Background Tutorial

by Bob Crosswell-- A.K.A. cowboy or DrBob

I had this idea. So to explain it I made this tutorial.

This is a simple tutorial to make a- flexable background- using trueSpace 4.

In this tutorial we will make a simple background model.

There have been many times where I have seen a beautiful picture on the internet and wanted to use it.

I could simply select it and use it as a background image but ....

I wanted to make my picture go into the back ground.

I wanted to make the background part of the new image.

I wanted to have the shadows show up on my background and become part of the image.

I have come up with an idea to do this.

This is a zip of the finished scene.

scene

You will need 2 programs : trueSpace (any) and any paint program.

I will tell you of my idea, How I made it and how to use it, but you can use the scene which I have included and just change the image.

step 1
Get a picture off the internet or anywhere , print it out for reference. I got my image at a size of 1024 x 768.
I open it with paintshop pro 6. What I do next is make the image larger, not the image but the canvas.
The new canvas size is 1024 x 1100.
I move the image to the top and then use a cloning tool to make the picture longer.
Save it as a new named image.

step 2
Next open trueSpace.

Select a plain object and then subdivide it. See picture to the right.
Then I used the deform tool and bent it 90 degrees. See picture below.

Now you see why I extended the pictue. I wanted part of the image horizontal but most of it verticcal with a seamless transition.

I selected planner uv map and adjusted it to a 30 degree angle. See picture below.
If you use my scene you will see that I placed small low intensity lights at places to show off the background model .I placed some lights to high light the forground models which you add latter and I placed some lights which cast shadows.

You will have to move the shadow lights to cast shadows to match your background image.

Paint the background model with the image we made in step 1

For this tutorial I added a figure.

I can look at the figure from any camera.See picture below and to the left.

You will notice the background image is just as high quality and gives you a diferent vantage by using any camera location.

After the final render , you have to crop just a little but , the final image has the great background with shadows and with a feeling that the figure is right in the background.

The final picture is below.

This is a zip of the finished scene. It includes lights, cameras,a modelfied background image and the flexable backgound model.

scene

I hope you find this idea useful.