Putting a scene into an 'environment' is important, not least to generate a feeling of 'outdoors', a 'sense of place' or mood. This tutorial takes you through the process of applying a sky background. Other techniques for creating a panaround site background, camera matching a site model to an existing site photograph or creating atmospheric clouds are not covered by Key Fundamentals
kf411_files.zip (406kb)
module_4_maps.zip (5.2mb)
NOTE: You are going to create a sky material to give you the ability to manipulate the sky background by changing parameters in the Material Editor
Render the scene and notice that the sky background is rather low:
You can now use the parameters for mapping coordinates in the Material Editor to move the image up and will make the image display in the viewport so the changes can be judged:
TIP: When finished moving a background image use the Viewport Background dialog to remove the sky from the viewport. The image can become rather distracting when modelling
NOTE: When the camera view is changed the sky background stays as it is in the image above. So this technique is only appropriate for specific still images. Other techniques involving panoramic mapping of skies and site panaramas, sky domes and atmospheric gizmos for clouds are available for multiple images and animation. However, with good planning and the use of specific camera points on site related to specific camera points in the scene, this can be a very effective method of quickly conveying site environments
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