This is my first attempt at a visual effects technique called camera projection. It allows you to take any 2d picture and turn it in to a 3d environment in which a virtual camera can move freely around in. The technique can be very useful for certain shots where you want a realistic camera movement, but can’t due to location or budget restrictions.
I decided to take it a step further and added a video time-lapse of the sky to the render to create the effect of a very slow camera move sped up.
The video above covers most of the process, but I’ve added a few more screen captures from the process underneath. Had I spent a little more time modeling in Maya and painting each building in Photoshop, the effect would probably look more realistic, but being my first attempt, I wanted to somewhat limit my attention to detail in order to not over-complicate the process.