A sun in space?

[lightning]

Hey guys
I am trying to get a sun that shines in space but i cant find a way to do it the sun only seems to shine when it is inside the atmosphere i wanted to make a galactic render of planets and asteroids and wanted the shining sun as the center point but when your camera is in space the sun does not shine at all? i can easily render a sun via post work in photoshop but i would rather have the shining sun rendered within terragen 2 

[Tangled-Universe]

I'm rendering right now so I can't try it myself but how about creating a planet at the same coordinates as the sun and give it a very thick atmosphere and then play with the density and glow settings?

[lightning]

um that is a very good idea ill try that when i get home
i would like an effect something similar to this

[3DGuy]

Um I get the sun quite visibly


edit: oops you already replied. The effect you see is a lensflare which is the result of lens defects and in this case also because it was photographed through a window. Unless TG2 is going to offer lens effect plugins, then you're going to need photoshop or something similar to add it in.

[lightning]

I know the streaks and the pentagons are from the lens flare but there must be a strong light their

[3DGuy]

To get a glow around a bright lightsource you need something to scatter the light. In space there basically isn't anything to scatter the light so you'd just see a sphere. Since human eyes aren't perfect, very bright lightsources will cause use to see a glow. I'd just use the sphere for reference and shop a sun in there the way you want it to look.

[darthvader]

It also helps that the sun is very, very, very bright and terragen just cannot replicate that amount of energy and light

[scott8933]

Usually in space there's an astronaut's window there which does a nice job of scattering the light. Which I was wondering about the above image - is that a real picture? The flare has an unusually organic quality about it. You can almost hear the guy with the German accent cleaning off the outside of the window before the rocket took off.

Lightning - if it isn't real, do you know what software was used to make the flare?

To get a glow around a bright lightsource you need something to scatter the light. In space there basically isn't anything to scatter the light so you'd just see a sphere. Since human eyes aren't perfect, very bright lightsources will cause use to see a glow. I'd just use the sphere for reference and shop a sun in there the way you want it to look.

[PG]

This is just very rough to illustrate but give this a go. Basically I put a planet in the exact position of the sun then increased the haze height massively. Don't know how to get rid of the sillouhette of the planet though.
Edit: Might want to attach the image.

[Tangled-Universe]

This is just very rough to illustrate but give this a go. Basically I put a planet in the exact position of the sun then increased the haze height massively. Don't know how to get rid of the sillouhette of the planet though.
Edit: Might want to attach the image.

Yes this is what I meant.

I don't have TG2 here at work, luckily for my boss so I can't check but doesn't the planetobject has a "visible to rays/camera's etc." function?
If so, you might disable it.

Martin

[PG]

na. only a render surface option. Or disabling the power fractal. Both of which I tried. Sorry didn't read your first post
Ooh. ha. by a stroke of random luck I remembered the how the background object works and made the radius of the planet a negative and it works. You have to increase the height of the haze even more though.

[Tangled-Universe]

na. only a render surface option. Or disabling the power fractal. Both of which I tried. Sorry didn't read your first post
Ooh. ha. by a stroke of random luck I remembered the how the background object works and made the radius of the planet a negative and it works. You have to increase the height of the haze even more though.

Ah well done! Didn't know of that negative radius thing, I'm not into space/orbital renders, or haven't been at least.
I think you should increase the haze heighth to insane values (so it might even reach the planet in the foreground for example).
Then reduce the density and play with the glow settings. This way the dropoff of the light will be more gradually regulated.
You're on the good way I think.

Martin

[Mandrake]

You might do a Sun altering Mr. Lampost's "Beginnings" settings