Is there a way to render a source of light in the sky (like distant light) to imitate a sun?

handel_035c4ce6

Is there a way to render a source of light in the sky (like distant light) to imitate a sun? What I need is a sun which can be combined with renders to imitate a sun shining on the sky. I know there are ways to make fake sun with PS/Gimp but it looks too "perfect" (more like a drawn comics).

Thanks in advance.

DrunkMonkeyProductions

You can use a point or spot light set to "sphere", adjusting the size and color to what you may want.

 

jbowler

handel_035c4ce6 said:

Is there a way to render a source of light in the sky (like distant light) to imitate a sun? What I need is a sun which can be combined with renders to imitate a sun shining on the sky. I know there are ways to make fake sun with PS/Gimp but it looks too "perfect" (more like a drawn comics).

If you mean *our* sun then in Daz with Iray rendering you just select "sun-sky only" in Render Settings/Environment.  You will have to render to a canvas because IRL the sun is pretty damn bright and we don't typically look at it; it's too bright.  If you render to a canvas you get the full brightness of the sun but you can then dodge it in an appropriate image editor to reduce the brightness.  It's certainly work only a true artist can do; think Ansel Adams.

If you mean "a" sun, which is what you said, there are light domes of the night sky (so taking *our* sun out of the picture; it's much too close) and I think some of those might be close to correct.

To do it yourself follow these instructions:

1. Create a sphere (Create Primitive).
2. Make it about the right size and right place or, because Iray can't handle that, scale the size and distance appropriately.
3. Go to the surface properties (on the surfaces tab) and select the "Emission" tree-view entry.
4. Change the emission color to "white" (you must use white).
5. Change the emission temperature to match your sun.  It's not the actual temperature of the sun beause the light is filtered through the atmosphere of the planet; take a good Dxx value and multiply by 100; 5000K is a traditional safe bet for a yellow sun (like ours.)
6. Set the luminance to 2E9 (click on the number and type in 2E9)  This is the luminance of our sun at ground level; you can vary it later.
7. Make sure the "units" are still set to cd/m^2 [sic]

Iray is pretty good; it gets this stuff right or at least provides a very good approximation.  You aren't limited to one sun (or, indeed, one moon); you can add as many as you like.  The objects will still be way over-bright unless they are very-very small.  You might want to add some Fog to diffuse the light; I'm guessing that would look better.

handel_035c4ce6

Thanks, never thought about rendering an actual sphere.