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Particle playground slow render5/15/2023 ![]() ![]() In my Python program, choose settings to meet your requirements, then run the script to generate your own starfield graphic.Unpack the database file and make it accessible to my script.The star database is licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.A star database from, specifically this star database file (14 MB).If you want to customize the image size, make it larger or smaller than the above choices, or choose different star rendering settings, you will need two things:.A seemingly small image file may overwhelm your computer's memory when expanded for use. ![]() NOTE: These star background images are much larger in memory than when stored as files.If the above image is too large, use this one instead (8000x4000, 900 KB).If the default 16000x8000 image (surprisingly small, 1 MB) I created is suitable, click here to download it.I created the image using a Python program I wrote, which reads a data table of nearly 120,000 stars from this website and creates an equirectangular image containing all the stars properly positioned. The smaller background images are easy on your computer's memory and on Blender, but they don't produce very good Earth surface images because a full globe of detail requires a lot of data.For the Earth surface detail image, choose from this list (different sizes of the NASA image described above), but be careful with the larger sizes - they can require some time to download and, when used by Blender, might require more memory than your computer possesses:.The Blender file for Figure 6, and the next steps in this project, need two graphic images - one for earth's surface and one for the background stars.Remember that to work as intended, this file needs to be provided with planetary surface color data (listed below). Here is a link to the Blender file that created the video in Figure 6.You should see this:įigure 6: Wrapping an equirectangular image onto a globe. Choose menu item "Add" (keyboard shortcut: Shift+A) near the top of the 3D Viewport, then choose "Mesh", then choose "UV Sphere" - not "Ico Sphere".Run Blender and create a new, empty workspace.If things get confusing later on, refer back to this diagram for an overview. Remember that you can undo an action with keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z, and "re-do" an "undo" with Shift+Ctrl+Z.This project has several stages, each of which builds on what came before, so saving your work has particular significance, in particular because you can save a project file under a new name to preserve additions and changes.The Blender user interface is very customizable, some might say to a fault, so back up your work regularly to be able to recover from an error.It allows you to configure motions and property changes over time. The Timeline can be expanded and shows video sequencing and animation controls.The Properties Editor gives you access to many kinds of controls, for display, animation, appearance of objects, and much more.The Outliner is a hierarchical diagram of your project that shows the relationship between elements of a scene.The 3D Viewport is a sort of visual workshop, where you can add and remove things from your scene.But don't let that scare you - you can always download the Blender project files I provide and, by browsing around, figure out how things are done.įigure 2: Blender basic layout (click for full size) This is an intermediate-level Blender project. On the topic of files, here's a link to the Blender file for the animated Earth model in Figure 1 (it requires an Earth surface details file described below). Learn how to decorate the sphere with appropriate map/terrain colors (different for Earth, the Moon, and Mars) and altitude data (with mountains/craters that cast shadows).įortunately, these steps happen to progress from easy to more challenging.Īll the Blender files and instructions in this article are for Blender 2.80 and newer.This project moves forward in several stages: ![]() I include details and data sources for Earth, the Moon, and Mars. In this article I'll show how to use Blender to make a plausible rotating planet, with the option of stars in the background (actual astronomical stars!), shadows from terrain features, and other realistic touches. In this article, Blender refers, not to a kitchen appliance as some might assume, but to a terrific, free graphics workshop, a creative computer playground. your browser doesn't support the video tag.įigure 1: Rotating Earth video.
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