Post 18 - Floor Plane Improvments

Floor Plane with Ramp Texture

Continuing on from Joe's feedback, I have now altered the sequences in order for the rig to have correct weight distribution. I have also gotten rid of the harsh floor plane / horizon line using a nifty little trick. In the previous post, Joe suggested that I could apply a depth of field filter, or use some kind of environmental fog. Both of these techniques are post-rendering and so would take a lot longer (not to mention it is rather fiddly also).


I had a theory that if you made the floor plane transparent, but then configured it to get more transparent from the center outwards, this would create a softer line where the plane ends and would not be as render heavy. I posted a question onto the CG Society and got a reply the same day.

The solution is as follows:


Create what is called a 'ramp texture' material (basic alpha style black to white gradient) and set it to 'circular ramp'; going from black in the center to white on the edge. This would then be attached to the transparency lever for the original floor material. This did the trick and has made the scene much more pleasing. I originally also replaced the square plane for a circular one to reduce ugly corners, but found that this messed up the ramp texture, so I then reverted back to the square.


This solution was suggested by Mikael aka lostparanoia, a 3D VFX artist from Sweden.