are allowed to be reflected. To create a muddy ground, you can watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibLBRxBC498

I used less displacement-modifiers and a simplified node-setup, but my node-setup should have the possibility to change hue and saturation

combine_background3.jpg


For the water there is only a small change, I changed the color to a light blue, so that the color of the water fits to the background picture. Furthermore the "world-setup" uses a sky-texture with an additional orange color. Be aware that this influences the colors of the water and mud.

combine_background4.jpg


For the background I actually need two of them. One background which should not reflect and the parts of the same background which should reflect. These are the node setups:

combine_background1.jpg


Now these objects are arranged. For the water plane a subdivision is made at the end and bend down, so that the water does not reach the edge. The "reflection layer" is placed behind the background picture and is a little bit lower. So the reflections are smaller.

combine_background2.jpg


That's the result:

ww_end3.jpg
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Re: Combine background picture and ground

Postby wolgade » Sun Aug 20, 2017 10:33 am

Cool. Thanks for sharing.
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