Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, I figured the sun
would be sharper and less soft, but I wanted a
soft look to it. In this case, the sun is just source
for warmth and light, and IMHO a soft sun conveys
this better than a realistic sharp sun.

-- 
Tim Nikias v2.0
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
Email: Tim### [at] gmxde

> Love it but isn't the "sun a bit blurred?   i figure from that distance,
> and in a near vacuum of space it would look like it had an "edge" sharp
> enough to cut with.  but that is just my opinion
>
> "Tim Nikias v2.0" wrote:
>
> > Second attempt at the image. Less atmosphere, but
> > a little more glowing for the earth, less brightness
> > for the sun.
> > Better? Suggestions are appreciated! (perhaps with
> > post-processed versions?)
> >
> > Regards,
> > Tim
> >
> > --
> > Tim Nikias v2.0
> > Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
> > Email: Tim### [at] gmxde
> >
> >  [Image]
>

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Tim Nikias v2.0 wrote:
> Second attempt at the image. Less atmosphere, but
> a little more glowing for the earth, less brightness
> for the sun.
> Better? Suggestions are appreciated! (perhaps with
> post-processed versions?)

I'm sorry, but I find this version is much worse than the previous, for 
two reasons:

1. The lights on the dark side of the earth are too bright, it makes the 
image less credible.
2. The sun does not look like a sun. Your sun looks cold, like it was 
made of wax, or plastic, while it should look really hot and be made of 
star plasma (or whatever). And suns never, ever have a shaded surface, 
they appear flat because of self-illumination.

I did some experimenting with space scenes some months ago, and found 
out that you don't really need a sphere for the sun. A spherical pattern 
with an appropriate color_map on a sky_sphere works quite well, if you 
use very bright colors. Just translate and rotate it with some care on 
the sky_sphere. Layering pigments also helps.

I have attached a small pic of the sun I came up with. It's not perfect 
but at least it feels hot, has a color that looks realistic in an 
artistic sense, and it does not exhibit shading. My scene is rendered 
with radiosity, but uses an additional light_source far away in the same 
direction as the sky_sphere sun, to help the lighting of the scene (and 
because radiosity does not give you nice scattering media interaction).

Hehe, and it seems the atmosphere-is-too-thick-effect strikes everyone 
how tries to make space scenes the first time :-)

-- 
(defun f(p x)(If(Eq x nil)nil(If(p(Car x))(Cons(Car x)(f p(Cdr x)))(f p
(Cdr x)))))(defun q(x)(Q nil x))(defun Q(a x)(If(Eq x nil)a(Q(Cons(Car
x)(Q a(f(Lt(Car x))(Cdr x))))(f(Gt(Car x))(Cdr x)))))

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Attachments:
Download 'space4.jpg' (9 KB)

Preview of image 'space4.jpg'

The sun isn't shaded. Its white in the center, gets a
red teint near the edge, and the dissolves into a soft
glow, but perhaps its too much. How about this?


-- 
Tim Nikias v2.0
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
Email: Tim### [at] gmxde

>
> I'm sorry, but I find this version is much worse than the previous, for
> two reasons:
>
> 1. The lights on the dark side of the earth are too bright, it makes the
> image less credible.
> 2. The sun does not look like a sun. Your sun looks cold, like it was
> made of wax, or plastic, while it should look really hot and be made of
> star plasma (or whatever). And suns never, ever have a shaded surface,
> they appear flat because of self-illumination.
>

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Attachments:
Download 'sunrise3.jpg' (106 KB)

Preview of image 'sunrise3.jpg'

sun looks hotter in this image instead of a bit dull in the previous image.
I like this one better.

JWV


"Tim Nikias v2.0" <tim### [at] gmxde> wrote in message
news:3efb0a78@news.povray.org...
> The sun isn't shaded. Its white in the center, gets a
> red teint near the edge, and the dissolves into a soft
> glow, but perhaps its too much. How about this?
>
>
> --
> Tim Nikias v2.0
> Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
> Email: Tim### [at] gmxde
>
> >
> > I'm sorry, but I find this version is much worse than the previous, for
> > two reasons:
> >
> > 1. The lights on the dark side of the earth are too bright, it makes the
> > image less credible.
> > 2. The sun does not look like a sun. Your sun looks cold, like it was
> > made of wax, or plastic, while it should look really hot and be made of
> > star plasma (or whatever). And suns never, ever have a shaded surface,
> > they appear flat because of self-illumination.
> >
>
>
>

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Tim Nikias v2.0 wrote:
>The sun isn't shaded. Its white in the center, gets a
>red teint near the edge, and the dissolves into a soft
>glow, but perhaps its too much. How about this?
>

This is a nice warm looking sun.  But I still like the glow around the sun
and the thicker atmosphere.  It may not be realistic, but it just looks
good.

RG - reality... a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there

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???  Why did it post here instead of on the thread where I was replying too?

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> This is a nice warm looking sun.  But I still like the glow around the sun
> and the thicker atmosphere.  It may not be realistic, but it just looks
> good.

I feel the same way.

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Thanks you two! I'm satisfied as well. I've just
set the moon's rotation a little different, so I've
got to rerender the frames from 150 to 400, but
now I can finally leave it to render all 600 frames...


-- 
Tim Nikias v2.0
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
Email: Tim### [at] gmxde

> > This is a nice warm looking sun.  But I still like the glow around the
sun
> > and the thicker atmosphere.  It may not be realistic, but it just looks
> > good.
>
> I feel the same way.
>
>

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Hi Tim,

this is the best sun so far. A big glow makes the sun look dim.
Instead of an unrealistic glow I suggest realistic protuberances,
corona, solar flares, sun spots, ...:
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/NASA.Educational.Products/Solar.System.Lithograph.Set/Sun/.index.html

   Sputnik

--
----------------------------

fr### [at] computermuseumfh-kielde
----------------------------

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Ah, well, I'm not after a physically correct view on
sun and earth (as someone pointed out, the night-earth
is way too bright to be visible with the sun in-screen),
but a more artistic view. And thus, a warm sun for a
sunrise is good enough. And the beauty of night on earth
is also nicely visible.

As a side-note: you do know that images of sun-spots etc
wouldn't be able to capture the earth as well, as the lens has
to be fairly darkened to not get overlit at once...

Still, thanks for the suggestions!

-- 
Tim Nikias v2.0
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
Email: Tim### [at] gmxde

> Hi Tim,
>
> this is the best sun so far. A big glow makes the sun look dim.
> Instead of an unrealistic glow I suggest realistic protuberances,
> corona, solar flares, sun spots, ...:
>
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/NASA.Educational.Products/Solar.System.Lithograph.Set/Sun/.index.html
>
>    Sputnik
>
> --
> ----------------------------

> fr### [at] computermuseumfh-kielde
> ----------------------------
>
>

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