For the final project in VSFX 428, I have chosen to create an aerial plane scene heavily inspired by the Apple TV show “Masters of the Air”. Here is the reference image.
The plane asset I’m using is a Douglas SBD Dauntless, which was a WWII naval dive and scout plane.
Asset Wireframe
Early Layout
I’ve begun laying out the clouds and doing some early tests. I have some previous experience using Houdini 20’s new skybox tools from the Riders project, so I’m more comfortable doing a more complex scene like this one. I set up the clouds in 4 layers, each at different heights a few hundred meters apart from each-other.
Heres the standard node setup for creating the cloud volumes. All of the major changes happen inside of the main skybox node.
Having the clouds laid out like this gives an appearling parallax effect seen in the reference.
The next step is to get started on the flak and bullet effects, and then move onto lighting and rendering the clouds, which I expect will be a large undertaking, and will probably take up the majority of my time.
I wanted to see how the clouds looked with a default Arnold volume shader on them. Theyre being lit with a skydome light and a direct light. I think the cloud volumes need more fine tuning, however I think they’re in a good spot for now.
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