well my topic maybe was too provocative ... i dont need to become the ultimate guru :) what i have meant is that i have often seen that in the lifetime of using a software by a community a path of steps to be learned reveals itself. like "know these basics first" then "start playing with these settings" and only at the end "tweak these ultimate complicated but resulting in great results buttons".

when i look at clouds and skys there are so many factors that i feel overwhelmed. do i start with experimenting with different light models? do i start with cloud attributes? how does camera and sun stuff factor in? this kind of clarification is what i was hoping for.

when i was starting with indoor rendering my first attempts years ago where so disappointing that i completely ruled vue out for this kind of requirement. after reading more tutorials, examples and getting a feel of what does what today i see that actually it might become my preferred tool for indoor rendering (esp when it comes to integrate outdoor stuff seen in windows ... MR with Maya is great but once you load a couple of trees and grass with billions of polys it starts to get tricky).

of course i am aware that everybody learns differently, expect different results and basically is very unique. so i guess i was asking if someone was able to read my mind and produce a magic quickfix to help with supertight deadlines in the office life ... which of course is absurd and more than anything else a sign of my impatience to fully learn this great piece of software. come to think of it "patience" is one of the requirements that should be put on the box :)

anyhow ... in any case i'm very happy with all the feeback one receives in this nice forum and hope i will be forgiven if sometimes i produce silly post!

chris

just a little update ... while i was reproducing the earth at the office i found something that i did not expect. this was my first attempt. all looks fine and probably even rutra will find it realistic :)

then i reduced the shadow to 50% as i found the ones produced by the clouds on the planet sphere to harsh ... and suddenly the other side of the planet starts to have a glow!

does this make sense?

there are so many! i have switched from watching tv to watching geekatplay days ago ...

omg ... i have to do 200 images until tomorrow then ;-)

ok, i will take the clouds and atmosphere section home to read tonight for starters!

your tutorials are great ... looking forward to watch these :)

thanks!

now i want to understand the difference between alpha and transparency. here i slapped the rectangular pattern in the alpha of the one wing.

so i am guessing alpha modifies the "colour" (light reflection to observer?)) and transparency the "shape" or density (light transmission?)? but the alpha also affects the colored shadow?!? and where would i need different maps?

and what is the difference idea of connecting nodes via grayscale or alpha?

i just hope my curiosity is killing no cats!

actually it does work!

i just had to make sure it connects as greyscale and not as alpha. i also used a filter to bump up the non black values because before the colors did not show that much ... and there is a artefact line on the right which means i have to adjust the filter or the texture.

man you are thorough! hats off to you :)

so i will have to file my pics under the creativity tab then!

yep, i know that it might not be realistic but i like it better for artistic reasons (although i am not so sure about it ... wouldnt the light of the sun be "forwarded" from the other side into the unlit part of the planet side ... i am sure we learned this in school but i cant remember :-) ).

it was an exercise for me to have one atmosphere material that makes the sunshone part of the globe blueish and have another that makes the small glow contrast in the dark half. i only used the volumetric material for an additional glow layer, the other is "just" an angle-of-incidence on transparency layers.

actually all of this was a great exercise for me and i have learnt alot how to use and apply function editor stuff.

you are right about the closeup atmosphere. i also want to finetune it but i will do that once i get back in the office where i have my official version.

thanks to various helping hands i managed to create these entirely in vue 7 ple!

btw ... this forum is the best :)

dot product ... of course :) you're my hero!
i love the function editor

i played in gimp and managed to create this (the lights i added with a luminosity layer in vue). the lower left atmosphere glow was added in gimp. the sun with the flare is a mix of positioning the sun close to earth in vue and then mixing/postprocessing in gimp with the previous render ...

this was fun to do. have to redo it in the office and make a nice wallpaper without the watermark :)

p.s. if anybody has tips how i can create this within vue please let me know!

my bad i guess :) i was told the other version by my IT guy in the company ... but i'll trust Arturo with all the expertise he was brought here so far!

i am importing huge files and have no problem at all. so it might be another thing.

(in addition to other stuff mentioned above)

do you have the latest update of vue?
do you know that windows 32bit only allows 1GB RAM per application? (regardless of the 4GB you have)
there is a so called 3GB switch where windows allows 3GB per application. you have to google up how to set this but once you have this on you should have less problems caused by low memory.

if possible also try exporting through other file formats for importing. i found that not all are handled the same way in vue.

hope this helps a little