vue 6 cloudscapes:
an atmosphere library gallery
an atmosphere library gallery
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the library contains all 6 collections for a total of 250 atmospheres.
the entire package is available at renderosity. click here to see the package.
the entire package is available at renderosity. click here to see the package.
as you can see i usually have a specific idea for the mood of an atmosphere,
tho of course you can use a single atmosphere for many different things.
please note the larger previews shown were rendered at 640x480 & then
converted to jpeg. for best results with the spectral atmosphere you will
probably want to render at least 800x600. one of the secrets of the spectral
atmosphere is the larger you render, the better it gets. it tends to smooth out
the mix of hazes, fogs & light settings. larger sizes of course increase render
times, so you may want to experiment with quality settings & final render
settings like "optimize last render pass" (sometimes you can get away with
this & it will substantially decrease render time). much will depend on your
final piece of course. godray settings are especially evil, & it's usually
advised you have high quality settings with these atmospheres. this is
unfortunate, because you can get some excellent atmospheres using the
godrays setting, even if you don't produce any rays.
light tips: sometimes you come up with a great atmosphere but the terrain is
a little dark (especially rendered at smaller sizes). one thing you can do is
check & see if "clouds cast shadows is turned on." right click on the cloud,
there should be a checkbox if it's that type of cloud. & whether or not your
terrains are catching light or shadow sometimes depends on their position
on the map so to speak. also, changing from standard settings to global
ambience will also often darken things up. you can twiddle around with a lot
of the settings to lighten things, but this will often change the mood--& the
sky color--so you will want to be careful with this. you can also set extra
lights to preserve the basic mood & bring out details in your terrains &
objects. on the other hand, you can get some great effects by twiddling
around with the lights & hazes. all the previews were rendered using the
same materials for terrain & ground, & i managed to get a few really
interesting effects. for example, i was making a simple snow sky, &
managed to get a lot of white flecks into the terrain, giving the illusion of a
small amount of snowfall. & i thought, gee, now i don't even need a snow
terrain! at this point of course i go off the deep end twiddling around &, well,
as you see i now have a million atmospheres with different effects :D
tho of course you can use a single atmosphere for many different things.
please note the larger previews shown were rendered at 640x480 & then
converted to jpeg. for best results with the spectral atmosphere you will
probably want to render at least 800x600. one of the secrets of the spectral
atmosphere is the larger you render, the better it gets. it tends to smooth out
the mix of hazes, fogs & light settings. larger sizes of course increase render
times, so you may want to experiment with quality settings & final render
settings like "optimize last render pass" (sometimes you can get away with
this & it will substantially decrease render time). much will depend on your
final piece of course. godray settings are especially evil, & it's usually
advised you have high quality settings with these atmospheres. this is
unfortunate, because you can get some excellent atmospheres using the
godrays setting, even if you don't produce any rays.
light tips: sometimes you come up with a great atmosphere but the terrain is
a little dark (especially rendered at smaller sizes). one thing you can do is
check & see if "clouds cast shadows is turned on." right click on the cloud,
there should be a checkbox if it's that type of cloud. & whether or not your
terrains are catching light or shadow sometimes depends on their position
on the map so to speak. also, changing from standard settings to global
ambience will also often darken things up. you can twiddle around with a lot
of the settings to lighten things, but this will often change the mood--& the
sky color--so you will want to be careful with this. you can also set extra
lights to preserve the basic mood & bring out details in your terrains &
objects. on the other hand, you can get some great effects by twiddling
around with the lights & hazes. all the previews were rendered using the
same materials for terrain & ground, & i managed to get a few really
interesting effects. for example, i was making a simple snow sky, &
managed to get a lot of white flecks into the terrain, giving the illusion of a
small amount of snowfall. & i thought, gee, now i don't even need a snow
terrain! at this point of course i go off the deep end twiddling around &, well,
as you see i now have a million atmospheres with different effects :D
all the previews were made using the same materials for terrains & ground.
these are pretty simple materials made from tinkering up a couple default
mats, however if you would like to reproduce the effect in the previews or
use as a starting or reference point, the mats can be downloaded here.
these are pretty simple materials made from tinkering up a couple default
mats, however if you would like to reproduce the effect in the previews or
use as a starting or reference point, the mats can be downloaded here.
****flat water bug & atmosphere fix: sometimes your water will go flat, the fix
is an adjustment in the atmosphere editor. open your atmosphere editor,
sky, fog & haze tab. there's a slider called "aerial perspective," drag this 1-2
notches forward until the water reappears as water.
is an adjustment in the atmosphere editor. open your atmosphere editor,
sky, fog & haze tab. there's a slider called "aerial perspective," drag this 1-2
notches forward until the water reappears as water.
***VUE atmophere sun BUG***
everything in the package has been corrected & the skies & clouds
should display EXACTLY as seen in the previews. there should be NO
problem loading the atmopheres into the scene files--they should save
correctly when you save the scene file. the bug occurs when you work on
atmosphere & save it as an .atm file. when you load the .atm file, the sun will
slip, sometimes as little as half a degree, sometimes several degrees at a
time. if you're working on the atmosphere in a scene file & NOT a separate
.atm file, you'll never notice this. the bug may be reproduced as follows:
save your .atm, taking note of the sun position & keeping the atmosphere
window open. immediately after saving (& without exiting the scene or
changing camera angle) reload the atmosphere you just saved. the sun
position will have slipped. this is especially problematical when working
with godrays or rainbows. your rainbow or ray may jump halfway across
your scene, or even be lost. if you want to further customize these
atmospheres (like moving a rainbow), i strongly suggest you first save them
in a scene file as you work on them. my workaround has been to write down
the slippage & reposition the sun so it would "slip" to where i wanted it. this
was a time-consuming process, & if i do any more godrays they'll be put up
in scene files >:D i also suggest you not save over these .atm files, as the
slippage will again occur. at the time of this writing (march '07) the bug has
not been corrected.
everything in the package has been corrected & the skies & clouds
should display EXACTLY as seen in the previews. there should be NO
problem loading the atmopheres into the scene files--they should save
correctly when you save the scene file. the bug occurs when you work on
atmosphere & save it as an .atm file. when you load the .atm file, the sun will
slip, sometimes as little as half a degree, sometimes several degrees at a
time. if you're working on the atmosphere in a scene file & NOT a separate
.atm file, you'll never notice this. the bug may be reproduced as follows:
save your .atm, taking note of the sun position & keeping the atmosphere
window open. immediately after saving (& without exiting the scene or
changing camera angle) reload the atmosphere you just saved. the sun
position will have slipped. this is especially problematical when working
with godrays or rainbows. your rainbow or ray may jump halfway across
your scene, or even be lost. if you want to further customize these
atmospheres (like moving a rainbow), i strongly suggest you first save them
in a scene file as you work on them. my workaround has been to write down
the slippage & reposition the sun so it would "slip" to where i wanted it. this
was a time-consuming process, & if i do any more godrays they'll be put up
in scene files >:D i also suggest you not save over these .atm files, as the
slippage will again occur. at the time of this writing (march '07) the bug has
not been corrected.