Best way to add seemless dynamic background to a scene

[triskelion]

Hello all--

I am scientist developing molecular animations using Maya and have a question that may or may not be relevant to Maya.  I don't know how best to add backgrounds to my animations that blend very well with the scene but are computationally light.  I'm looking for something more complicated than a static image or movie background that attaches to the camera.  To get a sense of what I'm trying to do, please look at the attached image, where my work is shown in the left panel and a company's work is shown in the right panel.  Both images depict a membrane composed of blue, green, and purple spheres stretching back into infinity.  In my image, the membrane appears to fall off a cliff into blackness, whereas the image on the right has a beautiful background slate that incorporates very nicley with the foreground geometry.  Their background also has blurred versions of the foreground geometry, another feature I'd like to include without sacrificing render time and scene size.

Could you please share your thoughts about how I can add such elements to my work?  I've tried various things without much success. First, I tried adding geometry elements in Maya that extend way into the background (i.e., tons and tons of spheres), but this is clearly suboptimal as it greatly increases scene size and rendering time.  Alternatively, i tried having the membrane of spheres extend for a while and then give way to a bump-mapped plane, but the transition from geometry to plane was always decipherable and distracting.  Finally, I've tried adding background images to the final composite, but they never look as integrated into the scene as in the image on the right, especially if I change the camera angle over time.

Anyway, any help you can offer would be appreciated.  Again, I'm open to any solution to this problem; it need not be in Maya; in fact my great preference would be for some nice compositing tool that lets me accomplish such things with ease and speed.  Thanks very much. --Dale

[joojaa]

Best is not defined.

, but the transition from geometry to plane was always decipherable and distracting.

you can fade the edge in comp. so dont swap immediately but have a slight overlap between the solutionsin your comp application. Or replace each sphare with a plane for example.

tons and tons of spheres), but this is clearly suboptimal as it greatly increases scene size and rendering time.

Use a particle instancer or better yet a rendertime geometry shader/ rib filter etc. Also do not blur the image with a real camera dof but do justa blur based on depth buffer for the end result.

OR use a plane with displacement thet gredually fades away to just reveal the bump only.

You can also rener the background possibly once and reuse it for all frames.

[mauricio]

Hi Dale,

I do exactly the type of work you're talking about.

Essentially there isn't an easy way to create true infinity in 3D animation -- it always involves a certain amount of trickery.

The first step is simply with art direction, i.e. if you can design your shots in such a way that the area of focus is relatively small, avoiding "panoramic" shots, then you will face less challenges with creating the illusion of depth and infinity. Avoid gratuitous camera fly-throughs (this is a battle we have with art directors all the time).

So far as creating infinity -- there are a number of approaches to this depending on circumstances. If you need true 3D objects then object instancing or particle instancing are ways to get a very large number of objects through a renderer. However this approach has its limitations and can be technically difficult to set up and manage for the less experienced.

Another approach may be a series of texture and transparency mapped planes or spheres, overlaid one behind  the other to create the illusion of 3D depth and parallax. I have used this approach to create a background for a neuron field in the past. I had a series of ever larger spheres, with the main action occuring inside the smallest sphere. True 3D elements populated the principal area of action, so the background spheres were only ever seen through or past true 3D objects.

The "cheapest" method is simply a post process, done in a program like After Effects. It's possible to get camera animation and nulls out of Maya and into After Effects. A skilled compositor can then take this data and attach 2D or 3D elements or images to them in AE. Your 3D elements are then comped in on top of that to create seamless animation.

HTH!