Part 3 is finally underway! I know you all have been waiting to hear what I have in store for this part. It's shaping up to be my longest and most challenging part of the project yet!

Pre-Production on Part 3

Shot List

Attached below and to the post is the shot list for scene (part) three. Like with scene two, this is a rough outline. Some things may be subject to change to help out with the shot flow, but I will otherwise try to stick to the general ideas lain out here as much as possible!

Storyboards

My good friend Bread has prepared the next set of boards to give you all a good idea of what each shot will look like. Do keep in mind that like the shot list, these are rough ideas and are subject to change.

Shot 1 Full Render Preview

Shot 1 is already done! This is a shot I've been wanting to do for awhile now in my work and I'm really glad I got to have the chance to do so. Giga scales like this are hard to animate but they give such satisfying results!

Seamless Transitions in Blender

By now I'm sure you've come to realize my obsession with seamless camera transitions. When making such extreme positional cuts between being high in the clouds and low on the ground, I've found it best to create cuts that are hidden behind objects. Also, they just look really cool. :3

That brings me to the subject of this tip: holdouts. A holdout creates a "hole" in an image, leading to an alpha transparency of 0 (fully transparent). This can be assigned to any object in Blender and can be even be assigned in the shader editor. Holdouts work best when only the ray visibility for the camera is turned on. This way it won't interact with other objects in your scene.

In this example, I've set a plane to be the holdout. The checkered pattern indicates an alpha value of 0.

This works for the transition as it gives the full image transparency, allowing for the clip underneath in the timeline to show through.

Miscellaneous Tips

There isn't too much to talk about in this shot that I haven't talked about in another WIP, so I'm gonna give some extra little tips that may help your own work!

Volume Anisotropy

Anistropy defines the bias of the direction that light travels through a volume. The values run like this: 0 anisotropy scatters light rays through a volume randomly in any direction past its emission source. A positive value directs the scattering more towards the original light's direction and a negative value does the opposite.

(Digital) Bounce Cards

A real life concept in lighting is something called a "bounce/diffuser card". These are physical cards that reflect diffused lighting back onto the subject from another source. These are typically used for reflecting light, but they are also good for absorbing light, too. The same concept applies in 3D. When making the ground in this shot below the camera, I opted for a black plane with a small amount of reflection. That way the plane doesn't bounce any light onto the buildings and absorbs the light in the scene.

And that's all for this WIP! I'll have more on the way for Judgement Day very soon. A Dragon's Desire comes first, though!