sun setup

[erona]

How do I setup my sun so it uses info about the site (location, position, time etc)?

 

Many thanks,

erona

[erona]

nevermind...

 

I have to read the manuals more often.

[jonblaze]

in your create panel go to systems and select sunlight....

this gives you a light together with a compass.

select the light you have created and in your motion panel you can dictate the location of your scene and the time of day.

 

the properties of the light are controlled as a normal light should be and all positioning is controlled by the compass.

[erona]

tnx for the reply but when i create a sunlight, i dont see any compass

 

i think i saw this 'compass' in Viz but not in C4D.

 

i was able to determine the right geographic location for my project but i can't seem to tell it that that way goes north.

 

anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

 

BTW, i'm using R9

[jackb602]

The world Z-axis points to the north, and I don't think this can be changed, which is too bad. But you can just drop your entire project inside a Null, and rotate it appropriately.

 

Jack

[erona]

Thanks jackb602, i guess i dont have any other options.

[Ernest Burden III]

The world Z-axis points to the north, and I don't think this can be changed, which is too bad. But you can just drop your entire project inside a Null, and rotate it appropriately. Jack

 

I was fighting the SKY system today in 9.52 to get just the sun angle I wanted, push the time 1 hour, then change longitude by 5 degrees, change the date by 5 days, each time a quick area render to test. Argh! I don't care where the long/lat is, I just want the angle I want! I finally got it, but it was a hasstle.

 

What I forgot is this--you can rotate the sky object itself to alter the angle. That would have been easier.

 

I had been about to render with FR2, but discovered a bug in SP1 that caused trouble by not reading some selection set tags, so a big problem. I'm rendering with the AR2.5 SKY system and the results are great, I'm really happy. Next time I'll use FR2, but the Cinema sun+sky is working well (now that the big nasty bug I found in that has been fixed).

 

I'll post the finals after I hand them in tomorrow or the next day.

[jackb602]

What I forgot is this--you can rotate the sky object itself to alter the angle. That would have been easier.

 

Thanks for the tip Ernest. Does the sun location move and/or rotate with the sky object? That would be great. I really need to dive in and explore the new sky system.

 

Jack

[Ernest Burden III]

Thanks for the tip Ernest. Does the sun location move and/or rotate with the sky object? That would be great.

 

Yes, it does. That's the part that I forgot, and wasted time micro-adjusting the date/time/location.

 

My views are both looking down, so having clouds in just the right spot doesn't matter. But for shots where you see the sky you can rotate it so the clouds are in a pleasing position. Remember to raise the display size to at least 512, 1024 is better, for the sky so its easier to see the clouds. A quick object render and you see exactly what you'll get. It's great.

[jackb602]

Wow, I just tried a quick time lapse animation last night, and it looks great. The color and intensity of the light is very convincing. I was also surprised that I could render in stochastic mode relatively quickly. Granted my scene is very simple (just the sky plus a CityGen object) and I'm using a G5 Quad, but I've been getting around 45 sec/frame @ 640x360. Until finalRender and/or Maxwell become available, this is pretty impressive. Now it's time to have a look at the manual and see what else it can do.

 

Jack