help with Planet rings

[pureprplaya]

I'm BLIND!!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHH

oh no wait, sorry, no images came up ;)

[thein]

thanks for telling me, i have replaced the code with links.

[Rob.Geddes]

Here's a tutorial that might help you. It's in Photoshop, but might get you started with a texture or alpha channel.

http://www.solarvoyager.com/images/tutorials/planetrings/planetrings.htm

Rob

[DangerousCliff]

about four years ago, i was doing a project that involved a flyby of Saturn. while dooing research, i found out an oft overlooked fact- planetary rings become transparent/invisible in the planets shadow. being that it was four years ago, i cannot now find the link to the specific NASA website that i found this info on, but i did find a NASA page that has an image of Saturn displaying this effect: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010307.html
and annother: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia05429.html

all i have left of my 4 year old project is a silly desktop background i threw together while working on the project: www.lmistudios.com/~cliff/saturn-battle.jpg (http://www.lmistudios.com/~cliff/saturn-battle.jpg)

basically, i based the textures and opacity maps on the info i found from NASA, i.e. the rings are all maps on a plane.

if i find the original link, i'll post it.

[DangerousCliff]

Whoot! after some google-fu i found the links.

http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/ is the starting place. a cubic boatload of information can be found:

http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/data/s_rings/index.html
http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/satsys_rend.html
and
http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/data/saturn/rings.html

the first link above gets into some detail about how the rings change opacity based on POV. i think some of these effects might easily be accomplished by clever use of falloff mapping.

-cliff

[Rob.Geddes]

Cliff,

That's really interesting and useful info! Thanks for the links.

Rob

[Leionaaad]

I would try to make the ring with textures.
But!! i would make one ring (A plane, with opacity maps and textures applied) and then copy that ring a couple of times, to be one above the other to a small distance. This would give some thickness and depht to the rings on close shots, but you can't fly trough it(perhaps some falloff would solve this)

[thein]

hey guys
thank you all for your input, this is waht ive manage thus far:
http://thein.ath.cx/rings/final2.jpg
again much thanks :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

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.