Technical: Combination Pass

Now to further work on the development of the technical skills i have investigated, i have combined the DOF and Sun+sky lighting system into a scene using models from my main film War in Wunderland to show how the two could be used together.

Scene lit solely by Sun&Sky System

Haze settings played with

Blue shift added and horizon tampered with. (looks like a orbiting platform!)

Final render shot (minus LD and Occlusion).

Sunlight Runcycles (minus DOF)


Sunlight Runcycles with DOF (Red is in focus- green is most out of focus).


I think this lighting system could be extremely useful for any film using an outside environment. In Wunderland alone there are several open street scenes with a climax on a San Fransisco bridge. This sequence, which i am working on currently, could also benefit from the use of DOF in long shots and tracking Bigbot through the ocean towards the bridge. Unfortunately Wunderland has already got a lighting system rigged and copied into every single shot to keep the films look consistent. The camera set ups and rendering are also done in a very specific way so unless they have already used the Luminance render pass or DOF cameras they are unlikely to at this stage, Other exterior set films have similar set ups and have been lit by technical specialists.

Despite the fact it won't be implimented in any of this years films i believe that these skills and experiments will be useful in the future in the creation of my own films. Having the knowledge is certainly far more useful than having no knowledge on the subject at all. Researching these methods has also built a foundation and understanding of the more techincal aspects of Maya and AE that i can now build upon and improve in future.