Night Flight Over an Alien City Animation in Blender

Today we’ll be making an animation of a night flight over an alien city. I’ll be using the 2.81 version of Blender. In particular, we’ll be making use of the following tools and techniques:

• vertex groups
• mark seam
• texture node
• emission shader
• mix shader
• color ramp
• particle system
• volumetrics
• volume scatter shader
• add curve
• edit curve
• follow path constraint
• reset location
• follow curve

Here’s an image from the night flight animation:

And now the steps:

Step 1 – Add a Plane and Subdivide It

Delete the default cube and save the file.

Add a plane and scale it: S 5

Rename it ‘ground’.

Go to edit mode, top view.

Subdivide the plane: Edge → Subdivide, number of cuts: 25

Step 2 – Add Material

Go to Rendered shading.

Add a material and set its base color to hex 660B0F.

This is the area of the city. Now select the areas that you want to be empty (without any buildings).

Step 3 – Vertex Group

Create a vertex group: Object data tab → + sign

Rename it ‘corridors’ and assign to the selected faces.

Create a new material: color: hex 200404 and assign it to the corridors.

Step 4 – Move the Light Down

Go to object mode.

Select the light and move it down.

Step 5 – Add More Lights

Duplicate the light several times and distribute them along the path of the camera.

Change world color to black.

Step 6 – Add a Cylinder

Create a new collection (RMB → New) and name it ‘towers’.

In the towers collection add a cylinder and scale it: S Shift+Z 0.3

Move the cylinder aside along the X axis and up (using snapping) so that it stands on the ground.

Step 7 – Move the Origin Point of the Tower

Go to front view.

Move the origin point to the base of the tower.

You can do it in edit mode or in object mode. Let’s choose the latter option, which is only available in newer versions of Blender. In the Properties panel (N to open), in the Tool tab check Origins. Now you can move the origin to the bottom. Use snapping.

Step 8 – Mark Seams

Uncheck Origins in the Properties panel when you’re done.

Go to edit mode.

Select the loops at the top and bottom of the tower and one edge on the side of the tower.

Mark seams: Edge → Mark Seam

Step 9 – UV Unwrap

Go to the UV Editing workspace.

Select all and unwrap: UV → Unwrap

Step 10 – Add Material to the Tower

Add a new material to the tower and name it ‘tower’. Set the base color to hex 190906.

Add another material to the tower and name it ‘side’.

Go to Shading workspace.

Step 11 – Add Texture

Download the seamless texture from textures.com or you can use the one attached to this project.

Add an Image Texture node, connect color to base color of the Principled node.

In the Image Texture node open the image file (the seamless texture).

Select all the faces of the tower except the top and bottom ones and assign the material to them.

Step 12 – Adjust the Texture Image

Go to the UV Editing workspace.

In the UV Editor select all the vertices on the right and move them along the X axis as far as the right end of the image.

Step 13 – Add More Nodes

Go to the Shading workspace.

Add an emission shader and connect the image texture’s color to it.

Connect the emission shader’s emission to material output’s surface.

Add a mix shader and plug it between the emission shader and output. Plug emission and principled to it.

Add a color ramp between image texture and emission.

Connect the color ramp’s color with mix shader’s fac.

Step 14 – Add More Contrast

Move the black slider on the color ramp so that there is more contrast between the shining parts and the dark parts.

Step 15 – Add More Towers

Go to the Layout workspace.

Duplicate the tower 3 times and change the sizes and proportions of the duplicates. All the towers should now be in the towers collection.

Step 16 – Particle System

Select the ground and create a particle system:

type: hair

number: 100

segments: 2

Check Advanced and set:

Render:

• Render as: Collection

• Scale: 0.3

• Scale randomness: 0.5

Collection:

• Instance collection: towers

check:

• Object Scale +

• Object Rotation + Pick random +

Select all the towers which are off the ground and rotate them: R Y -90

Step 17 – Redistribute the Towers

Redistribute the towers so that the corridors remain empty:

In the particles tab go to Vertex Groups and under Density select the corridors group. This will put the towers on the corridors, so we have to reverse the effect. Press the button with the arrows on the right.

Step 18 – Add Volumetrics

Now we’ll add volumetrics. Place the 3D cursor in the world origin: Shift+S → Cursor to World Origin.

Select the main collection (not the towers collection).

Go to wireframe shading.

Create a cube and scale and move it so that it sits on the ground and reaches over half the height of the tallest towers.

Step 19 – Adjust the Lights

Select all the lights in the Outliner and grab them below the surface of the cube if necessary.

Step 20 – Add Volume Scatter

Add new material to the cube.

Go to the Shading workspace.

Go to Rendered shading and select the cube.

Remove the Principled shader.

Add a Volume Scatter shader. Connect volume to volume.

In the render tab turn on Bloom: radius: 2, intensity: 0.3

In the volume scatter node set color to hex E7100E.

Step 21 – Add the Path

Go to the Layout workspace, top view.

Go to Material Preview.

Add a path: Add → Curve → Path

Go to edit mode.

Move the path to where the camera should start, and extrude between the towers.

Step 22 – Move the Path Up

Go to object mode, wireframe.

Move the path up to about 40% of the height.

Step 23 – Place the Path Partially in the Fog

Go to edit mode.

Select some of the points on the path and grab them down so that they are submerged in the fog. Other points should go up. It’s best visible in solid shading.

Step 24 – Move the Origin of the Path

Go to object mode.

Go to top view, wireframe shading.

Move the origin of the path to its beginning. To do that open the Properties panel (N) and check Origins in the Tool tab.

Step 25 – Move the Camera

Uncheck Origins and close the Properties panel (N).

Snap the cursor to the selected point: Shift+S -> Cursor to Selected

Go to object mode.

Select the camera and snap it to the cursor: Shift+S -> Selection to Cursor.

Step 26 – Add the Follow Path Constraint

Go to object constraints tab and add object constraint → Follow Path. Target: NurbsPath

Now the camera is offset from the path. The offset is visible as the blue dashed line. Open the Properties panel (N) and look at the location of the camera. This location determines the offset, just try changing the X location for example and you will see the offset change.

Step 27 – Reset Camera Offset

If you want the camera to be exactly on the path, you have to reset the offset. To do that hit Alt+G.

Step 28 – Animate the Path

Click Animate Path.

In the Timeline press Play and watch the camera follow the path. It keeps looking in one direction though.

In the Object constraints tab check Follow Curve.

Step 29 – Make the Night Flight Animation Longer

The animation is too short. In the Timeline set the end frame to 480, which will correspond to 20 seconds at 24 fps.

Select the path in the Outliner and go to the Object Data tab.

In Path Animation set frames to 480.

Step 30 – Get Ready to Render the Night Flight Animation

Move the towers in the towers collection far away under the ground so that they are not visible in the final render.

In the Output tab select a folder for the video.

Set file format to FFmpeg and encoding to MPEG4.

Step 31 – Render the Night Flight Animation

Make a test render: Render -> Render Image

Render the night flight animation.