Adjusting Background Photo size

[gpickren]

Is there a way that one can resize a background photo so that the objects in the photo appear to be at the proper distance?

I am working on a spec house which is across the street from a school parking lot. We are trying to presell this house during construction and so are doing renderings to show how it will look, both looking toward the house from outside and the views from the house out the windows.

Because of the construction fence I had to take the photo 36' in front of where the camera in Chief is located so the objects in the photo appear too large and too close. I tried reducing the size but only the resolution was changed. This is probably part of Tim's pixal lesson, but I apparently have not learned it yet. How can I do this?

PS. I extended the terrain to the point where I wanted the background to start and I placed a Chief shrub of the same size and location as the ones in the photo. The Chief shrub was about 1/3 the size of the ones in this picture. So determining the size works well. I have changed the picture size, but it appears that Chief just blows it up again, i.e. 8 x 6 look the same as 6 x 4.

Thanks

Glen

[Dan Park]

Instead of placing a background image. Place a non rotating image in the plan in front of the window. Adjust it as needed.

[gpickren]

Thanks, Dan,

That is very cool. I just imported the picture as an image and sized it to approximately the actual size of the area shown in the picture. Then, adusted it to height and depth to join my terrain. Bada Boom!

If you look out the right window you will see the could of the real street whereas in the center and left you can see the street I put into the terrain.

I can see this is the way to go for views out windows.

Glen

[gpickren]

Here is how it works .... just like Hollywood.

[pintodesign]

WOW!!
That is cool! I will use this trick often.
I usually take photos at the site, and plug them in as a background for the overviews etc. Often, the sclae is a little off, but my clients think it's amazing anyway!
Thanks for the tip.
Barb

[George Godwin]

Glen, - Did you create a polyline solid and add the photo as a material? This looks like a very good way to get the correct view.

[mgpach]

George,
I searched for a while before i figured out what Dan was talking about. Go to - Tools/Image /create image pick your photo and place in plan view. It seems to make an image symbol out of the picture and puts it on a scrim. Theater talk. :^)

Michael

[gpickren]

Yes, just like Michael said. Very easy. You can change the size in the dialogue box or just stretch it in the camera view.

BTW, would this be a good way to place the house model into a background when you have houses on both sides. Right now I have a photo that just shows a chainlink fence and debris where the house will go and it seems to me that scaling backgrounds is always difficult, whereas I could crop the houses on both sides and easily scale them to height as images. Then, use the whole photo in the rear either as an image or as a background and then place the scrims on either side and adjust for height and depth.

Since Wendy seems to be the guru in placing houses "in" the backgrounds, maybe she can give us some input here.

Glen

[pktraylor]

When I tried using the tools/image/create image and then checked the 3D view, the image was always facing the camera. In your photo the image is still oriented facing the building. HUM?


I did check as a non rotating image but it made no difference.


What am I missing?



Paul

[gpickren]

Checking "Non-rotating" worked for me using the rendering camera. It rotated using the vector camera. I don't know if this was intentional or a bug. Perhaps Dan can explain this.