Aw, i forgot to mention that the scene was being lit by a HDR Map of around 50mb, also i’ve spotted two sun lights, one for a kind of rim light, and other for a, well, fuck, i dont know, for a “pretty effect”
This is what looks like the viewport:
Since my computer dont costs as much as a house, i had to split the scene in few layers to get this finished
The best way i figured to do that in my -tired mood- was hide the multi million particle systems in santa and render it later
Something like that:
I have to admit that the real magic was really in the post production, i’ve rendered 3 different scenarios w/ arguably different particle and shader configurations (in reality, this was because i was trying to find a way to render all that at once)
So in photoshop i compose all that renders together, picking the best of each, i’ve also rendered 3 different mist passes to accomplishes my vision in the “fog” section
This is what my comp looks like:
Briefly explanation:
-Misc folder is where i put the vignette effect, and painted some light scatters to obtain this orangish color near the sun)
-Fog/Comp is where all the fog/air layers are, i’ve painted some fog with custom brushes, added other bunch using smoke pictures under a black background, compositing with “screen” in blending modes
-Ambient Occlusion, well, you know what it is, i’ve used to bring some contrast using it in overlay mode
-Mist Layers is where all that mist passes are, i’ve blended them using masks to grade softly the foreground to background
-Foreground, Here i’ve painted some snow in the reindeers, added some fancy lens effects, dust and glow, thanks to peter jackson (also is where i’ve putted the previous render, to isolate that from the rest)
-Sky Misc is where i’ve painted the dark clouds, fading trough the scene
-Background is where i’ve added some “atmospheric haze” with fog layers and gave some love to the simple meshs of the background with proper texturing
-Renders is where i’ve putted all 3 renders and compose then all using masks
-Sky is where the rest is.
Each folder have around six to nine layers each, if u are used to compositing in programs like nuke or fusion, you know that this is not a high number, and the more control the better, dont?
I’m just finishing it, one more last!