The Chile Line, Taos Canyon (6.0.113)

[Speedster]

Hi all;

Felt like having some fun after a long week. "The Chile Line" was a narrow gauge Denver and Rio Grande train that ran into Santa Fe, New Mexico, and up to Taos along the stunning Rio Grande River, through Taos Canyon.  It was actually built after the color scheme I used here, but hey- "artistic license".

Shot a lot of backplates on a drive back from Taos last week, and you can still see the old roadbed. Just upstream is some of the best white-water rafting in North America, and it was great to see this mighty river at full flow after so many years of drought.  Modeled in SolidWorks, and it's been the subject of many of my prints and book covers.

Nothing special as to new features, but it gave 6.0.113 a good wringing out.  It's my largest model, at 171,149,503 polys. It's a KeyShot 4 legacy project.  Not even a hiccup! I used "Product".

But I did report an issue on the Beta Discussion board. Render Settings do not retain on saving and closing.  I rendered this at 6000 wide, saved a final Viewset, saved and closed.  But I had to go back to it for a few changes, and it reopened at the default 800 wide.  When I reset it to 6000, using the same locked Viewset, it rendered slightly off, enough that I could not properly place it back into the comp. I finally gave up trying to make things fit and started over.

So- PLEASE have all render setting save as you left them!

But, this was a fun project, and 6.0 is super!

Bill G

[Josh3D]

Huge! Great shot Bill. Sounds like a nice little outing as well.

[chippwalters]

Great shot! FWIW IMO, could use a bit of haze to create more depth. I would try a depth pass and see if you could add some noise in Pshop to create a fake haze. Tint it slightly blue. Thanks for sharing.

[Speedster]

Thanks, Chipp!  Interesting about the blue (cooling) filter idea.  I had applied a subtle warming filter, but you're right- bluish would be better, and just a bit more noise.

I've never really understood "Depth Pass".  Can you or somebody please explain it, and how it's used?

Thanks!!
Bill G

[chippwalters]

Depth pass is a z-buffer image rendered in KS as 32-bit. You'll need to equalize it first in Pshop then drop it down to 8-bit to use it. It's typically used to apply DOF effects on a non-DOF image. Because you have a very small aperarture and long focal lenght, you would never get DOF in an image like the one you show (if you did add DOF it would make it look like a miniature train, like tilt-shift effects).

In your case, you can use DOF as a selection channel in Pshop. Create a layer with Cloud noise. Add a mask layer and paste the 8-bit Depth Pass into it, then adjust opacity. Probably a touch up with brush may help along with a color correction to add the slight blue (very slight) haze. HTH!

[richardfunnell]

I don't want to hijack your thread, but PixelSquid has a great video tutorial on Depth & Atmospherics:
http://learn.pixelsquid.com/quick-submarine-composite/

More info here: http://learn.pixelsquid.com/depth-and-atmospherics/

Chipp this is exactly what you're referencing but in video form

[Speedster]

Hijack welcome!  This is exactly what I needed to understand this.  I'm a Diamond Level SquidGuild artist (Gould Studios), and am also with PixelSquid, but my SolidWorks models do not really qualify for PixelSquid, so I have not spent much time exploring the tutorials. Great resource! Working on it!  Thank so much from all of us!
Bill G