Animation (Click to enlarge thumbs)

For the animation, I used a mixture of paths and key frames (the latter for the simpler or more linear movements). I also key framed the changing intensity of some static lights (see the flashing watchtowers) to give more dynamism to the scene.

Left: the camera path (in pink) and the close-up-aircraft path

Note how I've gone back to my model after deciding I was happy with the camera path and dropped high-detailed greebles along this path. (All the ships that move in convoys are parented to one lead ship, which is then keyframed.)




Rendering & Compositing

For the animation (250 frames), I used Blender's internal renderer without Ambient Occlusion, as it was creating some flickering. To mimic AO, I added a few low-intensity, shadowless lamps around the scene. The final sequence uses a lot of compositing filters in Blender's fantastic node compositor, including glare, fake motion blur and a subtle chromatic dispersion. Here's a capture of the entire compositing node network.

For the still image, I used Indigo (www.indigorenderer.com), a free physically based renderer, which delivers amazingly photorealistic results at the price of longer render times. Yet since this scene only had 320,000 polys and was lit by a sun (no complex indirect lighting scenario), it was remarkably fast to render

Final Picture

The final image is nonetheless extensively post-processed, using ZBuffer and Alpha passes from Blender as layer masks to blend various layers in Photoshop and add such effects as motion blur and atmospheric scattering. The chromatic dispersion was added in post, but the aperture diffraction was generated by Indigo directly.

Below: Composited layers and "from the raw render to the final image".

Links

Final Illustration

Bertrand Benoit CG Gallery Portfolio

Bertrand Benoit's Website : www.bertrand-benoit.com

See Also : CG Gallery Making Of section : cggallery.itsartmag.com/makingof.php