what type of light should I use for this??

[h2o]

If u are talking about the lighting of your scene, u should use directional/distance light.

If u want the look of the image above, it's some post effects.

Always to do a research first is a good thing. U can find some space bg on the net, u can use it directly. Or if u think it's not suitable, those images are good reference for u to retouch.

[speter79]

I thought the light behind the big moon or planet is a directional light. But are you saying the light for the sun or star on the left side in the distance is also a directional light?

Thanks

[h2o]

Simply use a image or post effect (lens flare) for the sun.

If your work is a sequence, render a small sphere for the sun's tracker. And then track the position of lens flare effect in After Effect or another post software.

[Ministry]

hi, I ve worked on that kind of scene before. it worked well when i put a pin light and used lense flare for that i didn't illuminate with that light. for the planets i used Directional light as source light for which i can control the illumination. I used the pinlight only to control the lense flare. For the Stars behind i created a texture map with photoshop andi tiled them a bit. Anyways, the tiling won't be visible in that case. Have fun working.

[Reeder113]

I'm currently working on a scene with a planet as well. Does anyone know (in Maya) how to get that blue atmospheric glow on the planet? I'm working with a layered shader for the first time so that I can get clouds, land, etc. Is this the correct method. I'm also trying to get a realistic look with my lights. So far I have one directional light, but its not looking to great.

[Ciraxis]

that glow on the planet could be done in a few ways, try shader glow (maya) and a facing ratio node for the blue falloff

[Reeder113]

Any suggestions so far? Ciraxis, thanks for the help on the glow. Could you be more specific, though, because I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Thanks.

[StefanAlbertz]

Does anyone know (in Maya) how to get that blue atmospheric glow on the planet?

Take a look at the blue marble in my portfolio. First of all: i go the post-way for all glows, because the fine-tuning is much better in comp-package. If you use shader-glow inside your rendering package, turn off all auto-exposure on the shader-glow, or you will have flicker/pumping glows if the camera moves. Don´t even think about tuning the glow amount before you switch off that auto-function ;)
Next, i used a volume object for the atmosphere. you can easily control its effect and the result is what you would call a glow. play with the density setting in the shader, and render the volume on its one (with the planet set to black surface shader, so it cuts away the inner part of the volume). In post, apply glow on the volume layer to fine-tune the appearance.

This is for animation - for still you can go with shader-glow, but keep in mind, that if you toggle to animation, you have to re-tune that stuff.

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