help with skydome

[Dave Buckley]

i was going to put a sky in photoshop, but my perspective eye isn't great if i'm honest. so what i was going to do was map the 360 degree sky to a dome in my max scene, so that the perspectives etc are all correct in relation to the camera angle that i'm rendering from.

 

however, i have my scene lit with daylight system and exposure etc etc

 

what i wish to do is just render out the sky dome at its true colours so i can then drop that in in photoshop.

 

if i render as is now, then the sky dome goes dark and i have to fiddle for ages.

 

how do i render just the dome with the texture map appearing as it should do so that i can then mask it out/place it in photoshop.

 

i don't want to use the 'put map in physical sky haze slot' method either

 

and i don't want to alter my lighting

 

am i being picky??

[mattclinch]

strip the scene out to just scanline, no exposure control and self illuminate the material?...

[onyx]

Not quite sure if i understand you final goal but.. Maybe put the sky in as a environment map to get the reflections on your dome.. Then save as png so you only get the done.. Then, save the same render again with the sky, and compose the 2 layers till your satisfied in photoshop...

 

Or, if you want to put your sky map on the dome and render it without it affecting the lighting of your dome. If you select the dome, right click, properties, uncheck cast shadows and receive shadows, light will pass through it and it wont cast shadows.. So the dome should retain its original lighting.. Only thing is, depending on the placement of your sun the dome you create for your sky map may glow.. Hope that helps.