Studio backlot products
thelukok
Posts: 4
in The Commons
Hello I am trying to make a few renders including a kind of typical 1950's studio backlot. Sadly I've not seen anything made for daz that looks like it, so I will have to kitbash it myself. Does anyone have reccomendations for products that contain a soundstage or warehouse looking buildings, so I can combine them with a road, and with some props make that studio backlot look?
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I've been on all the studio lots, and in the soundstages. Is there a movie or TV studio that you specficly have in mind? The soundstages are clumped together and the backlot is separate. What point of view are you intending the put the camera at? Eye level of someone stanind on the road between the soundstages? A distant view of the studio from outside the studio walls? A view from the air looking down on the studio?
There is a product on that OTHER website called "Light aircraft hangar". It's the right shape. You would have to re-texture it, and perhaps scale it's width, length, and height. Most of the soundstage in a movie studio are the same general shape, and all have the same exterior texture. So you only need one model. Also at that OTHER site, if you seard the FREE section with the word hangar, you'll get a couple of options.
On DAZ, there is a pretty accurate soundstage door with the couple of stairs up the side of the building. https://www.daz3d.com/cyberpunk-trashed-corner
A ground plan showing how the MGM movie studio was laid out with the positions of the soundstages and roads etc. can be found on this page: https://www.thejudyroom.com/judy-on-the-backlot/
That's actually an interesting piece of historical information on that site. Thanks for the link.
another thread with suggestions https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/755066/universal-studios-lot#latest
I was on the MGM (Sony) lot a couple of years ago. It's pretty much the same as it was in the 1930s. In the reception hall/entrance to the Thalberg building there's a huge glass case with, I don't know, a dozen or two Academy Award Oscar trophies. I was in the film union, but I had to beg a security guard to let me onto the soundstages where the Wizard of Oz was filmed. I told him if he opened the door I'd just stand there for 5 seconds and then come out. While I was standing there for 5 seconds the guard says to me "Esther Williams simming pool is under this floor." The giant bigger than a billboard size painted canvas backdrops used for hundreds of movies were still there, some hung up, some rolled up. They're used over and over again. Maybe not so much since AI is taking over everything.
The Warner Brothers studio lot still has the Paris cafe where Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman visit. Working in the film industry and experiencing the living hell of working "on set", I decided a long time ago that all the magic is what you see on the screen - until I went to California. When you walk through those studio lots and stand in the soundstages, you can feel the magic - haunted by the ghosts of the Golden Age.
Fun fact, both Mely 3D's Mountain Valley and XIvon's XI Street Of the Past are direct copies of the Universal Studio movie backlot where literally thousands of movies have been shot, though it's probably most recognizable these days for the courthouse with the clocktower from the BACK TO THE FUTURE series. As someone who's worked in the film industry for over three decades, I can agree that others are correct in saying that an aircraft hanger would be a decent approximation as those are often pressed into service as temporary soundstages when real ones aren't available. That said, what I would actually to recommend to get the look down better for all the surrounding background is a set sold by 2nd World over at Renderosity called Polygon CIty
It's nominally supposed to be for Poser but I've found it works well for Iray with a little work (the current version of DS seems to lose the size of the textures when you load them and they have to be updated and the placement can be dodgey) as it's fantastic resource for all those backgound details and infrastructure that normally surrounds most studio soundstages, so all you have to do is pull out the things that are more obviously industrial (like the big smokestacks.) It's a bit of work, but having all those details makes a huge difference in how believable a scene is. As for the other things you'd expect to see on a movie lot, you've missed out on one of the better packages, as there used to be a really nice studio interior set here at DAZ by First Bastion which, while was labled a chroma key studio and featured a large greenscreen, is otherwise a pretty solid representation of a typical Hollywood soundstage and included a lot of hard to find gear like a camera crane rig. Unfortunately, it's no longer here but as FB has been slowly moving his older products to Renderosity and including texture sets redone for Iray, I expect to see it pop up there eventually. Beyond that, Hypnogagia made a nive set of Filmmaker Equipment that covers a lot of the basics, Nikkaels as https://www.daz3d.com/nikkelahs-vintage-movie-makers , T3D has Nostalgic Camera for Genesis 8 ,.and there's also Vintage Film Props , but the only other camera crane I'm aware of was at Sharecg, which is no more,.. a real shame as that's also where the only DS/Poser model I've ever found of a flatbed editor was.
Thank you all so much.I was envisioning some scenes where the character is walking through the studio, with props and people walking or driving in the iconic golfcarts. Polygon city with some fiddling actually looks closest to what I had in mind.