Max 2011 - Deep Space lighting?

#1

I’ve got a spaceship. I wanted to make a starfield (procedural noise) and use some kind of physical based lighting if possible that would light my spaceship well so that the specularity map (beat up gunmetal) and normal map will show up well as if its getting lit. Any ideas on the best way to approach a deep-space lighting style?

Edit: I’d like some global lighting, but everytime I use any methods of global lighting I’m aware of, I lose my specularity and my bump mapping…I think I need to combine direct and global somehow but I’m not sure what the best way to pull that off is. I’d also like to utilize photographic exposure control

#2

Lighting in deep space basically comes from a single direction, the sun. So you may want to play with a single harsh lightsource with sharp shadows. If you really need some fill, a couple of ways of justifying it would be maybe light reflecting off a nearby planet, or maybe add some gas nebulas to your pic. But the best way to show off that you’re in space is generally to keep it simple.

  • Neil
#3

I’d like to achieve a nice balance between direct space-like lighting and still show off all the parts of the ship too.

#4

Then I’d throw a planet in the background to justify some fill lighting. Or do multiple renders from different angles with different sun directions. Or Maybe bring the ship into the atmosphere.

  • Neil
#5

This is the way to go if you want to achieve dramatic lighting. Nearly every opening scene in classics like ‘Alien’ and ‘Event Horizon’ feature some sort of planetary/solar lighting influence.

#6

Thats the advice I was thinking…How does one bring in a very large fill light source like that though? I imagine light from a large planet my ship is orbiting, and light from the sun. Whats a good way to get that softer light from the large planet lighting?

#7

I really dig the daylight system with mr sun and mr sky, but don’t know how to adapt it to a space scene. Is there a way to get the sky model (Haze Driven, Perez, CIE) to look like space with a black sky? Maybe even a star field?

#8

Afraid I don’t have a lot of experience with the sun system, but whatever light you’re going to get from a starfield is going to be tiny and probably impossible to see. A large arealight for the planet will probably be the best way to go. Or you could try a skylight that has a spherical map assigned to the color that has your planet in it.

  • Neil
#9

Would you recommend photometric or standard lighting? Skylight seems to wash out all my specularity and bump.

#10

Back to the lighting. Still struggling with the specularity and bump getting washed out. Should I go with photometric lighting or not?

#11

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