Hmmm, I'll give this a try. I think I can macro this so that the 
light/dark sphere always has the dark side lock on my key light (in this 
case, the sun).

-David


Bob H. wrote:

> Having done this before I know what you're trying to do.  But as of the
> moment I can only think of to say what I did as an example.
> The nightside lights image, same as how your clouds image was done for
> transparency, except as a layer under the ground image layer (clouds were a
> separate sphere) had a layer between the Earth surface texture.  It was half
> transparent and half black, for night (transparent) and day (opaque).  So
> there were 3 layers on one sphere.  Very high ambient was added to bring out
> the brightness of the lights.  This of course means the overlying ground
> image had to be slightly semitransparent too, then the large ambience
> allowed for the lights to be seen through that.
> The half transparent, half black gradient x (or z) texture was then rotated
> opposite Earth rotation in animation.
> 
> Make sense?  Hopefully I described it right.
> 
> I know there must be plenty of ways to go about it but that's what I did.
> For example, you might make use clipping or differencing of another sphere
> (not smooth transition terminator though).
> 
> Bob H.
> 
> 
>

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