February 24 , 2005
One way to create an interesting 3D sky in a scene is to create a "sky dome". The name says it all. I created a dome by cutting a large sphere in half, and mapping a sky and some landscaping on the inner surface. The map is circular, and depicts a view of the sky as would be seen by a fish-eye lens looking straight up. I used an image of the sky, then in Photoshop I created a bare tree, and duplicated it several times. I distorted and resized the trees for variation, then placed them around the perimeter of the sky circle. Using the SPHERIZE tool at 100%, I "squished" the trees closer to the outer edge of the circle, which better mimics the distortion of a fish-eye lens.

From a distance, here is what the dome looks like in position over the mansion model.

And here is the most recent rendering of the rear of the mansion with the sky dome in place.

February 25 , 2005
Another view using the sky dome.

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