My planets are way way too faint

Started by Jane, February 10, 2007, 03:23:51 PM

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Jane

I am trying to add an object, a planet or a moon, to hover in the sky over top of the mountains, and I am having a problem getting my planets to show up, they are so faint that you can barely see them.  They end up clear and transparent.
Yes, I am a beginner.
I try to put color into them but still no go.
Some of my classmates are having the same problem.
Could someone here give us a quick tut on how to put some color or at least make them opaque. Or bright!
We did fine with the Earth, but one in the sky is our trouble.
Thank you!
Jane

MeltingIce

A render and/or .tgd would help greatly, as I have no clue why this is happening.  My first guess would be that the planet isn't transparent but just hard to see through the atmosphere.

MeltingIce Network | Wii Number: 3881 9574 8304 0277

Jane

Ive got one cookin' now on my other Mac, will put it here very soon,,,,
Then we can see where I am going wrong, I hope.
Thank you,
Jane

Jane

Here it is, I made it dark red, its very very light pink.

Its behind the clouds, but still its way too light for what I need.
(I Photoshopped it for more contrast)
Jane

Will

well you could tone down the color to make it less vibrent, you could place it farther away, or you could photoshop it. these are just some quick fixs mind you.

Regards,

Will
The world is round... so you have to use spherical projection.

old_blaggard

Will - don't you mean place the planet closer to get a more vibrant color?
http://www.terragen.org - A great Terragen resource with models, contests, galleries, and forums.

Jane

I made the color bright so that I could find it, some of the others I made were not visible at all.
Is there a way to make them look more 'solid'?  I will leave the clouds out of the next one.
Thanks again,
Jane

Angealus

Jane, post the tgd in here. Also look at melting Ice's Tut in the tutorials section on adding planets, worked wonders for me.

Rob Allen

#8
It actually looks more purple than pink, but that's normal considering the light reflected from the planet is red and essentially passing through a blue filter (the atmosphere).  If you want it to appear dark red, you will most likely have to photoshop it, unless you are willing to consider drastically altering the atmosphere.  Terragen 2 uses realistic lighting principles and atmospheric light scattering.  I don't know of any way to bypass these routines.  One thing you might want to try is placing it higher up in the sky.  The amount of atmosphere between the planet and the viewpoint is lesser the further it is from the horizon, and thus will have less of an effect on the light passing through it.

One more thing: Because of the realistic lighting, a planet is only as visible as the sunlight it reflects.  Just like the moon.  If you want them to be more visible, increase thier brightness by either making them paler or increasing thier saturation.  The colors toward the paler end of the spectrum will be more visible.  It is also important to remember that the atmosphere itself is an object, and thus can have significant effects on the appearance of things that are behind it.  And putting the planet closer won't have any effect until you reach the atmosphere, at which point the effect of the atmosphere will be lessened as the distance between the planet and the viewpoint decreases, and thusly, the amount of intervening atmosphere.


Jane

Wow, thank you all for these answers!  I will get cookin on some more soon. I think that now I will understand his tut, beforehand I was a bit bewildered.  But I sure am catching on fast today. Here goes another one,,,,,,,

I dont save my .tgd s because none of them are very good.  I just save them as .bmp s in a folder for our classwork.
When I get a good one, I will start to save.
Jane

3DGuy

They are actually opaque ;) Just look at the moon when it's visible during daytime. You'll see a crecent and the part that is not illuminated fades into the sky. If you want your whole planet to be visible you need to either move your sun so the visible side of the planet is in the light (i.e. the sun would be somewhere behind you. Or if you want to fake it, give the planet self illumination.

Jane

Oh, indeed thank you!  Soon as this render finishes I will start on a new one and follow the tut as I go.
I know I should have TG2 on both my Macs, but they would both be tied up.
Another question, whilst rendering, can you be working on another picture on the same computer?
I do have other programs running, but I try to remember not to, and do my other stuff on this Mac.
Jane

Rob Allen

Rendering is very CPU-intensive.  It is possible to be doing all manner of things while a render is going, but exactly what strongly depends on your system specs.  I browse and chat on the forums here while my renders are going without much trouble but I use Firefox and I have an Alienware Area-51m.  I actually own two computers but they are in different rooms now and I use this one for rendering and foruming.

3DGuy

I start my tg in low priority. So it renders in the background and doesn't interfere with my other business.