How to create a bunker in a hill?

[disneytoy]

Greetings!

I need to generate an animation of this battle area. I've attached a pic showing a sandbag bunker in the hill. Is this something possible to do in TG 2.1 or should I try to comp it from 3ds Max or in After effects?

And regarding ground cover, can anyone recommend a pack or some plants that look similar to the pic?

Thanks so much.

Max

[Hetzen]

I think I would model the bunkers in max and export .obj to import into TG. What you will have to do is somehow flatten the area they'll be positioned, which you'll have to do with an image map I would guess. Actually, it won't be easy with the road and steps built into the hill either, you may need to use World Machine or Geocontrol to help flatten out an exported .ter from TG. How close will you be getting to these objects? Will this be an over view of the battlefield, or are you expecting to green in some actors and use this as a virtual set?

[dandelO]

Oh! Talking of stairs carved in the terrain, that reminds me of this thread at Ashundar by Otakar from a while back... http://www.terragen.org/index.php?topic=4776.msg38303#msg38303

They look nearly exactly like the ones in your reference image.
The link in the first post will take you to a discussion on how to lay them on the terrain.

[disneytoy]

thanks for your input. I wish i had more time because I haven't worked with terragen that much. I'm doing 3 animations of the Korean War Battlefield between the US Army and the Chinese for a Documentary to air on PBS. About 3 - 12 second clips. Two at night with bombs and lots of gun fire. I'm more of amn After Effects user, and have been promoting Terragen because the quality is so amazing. VUE looked a bit to cartoonie.

I do have green screen soldiers. Both US and charging Chinese soldiers, but I will put them in AE.

The Bunkers are important, and there are some open trenches I have to carve out.

I'm considering rendering a 360 degree HDRI to bring into After Effects.

The main shot goes from a POV of the Chinese attaching pulling back and up for an overview and then the lights of Seoul in the distance 40 miles away. So details are really only in the first couple seconds.

Thanks again!

Max

[Hetzen]

In which case, I'd be tempted to set up your basic terrain in TG. Output a low res LWO to bring into Max to place your models of the bunkers. Export those bunker models back into TG as .obj, so that your atmospherics and GI match. You can also export a localised .ter through the heightfield functions that you could use as a simplified bit of terrain in Max so that you can position your greens, set up masks or billboard shadow maps, and work out camera moves. Max2AE might help here.

Sounds like a good fun project.

[Hetzen]

Actually, there's all sorts of ways of handling this. I guess one of the major problems you'll face is getting explosion lighting to interact with the terrain and models if this is all at night. You can export light's out of Max into TG, but I'm not sure what information is carried across. I've never done it myself.

[dandelO]

I've made some internal TG2 volumetric explosion objects before, maybe they'd come in handy...  http://sites.google.com/site/rockyknuckles/dandelo'spubliclibrary

You'll find an explosion object clip file in the volume 1 pack.

[disneytoy]

Hetzen, thanks for the great info. A lot of this type of work is having a good workflow. I just got a ton of new reference photos from Korea, that will help. I'll add them to my blog as examples later.

http://digitalconceptsvfx.blogspot.com/

dandelO, Thanks for your links. I've admired your work! I just wish I had a few months to get up to speed in Terragen. The images are amazing.

The Director, has traveled all over the world filming and interviewing all the surviving Soldiers. China, Korea, Greece, England.

Thanks again!

Max

"Hold At All Cost" will be on PBS in June.