Final Photo Montage Composite
WildPlay, an aerial and adventure attractions company needed a 3D rendering of the proposed zipline ride which is located in Niagara Falls, Canada. The Niagara MistRider Zipline allows people to ride a zipline from the top to the bottom of the falls in a matter of seconds. For stakeholders and the public a 3D rendering was needed to answer questions about visual impacts to the surrounding area.
Since the turnaround time for the rendering was very short it was decided to use a photo montage technique to cut down on modeling time of the surrounding area. The site was close by so we opted to shoot the background plate ourselves in order to pick the ideal angle that conveys the sense of place, scale and lighting.
The project was initiated during the first week of December and the photographs were taken during the winter season which meant that there were no leaves on the trees and the setting was not ideal for a summer scene so some serious compositing was needed to add summer elements like trees and people in summer attire.
The new architectural elements, summer vegetation and some of the background people were created in 3ds Max, using the site photograph to line up the camera. This layer was rendered out and brought into Photoshop to be composited with the site photograph, additional people in the foreground and post effects to bring all the elements together.
A CG generated scene layer consisting of vegetation, architectural elements and people
A photograph taken of the site during the winter
The individual layers are combined with the photo to create the final montage and render
You can read about the new facility here on the Buffalo news
