"RobF" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> I've been experimenting with rendering crowds. This scene contains about 500
> people.
>
> Comments and crits welcome.

Your 'POV people' image immediately got my attention! Looks like a photo, that
you staged on a real street. Very nice work.

Your web-page description of the billboard technique is much appreciated.  I
find it intriguing that the DAZ figures integrate so well into your image, even
though the lighting on the figures (in DAZ) is mainly side light--that is, no
real(?) attempt at 'matching' the figure lighting to the POV scene lighting.
Yet it all blends together wonderfully. I wouldn't have expected such success.

I haven't yet looked at your macro, but I assume that the billboards are rotated
*only * around the y-axis, to match the camera. Here's a suggestion--sure to
occupy a few of your off-hours(!): For your POV-people image, why not make a
'few' more billboards (ugh!) of each character, not rotated around y each time,
but rather by rotating the (perspective) camera itself upwards--say in 10-deg.
intervals up to maybe 60-deg--to get some down-angle views. Then rotate the
final billboard(s) in both y and x, to face the camera square-on, so the
perspective looks right. (I've done this trick before using
photos-as-billboards, and it looks quite convincing; took me awhile to figure
out the rotational code, though. And it might be rather tricky to get the feet
of the figures to always appear 'grounded.')

Ken W.

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