Adding a Shader to Sunlight

mr_anderson · July 22, 2015, 02:21:10 PM

Hey I am currently attempting to make a night scene for a project I am working on. Currently I have been having little to no success with creating the desired look of the moon. I have tried many options and have not been satisfied. I was wondering if there is a way to add a surface shader or shader on the Sun disc to make it look like the moon?

I am fairly new to the program so a little extra explanation would help more.

Thank you for your time.

Dune · July 23, 2015, 02:39:52 AM

That's not possible with the internal sun, but the best option is to use a real sphere or planet. There are files about. Can you post some images and show us what you're not satisfied about?
Or use the disc...

mr_anderson · July 23, 2015, 11:18:30 AM

Quote from: Dune on July 23, 2015, 02:39:52 AM
That's not possible with the internal sun, but the best option is to use a real sphere or planet. There are files about. Can you post some images and show us what you're not satisfied about?
Or use the disc...

Hello Dune. Thank you for the response. I was afraid of that answer lol. What I am trying to do is create a moon that is the main light source. I have tried putting the sunlight (low power) behind the moon object but get an eclipse losing all detail in the moons surface. I have tried placing the sun in front of my object, but having a heck of a time doing so (also I believe this would just wash out my moon detail).

Dune · July 23, 2015, 01:36:21 PM

You could perhaps work with 2 suns, one for the light, and one for the sun itself, but then the moon itself woyuld be plain. Or use a sphere or planet with a glowing surface for the moon, and light from one sun in the same area without glow in atmosphere and another with glow, but at lower intensity as not to overrule the glowing planet/sphere...

mr_anderson · July 23, 2015, 04:08:25 PM

Quote from: Dune on July 23, 2015, 01:36:21 PM
You could perhaps work with 2 suns, one for the light, and one for the sun itself, but then the moon itself woyuld be plain. Or use a sphere or planet with a glowing surface for the moon, and light from one sun in the same area without glow in atmosphere and another with glow, but at lower intensity as not to overrule the glowing planet/sphere...

I have tried the two sun method with a glowing planet. I guess my biggest problem with this was that I could not get the other planet to glow without having a stronger sun which lit up my terrain. I will play with it a little bit more. Thank you for the suggestions.

mr_anderson · July 24, 2015, 01:30:45 PM

I ended up getting a look I was going for. The stars were created using dandelO's Procedural Night Sky.

Oshyan · July 24, 2015, 03:25:13 PM

Well done. Glad you were able to find a good method.

- Oshyan

Dune · July 25, 2015, 03:23:11 AM

Good, looks nice. So what was the method that saved you?

TheBadger · July 25, 2015, 11:02:13 AM

Nice.

bobbystahr · July 25, 2015, 11:31:07 PM

Quote from: Dune on July 25, 2015, 03:23:11 AM
Good, looks nice. So what was the method that saved you?

Agree and we'd all like to know how that was done for sure.

mr_anderson · July 27, 2015, 12:56:41 PM

Start off with a second Planet and apply an Image map shader to the surface, creating the Moon's Surface. Also I disabled the Atmosphere for trial and error purposes (which I believe is the reason this method worked). Next, disable "Light atmosphere" on Sunlight 01 (later setting my elevation to negative so that the Sun would not light Planet 1's surface) this allowed me to turn up the Strength of the Sun (15) only affecting my Moon's surface. Create a second Sunlight turning the Strength way down (.35) and position it behind the Moon (Visible disc is disabled).