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Cartoony clouds

Discussion in 'Formats & External Tools' started by antenna-tree, Jan 15, 2007.

  1. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2005
    Posts:
    5,324
    Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any tutorials out there for how to make some nice looking bubbly clouds. I'm trying to create a skybox for a scene that takes place on platforms above some clouds. Right now I'm trying to do it using fluid effects in Maya, but the effect is a little too realistic looking for the cartoony effect I'm trying to achieve.

    I might resort to just modeling out the clouds by hand by I wanted to ask here first in case anyone had any suggestions. There will be towers popping out above the clouds and I want to achieve a sort of hazy effect but at the same time have the clouds bubbly instead of wispy.

    Could it be possible using particles with circular billboards that fade out at the edges?

    Thanks for any help,
    Ethan
     
    antenna-tree, Jan 15, 2007
    #1

  2. Jonathan Czeck

    Jonathan Czeck

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2005
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    Nothing screams bubbly more than metaball based clouds, I think.

    -Jon
     
    Jonathan Czeck, Jan 15, 2007
    #2

  3. NicholasFrancis

    NicholasFrancis

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    Apr 8, 2005
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    If it's a skybox, why not dig out some old disney movies and just paint the things?
     
    NicholasFrancis, Jan 15, 2007
    #3

  4. thylaxene

    thylaxene

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2005
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    Couldn't you use Maya to spit out your clouds with the alpha and then use Photoshop to do some post on them? Using plugins like 'median' to average the colours, then use hue an saturation to change the colour of your clouds. Having the alpha will help to isolate the changes, then applying those tweaked clouds back to a nice sky gradient.

    Also I'd love to see what settings you are using in Maya Fluids to get realistic clouds... as I need to make realistic clouds for my project. :wink:

    cheers.
     
    thylaxene, Jan 15, 2007
    #4

  5. yellowlabrador

    yellowlabrador

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    yellowlabrador, Jan 15, 2007
    #5

  6. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2005
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    5,324
    @Jon

    Yeah, good idea. The only problem is the effect of getting these towers in the skybox to look like there rising through the semi mist of the clouds. Solid metaballs would work if built up separate layers of them with varying transparencies. Or using particles, which I still haven't experimented with for this.

    @Nicholas

    Same goes for painting them in from other sources. They need to interact with the 3D towers and look convincing. But photoshopping in some extra "Disney" clouds here and there could work.

    @thylaxene

    Here's the link to a tutorial I found that got me started.

    Thanks all,
    Ethan
     
    antenna-tree, Jan 15, 2007
    #6