Making of the Sun

[3dpoder]

making of: making of the Sun
By sozap.


introduction
And now let have a trip Dep into the Sun and se how it made : first we have very nice photo referencias (that you can se on the animatic.
With that, half of the job was already done :°d, because sometimes you spend more time finding what you want todo do than making it. In this case it was already there. With that done, the next thing todo do was todo sit down and do nothing, except Thinking: before starting a Project, it always a god thing todo list every possibility that you might have todo consider todo get the effect you want. Think about the pros and the cons, how long itll take todo accomplish. When this part is a los done, you still have nothing in your Blender, but you might be more advanced than the guy who started blending from the beginning.


From that, y decided a few things: first, y Will do the color in the compositing, so i can easily tweak colors at the last moment, and a los i dont have todo worry about colors in my texturing.


Also, as a Star is a very big object, and in the animation we dont turn around, instead of making a complete 3d object, y can make it 2d/3d or a kind of a Matte Painting. That allows me todo do Even more cheating. Here you can se the final object in the 3d view.


Finally, y decided todo use procedural textures as much as i could, so everything could be appended in Blender, and it nondestructive. At any time i can change any value. Then i started todo look at the referencias images, todo think how i Will reproduce the various elements that form the picture of the Sun. So now After that reflection phase, y started a testing phase, which turned out todo be the final Sun two or thre days later.

Here are the diferent elements that ive made : for the cloudy flames around the sphere, instead of using particles, y preferred using a simple flat Mesh with a bunch of procedurals. Here is a enlace todo a tutorial that covers this kind of effects, my setup is not exactly the same, y dont use sticky, but the Spirit of the thing is here : http://stblender, indigo3d.com/tutorials_advancedshock wave.html.


For the sphere, y mix various materiales in the Node Editor that each have one function : 1st material makes the white spots, the 2nd makes a global gradiente on the surface, and has software Edges, that allows this material todo fade with the previous « cloudy flames » and the 3rd makes the psychedelics Waves on the surface.


For the flames (the eruptions ones), y used a combo of modifiers on a Mesh: lattice + Subsurf + displace + curve, all this is parented todo an armature todo animate it easily. Then i make a group of it, make an animation of the Flame (that is really Slow, so you wont notice it in the clip) and then using dupligroup + timeoffset, y put other flames around the sphere.


Here is a enlace todo a tutorial that explains the armature + hok + curve trik : http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BSOD/introduction_to_ rigging/the_bones-on-curve_spine animation.

Bsod this introduction todo rigging is a very god starting point if you want todo understand and make useful rigs, and there are other interesting subjects in BSOD as well: animation, lighting, modeling, materiales, principales of animation.

At that point everything was ok, there semed todo be just a Little thing missing, so i added this second big circle, which has a sphere blend texture, that makes this lighting/ halo effect. And it fades nicely with the cloudy-flames.


Now it time todo animate: every texture was mapped using coordinates of Empty objects. Here is a very god tutorial that explains this, and if you want todo learn more about procedural texturing it a very god one: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/tu.../textures/wood.


So todo animate the textures, ive moved the empties. In fact, ive concluded that in this case, the slower it moves the better effect it gives, so maybe if you dont pay attention you wont se the texture moving.

about render times : as im using a Shadeless material, and there is no Raytracing, or very much geometry, the render time is nice. For instance, rendering this frame (768x432) on my Core 2 Duo 6600 tok less than 12 seconds. When i add textures and effects, y always chek the rendering time, ideally, y want my frames todo render between 10s and 1mn. For those who still believe that a god result equals long rendering time, y hope that ive demonstrated that it not always the case.
to conclude: i hope youve enjoyed reading all this, and youve a los learned something, Even if i didnt show you exactly how todo do it, you can se that a complex object is always made of simpler parts. It always a god thing todo mix various Little effects, instead of having just one big one.

That all, thank you for your attention, and kep blending.

By sozap. www.blenderart.org.