World Properties

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World Editor: Background Sky

Video by Neal Hirsig, you can also watch this video on an alternate stream on Tufts servers

Video settings for demonstration:

  • Light: Top View: Sun light at negative 45° angle; Hemi light at positive 45°angle, very low energy level
  • Camera constrained to look at object (here baseball-textured sphere), focused along y-axis

General:

  • To Edit default Blender Background
  • Click World icon in Properties Editor Window
  • World panel: 3 checkbox settings:
  • Paper Sky
  • Blend Sky
  • Real Sky

And associated Color swatches:

  • Horizon Color
  • Zenith Color
  • (Ambient Color not explained here)
  • With none of checkboxes selected a chosen Horizon Color (click on colour field and adjust via picking wheel or by number) is displayed uni
  • Blend Sky checkmarked in association with Horizon Color blends the background with the chosen Zenith Color at the top
  • Camera move shows that gradient background blend between Horizon (bottom) and Zenith Color (top) is constant and not related.
  • Blend Sky + Real Sky checkmarked produces a preview where the Horizon Color in the middle blends into Zenith Color on top and bottom
  • when rendered, it places the Horizon Color at the actual Blender horizon (the grid-represented x-y plane)
  • if the camera focuses the horizon directly, the render background shows the Horizon color (mainly, fading slightly into Zenith Color on top and bottom)
  • if the camera is focused below the horizon plane, the Zenith Color on the render will be at the bottom fading out into the Horizon color at the top
  • if the camera is focused above the horizon, the Zenith Color is at the top and the Horizon Color at the bottom
  • Paper Sky + Blend Sky checkmarked, the background is clipped, displying the Horizon Color and the bottom and the Zenith Color at the top with full color gradient expands (full blue at the bottom and full green at the top) - same backgroud independent from camera position

Texture: video example:

  • Associate a procedural Texture with a chosen Blend Sky (only Blend Sky checkmarked)
  • Choose a texture as background image by clicking Texture tab icon in Properties Editor Window -> "New" with no object selected
  • Here: choose procedural clouds texture, switch Preview (panel) to World (reveals blended sky with clouds texture added, leave Mapping to View (dropdown in Mapping panel) and Influence (panel) to Blend, leave hard noise, adjust size - render scene

World Editor: Background Image

You can also add a background image to the rendering (in addition to a textured sky like described above)

Video example:

  • Light: Top View: Sun light at negative 45° angle; Hemi light at positive 45°angle, very low energy level
  • Camera constrained to look at object (here baseball-textured sphere), focused along y-axis
  • To Edit default Blender Background
  • Click World icon in Properties Editor Window - displays all world controls
  • With nothing selected in the 3D Viewport window, click the Texture tab icon in the Properties Editor Window
  • Click "New" button and select Image or Movie from first dropdown
  • Scroll down and press Open button, select image from harddrive via file browser, click "Open"
  • Switch Preview in Texture panel to World
  • Scroll down to Influence panel, uncheck the default "Blend" influence and checkmark "Horizon"
  • Now the image is displaed in the Preview panel
  • In the Mapping panel the default View coordinates remain
  • Go back to the World settings (tab-icon)
  • (Same image displayed in Preview - render shows only a small part of the image)
  • To adjust the image size, switch back to Texture Panel and change Size in Mapping panel (manually: try)
  • If the image is too small, it is tiled - adjust until it fits
  • To offset, adjust x, y, z - settings in the Offset slider controls (you can enter an exact number)
  • For a seamless texture, you may use the Clipping and Repeat settings: scroll down to Image Mapping panel and select "Repeat" from dropdown
  • As long as Influence is set to "Horizon" and none of the Sky type checkboxes as checkmarked in the World setting, the image should render properly (displayed the same, no matter what camera is focused on.)

This works well for a static image, but may be problematic for an animation.

World Editor has very few controls to adjust the background image, but the Blender Compositing Node Settings allow more advanced features to edit the background image.

Video by Neal Hirsig


World Editor: Stars

The Blender World Editor includes a star generation effect which places halo light points of light randomly about the background sky.

The example scene is illuminated by a single sun lamp at low energy level, coloured in a dark blueish-green.
The world background contains the default Horizon and Zenith Colors (-> renderes scene shows blegreenish light, but default grey background)

  • In the World Editor, checkmark the "Blend Sky" checkbox
  • Set the Horizon color to a dark blue green (click on colour field and adjust via picking wheel or by number)
  • Set the Zenith Color to black
  • (Render shows greenish-blue dark sky)
  • In World Editor panel, scroll down and checkmark "Stars" in Gather panel
  • (with default settings the sky is dotted with white dots)

There are 4 general star settings: (Slider controls)

  • Size (video example lowers) - Size settings controls average size, when rendered, some are smaller, but some remain in size
  • Separation setting controls number of stars If the distance is decreased, more stars are displayed over the same area
  • the distance between the star field and camera is controlled by the Minimum Distance setting - the larger the namuber, the farther away from the camera the start field is displayed
  • (Important that camera clipping includes stars, to display them ! - Switch to Camera icon-tab panel and increase camera clipping distance if necessary)
  • Then increase Minimum Distance in World Editor - the star field appears further away in the render

*Colors controler number between 0-1, adds a percentage of random color hues to some of the stars

Video by Neal Hirsig


World Editor: Mist

The Blender World Editor contains a set of mist effects, that enhances the illusion of atmospheric depth - the mist effect is created by mixing the background color with the object color at a controlable distance and height.

Example scene same as star video before
Scene is illuminated by a single sun lamp at low energy level, coloured in a dark blueish-green.
The world background contains the default Horizon and Zenith Colors (-> renderes scene shows blegreenish light, but default grey background)
(plus star setting added in video above)

  • To activate the mist controls, checkmark the Mist checkbox (panel) in the World Editor
  • by default,there is no mist effect
  • The effect begins at a defined distance (in Blender Units) defined by the Start controler
  • It is computed over a Distance defined by the Depth controler (again in Blender Units)
  • Object further away from the camera than Start+Depth distance are complitely hidden by the mist
  • The Intensity setting controls the overall strength of the mist
  • To display the mist, select the camera
  • switch to camera control settings in Properties Editor Window
  • and checkmark Mist there
  • In wireframe (z) mode you can see a dotted line indicating the mist distance settings
  • Go back to the World Editor
  • Adjust the mist start point and distance - check with render: the mist obscures the objects behind the distance
  • You can make the foreground more clear by decreasing the Intensity
  • The mist Height sets, in Blender Units, the height above which there is no mist effect - effect decreases in height along z-axis
  • The equation used to determine the mist falloww is by default a quadratic equation (Falloff dropdown)

Video by Neal Hirsig


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