VARIATION: VOLUMES
This study goes over form and variation of volumes focusing mostly on fog and mist.
FORM
When I thought of fog in both movies and real life, I thought of it as uniform and affecting an entire scene equally like the image below.
However, something I learned recently at work is that fog can have a varied form. Living in SF also gave me a new perspective. So I started doing some research:
Difference Between Fog and Mist
Learning that fog and mist have defined forms like clouds changed the way I thought of implementing them in scenes.
Fog can have boundaries in the X, Y and Z planes.
This example from the show “Bring Em Back Alive” shows that fog can also be small, low hanging clouds in multiple, dispersed formations.
There can also be clustered, rhythmic mist formations. Shown in Lego Batman
and as more horizontal formations in Superman.
The two images above show variation in repetitive shapes, making them feel organic.
Variation
Variation continues to be the most important concept in art in as I keep learning in my career. And one of the most important things I learned about fog recently is that it must have variation to feel more three dimensional. This includes having breakup within the volume to have areas of high/low opacity, and combination of different types of fog.
For a variation breakup comparison, the two following shots from Heat show two type of volume patterns. The first is uniform, without breakup.
And the second is a broken up patten with gaps in opacity.
This brings us to one of the most important differences between haze and fog/mist: atmospheric haze is uniform in distribution.
And fog/mist is varied in distribution.
In the images below, atmospheric perspective is still maintained with a dark foreground and lifted background, but with mist breakup, areas on the same plane can have varied sections of opaque, fog and sections of dark values.
Like the image above, areas of strong break up can be used to help sub-frame the center of interest. As shown by Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt:
And Lev Lagorio:
The above example shows negative space breakup for variation. There can also be variation in positive space. At Niagara Falls, there is a mid-level mist at the base of the waterfall as well as a towering plume in the middle.
There can also be variation in atmospheric types. For example, in this painting by Thomas Cole, not only is there a fog gradient that increases in Y at the base of the mountain, there are patches of bright ground fog (mainly screen left) to add more opacity variation.
Another form of atmospheric variation is shown with wispy mist in the air and patchy ground mist (focused at the base of the structure and behind the foreground plane).
This next example features mist over the water with a Y gradient. Notice how the tower foundation is much more flashed and blue compared to the top of the tower. The second layer of atmos is brightly formed fog clinging to the cliffs.
