Backgrounds & Image Planes Maya 2013

Transcription

1 Michael O'Rourke Backgrounds & Image Planes Maya 2013 Set up Model a few primitives for a simple scene or retrieve an earlier scene >Window >Rendering Editors >Render Settings >Image Size tab Set Resolution = 640x480 To see accurate framing of your scene In the Persp window, >View >Camera Settings >Resolution Gate This shows you the framing of your scene based on the resolution you have set in the Render Settings window Background Colors

2 The default background color when you render is black Click in the Persp window to make it active >Render >Render Current Frame Your scene renders with a black background To change the background to a different solid color, you need to go to the Attribute Editor of the Perspective camera To do this In the Persp window, >View > Camera Attribute Editor or >Window >Hypershade In top window, >Cameras Double click on perspshape to open its Attribute Editor Inside the Attribute Editor for the Persp camera, >Environment Double-click the Background Color swatch to open the color editor Choose a color Re-render your scene with the Render View window Your rendering now has your chosen background color NOTE: The hardware renderer will not render background colors Background Pictures on Image Planes In Photoshop (or a similar program)

3 make a simple image to use as a background image Make it low resolution for now For example, 320x240 (You can try a high resolution image later) Put your image in the /sourceimages in your Maya project folder TIP: /sourceimages in the default folder Maya will look in You can put your image anywhere you want and browse to find it To use a picture as a background image in Maya, you apply the picture to an image plane This is a plane attached to the camera you have selected Wherever you point the camera, it always looks at this image plane (There are several ways to create an image plane We will use a short, easy way here) In your Persp window, >View >Image Plane >Import Image Browse to find the image you created This creates the image plane for that camera, and puts the image on it In the Persp window, you should see the image of your image plane The background image may not be filling the frame completely We will fix that below If you do not see the background image in your Persp window, In the Persp window >Show Make sure Cameras is checked on Hit the 5 key for shaded hardware rendering You should see both your models and the background image-plane image

4 Re-render your scene Maya renders your models + your background image + your background color NOTE: Your background picture is not completely filling the frame We will fix that now Adjust the Background Image Fit In the Persp window, >View > Camera Attribute Editor >Environment tab > ImagePlane tab >Placement Fit = Size This will scale your bg image to fit your resolution It may squash or stretch your image Fit = Fill Click on Fit to Resolution Gate This will scale your bg image to fit your resolution No squash or stretch here Experiment with the other Fit settings If the image plane is in front of some of your objects, For Depth, change depth number to larger number You may have to use a very large number Depth The image plane exists in space, so It can be behind or in front of your models depending on where they are in space Still in the Persp camera s Attribute Editor, imageplane tab >Placement Change Depth to a very small number e.g., 4

5 Your models are hidden, because they are behind the image plane Change Depth to a larger number, until your models appear TIP: for scenes with very large models spread out in space -- for example, a terrain, or an architectural scene you may have to use a very large number for image plane Depth Re-selecting If you need to select your image plane again, you can either go through the camera s Attribute Editor or >Edit >Select All by Type >Image Plane or use the Hypergraph window select Persp then, >Graph >Upstream and Downstream Connections Procedural Textures on Image Planes (See illustration on right at top of page) A procedural texture is an image Created by a little sub-program (a procedure ) within Maya You can apply a procedural texture to an image plane First, delete your existing image plane with >Edit >Delete All by Type >Image Plane Create a new image plane using a different technique In the Persp window >View >Camera Attribute Editor In the camera s Attribute Editor. >Environment tab Next to Image Plane, click Create Go to >Image Plane Attributes Set Type = Texture Next to Texture, click the checkerboard map icon

6 Select a procedure For example, Checker, Ramp, etc. (NOTE: procedural texture bg images will not show up in the Persp window) Under Placement, select Fill Check on Fit to Resolution Gate TIP: To get a smooth gradation of color (as in the illustration), use a Ramp texture procedure