CGTalk - Env Shaders Sky, Help please.

View Full Version : Env Shaders Sky, Help please.

DJ-Prismatica

08-02-2004, 05:59 AM

Hi all, I recently started using Maya. I have been trying to create a scene with a realistic sky. I have been trying to use the env shaders included with Maya but when I render out the sphere with the shader it only appears on the outside. I think that I have to invert the normals on the sphere to get it to show up on the inside of the sphere. Am I right about this or is there another solution to my problem? Also if I'm right about inverting the normals how do I go about doing this. I was wondering if there was anywhere on the internet that had a good maya specific tutorial as well. All the tutorials I have found have been related to other apps which haven't helped much. I have been struggling with this for several hours and am more than a little frustrated. Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

djx

08-02-2004, 02:56 PM

The purpose of the env shaders is to map to the reflection color of your material, to create a fake (not raytraced) reflection.

If I understand what you are trying to do then you would simply assign a black lambert to your sky dome and map the incandescence with your sky texture (dont use the env node for this).
Other objects i your scene will reflect the sky-dome if you use raytracing, but you can leave raytracing off and fake it by using an env node with the same sky texture connected. Connect the env to the reflection color of your object's materials.

If you use a nurbs sphere for the sky dome it will be visible from both sides by default. You can change its attributes to make it one sided, and change its "opposite" flag to choose whether you see the inside or the outside.

DJ-Prismatica

08-02-2004, 04:35 PM

Thanks for the help, but I must have screwed it up or misunderstood. I tried what you said about making the black lambert texture and mapping the env sky to the incandecence but the results were the same as before. Instead of explaining what exactly happened I'll give you a couple of quick renders so you can see what I mean.
http://img30.exs.cx/img30/1375/domewtext.jpg
http://img30.exs.cx/img30/8270/interior.jpg

CGTalk Moderation

01-18-2006, 08:00 PM

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.