WorldBuilder 4 Basics: Part 4, Introduction

Welcome to Part 4 of our WorldBuilder Basics tutorial.

In this tutorial we will continue building the scene we started in Parts 1, 2 and 3. We will add Haze, Color Correction and Volumetrics filters to enhance the realism of our WorldBuilder scene.

NOTE: The tutorial is designed to be used with the downloadable demo version of WorldBuilder 4. Some features such as scene and rendered image saving are disabled in this version. In order to follow along with the tutorial example scene files, each of the tutorial's four parts are available for download.

Let's start by reviewing our scene in Production Rendering mode (once you've rendered the scene, click on Incremental Design Step Forward). All of our landscape, vegetation and water elements are satisfactory. But there is still something missing: an element of scale and distance. In the real world, airborne dust and haze cause distant objects to appear lighter and 'washed out' (this is sometimes called atmospheric perspective). We will now duplicate this visual phenomenon by applying a filter to our scene.

In the Scene Tree, select Scene and in the Properties Tree right -click on its Filters node. Select the Haze filter. A little bit later we will add the Volumetric Light filter, as well. Note: The Fog and Two Color Fog filters could also be used; they are both filters that were created for earlier versions of WorldBuilder.

After the Haze filter appears in the Properties of the Scene, re-render the image. Since we're working with Incremental Design, the filtered image will appear very quickly. The image is bleached out and is too foggy. We have to adjust the Haze parameters in order to simulate the conditions of a sunny day.