8mins 52secs, 33meg Quicktime 840×526 h.264 mov
SKYDOME!!! Yeah boyeeee! Okay, this is a pretty basic tutorial, I admit it, but it is a bloody useful one, especially if you don’t know Maya. Did you also notice how many comma’s I used in the last sentence. That is Very Bad Grammar if English is not your native language. Luckily you are here to talk about visual effects and not English (although I did teach English in Japan for a year, shhhhh, don’t tell them about my grammar).
Anyway, this technique is certainly no secret. I originally found this on a website somewhere, but they didn’t really explain it too well and didn’t even have screenshots so I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. On Animalia the compositors had to make their own skydomes quite a few times as they often weren’t provided for us. We sometimes got them on moving camera shots (and most of the bloody shots were moving!) but there was also a library of regular matte paintings, mostly painted by Dudley Birch. Luckily, a few of the compositors I work with were also Maya guys, so they showed me how to operate Maya on at least a basic level to pull in shots, strip geometry and make a skydome, so thanks to John Kitching and Rodriogo Guimaraes for the info.
Tags: Maya, Tips & Tricks