Picture of a road with landscape changing
November 20, 2019 8:58 AM Subscribe
Is this a thing? Show me some examples: I want to see a picture of a road (ideally a vanishing point style road) but I want the landscape along the side of the road to change dramatically along the lengh of the road. Like let's say the very back part visible is mountains, then prairie, then forest and the closest (to the "camera") part is rocky. Also acceptable side-views of roads that do this, but a vanishing point road would be the holy grail. Photo(-like) better than illustration. But realistic-ish illustrations also acceptable.
I want to photoshop something like this as an image to represent a road trip. I'd like to see some examples of how this could be done (if it can be done).
I want to photoshop something like this as an image to represent a road trip. I'd like to see some examples of how this could be done (if it can be done).
Response by poster: No, the mountains there are background, they're not along the road. I'd like the landscape along the road itself to change. This would have to be photoshopped/drawn. It would not exist as a real landscape.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:21 AM on November 20, 2019
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:21 AM on November 20, 2019
I think it might be really hard to get one image that has all those things. Here are a couple that have bits of what I think you are looking for:
Lincoln Highway book cover (combines greenery and rocky mountains)
Mustard color river (combines rocks and forest -- imagine the river is a road)
Audacity TED (combines snow and rocks and sun -- again, imagine the river is a road)
e-word illustration (imagine the mountains are blue and white)
posted by OrangeDisk at 9:47 AM on November 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Lincoln Highway book cover (combines greenery and rocky mountains)
Mustard color river (combines rocks and forest -- imagine the river is a road)
Audacity TED (combines snow and rocks and sun -- again, imagine the river is a road)
e-word illustration (imagine the mountains are blue and white)
posted by OrangeDisk at 9:47 AM on November 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Sorry to threadsit... yeah doesn't have to be all those things or even those things specifically (could be other kinds of landscape, different weather/seasons). I just want to see how they do the transitions so O have a sense of how to do it myself.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:12 AM on November 20, 2019
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:12 AM on November 20, 2019
If you are willing to throw one point perspective to the wind, this illustration at They Draw and Travel is interesting in how the terrain changes. I searched the site for "road trip" to find it.
posted by coevals at 10:22 AM on November 20, 2019
posted by coevals at 10:22 AM on November 20, 2019
I found various examples by Google Image Search for "vanishing point road".
Looking at a bunch of those, if you want a vanishing point road, your best choice will be something that sort of looks down into and across a valley, with the road going down, across, and then up the opposite side of the valley. Like this, this, or this.
You could put a curve into it, something like this, which gives you some more roadside space to work with to put different landscapes in different areas.
The "down across the valley" view gives you some actual space on your canvas to put different landscapes. If you do more of a straight vanishing point road (like this), the road itself takes up so much of the canvas, and the landscape items more than a few feet away from the camera point are so foreshortened, that it becomes hard to show or see anything.
RE: mountains, if you're far enough back to see "the mountain" you're too far away to see the the road itself, except perhaps as the most razor-thin of lines. Plus, when roads hit mountains, they don't keep going straight, rather they curve to follow a canyon or such and then your razor-thin line is out of sight pretty much instantly.
So, this is a hard thing to draw in a way that the viewer can actually see what you want.
You could try maybe switchbacks up the mountain, but you're going to be looking at more of a stylized graphic portrayal than photo-realistic, especially if the switchbacks are in the back of the scene, in the distance. Roads way back there are just too tiny to really be seen.
Nevertheless, here are some sample photos that might give you some good ideas (google image search "distance switchback").
(That search actually has some of the best examples of what you might be looking for - example 1, example 2.)
posted by flug at 12:50 PM on November 20, 2019
Looking at a bunch of those, if you want a vanishing point road, your best choice will be something that sort of looks down into and across a valley, with the road going down, across, and then up the opposite side of the valley. Like this, this, or this.
You could put a curve into it, something like this, which gives you some more roadside space to work with to put different landscapes in different areas.
The "down across the valley" view gives you some actual space on your canvas to put different landscapes. If you do more of a straight vanishing point road (like this), the road itself takes up so much of the canvas, and the landscape items more than a few feet away from the camera point are so foreshortened, that it becomes hard to show or see anything.
RE: mountains, if you're far enough back to see "the mountain" you're too far away to see the the road itself, except perhaps as the most razor-thin of lines. Plus, when roads hit mountains, they don't keep going straight, rather they curve to follow a canyon or such and then your razor-thin line is out of sight pretty much instantly.
So, this is a hard thing to draw in a way that the viewer can actually see what you want.
You could try maybe switchbacks up the mountain, but you're going to be looking at more of a stylized graphic portrayal than photo-realistic, especially if the switchbacks are in the back of the scene, in the distance. Roads way back there are just too tiny to really be seen.
Nevertheless, here are some sample photos that might give you some good ideas (google image search "distance switchback").
(That search actually has some of the best examples of what you might be looking for - example 1, example 2.)
posted by flug at 12:50 PM on November 20, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks, flug. I was just mocking something up. I will definitely study those distance backswitch images and also read up on what "distance backswitch" is!
Here's an awful version of what I'm picturing. And looking at it, I was thinking that having the road curve a big (and actually go through the tundra instead of stopping at the base would be good. I expect the back cover will look down from the mountains.
So yeah, anything that shows sudden landskape changes so I can get a sense of how to do the transitions not-hideously would be useful. Right now the fall forest is obviously the worst. THe mountains/tundra/wheat/ocean seem like I could work with them.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:21 PM on November 20, 2019
Here's an awful version of what I'm picturing. And looking at it, I was thinking that having the road curve a big (and actually go through the tundra instead of stopping at the base would be good. I expect the back cover will look down from the mountains.
So yeah, anything that shows sudden landskape changes so I can get a sense of how to do the transitions not-hideously would be useful. Right now the fall forest is obviously the worst. THe mountains/tundra/wheat/ocean seem like I could work with them.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:21 PM on November 20, 2019
Left field answer: have you heard of 'Euro Truck Simulator'? There's an American version too. If you can plan out an appropriate route, it would be possible to record and playback the journey at compressed speed.
posted by porpoise at 1:51 PM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by porpoise at 1:51 PM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Found this to be an interesting question and surprisingly hard to find images for! (Although I think other responses are giving good ideas and am curious what you come up with)
Here's a possibly relevant image of a winding country road scene I found by searching for "focus stacking road photos" with guidance on the technique
posted by watrlily at 6:42 PM on November 20, 2019
Here's a possibly relevant image of a winding country road scene I found by searching for "focus stacking road photos" with guidance on the technique
posted by watrlily at 6:42 PM on November 20, 2019
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posted by pendrift at 9:16 AM on November 20, 2019