Sky Tracer 2Sky Tracer 2By: Denielle BonaseraBy: Denielle BonaseraHow to Make a Typical SkylineHow to Make a Typical Skyline••Start Start LightwaveLightwave••Pick the Scene tabPick the Scene tab••On the left side will be a column of items, click the Viper tabOn the left side will be a column of items, click the Viper tab••Next click the Backdrop tabNext click the Backdrop tab••In the effects box choose the Backdrop tabIn the effects box choose the Backdrop tab••In the edit tab click In the edit tab click skytracerskytracer22••Double click on Double click on SkytracerSkytracer22By default you’ll have a dull blue-to-brown gradient. The “Dissolve” setting dissolves your sky in and out of your scene and the Planet Radius is set to the same radius as Earth – you shouldn’t need to change it. SkyBaker lets you bake your skyscape into image files – we’ll return to that later.The atmosphere & haze controls light scattering in SkyTracer. With these panels you can adjust the thickness of the effect, the luminosity, opacity & falloff. For most scenes you can leave these at their default settings – if you want to test them out to see what different looks you can get do so AFTER you’ve got your clouds looking how you want. Adjusting the quality increases render times but improves the effect of light diffusion. Medium seems a good compromise between quality and render timesAdding CloudsAdding Clouds••Click the clouds tabClick the clouds tab••Select the Select the ““low altitude low altitude cloudsclouds””tabtab••Click enable cloudsClick enable cloudsAdding Clouds ContinuedAdding Clouds Continued……••Click the texture buttonClick the texture button••Select the Procedural Type Select the Procedural Type box and select box and select ““STCloudsSTClouds””••Change the texture axis to Change the texture axis to YY••Back to the Back to the SkytracerSkytracer2 2 screenscreen••Change the texture value Change the texture value to 100%to 100%Adding a Second texture LayerAdding a Second texture Layer••Add a second texture layerAdd a second texture layer••Change the blending mode Change the blending mode to subtractiveto subtractive••Change the contrast to Change the contrast to 50% 50% ••Change the scale to 2m x Change the scale to 2m x 2m x 2m 2m x 2m ••Change the Opacity to Change the Opacity to 40%40%••Close this screenClose this screen(in the viper screen you will (in the viper screen you will see the clouds form)see the clouds form)The most important settings are Lacunarity, Octaves and Cloud Type. Lacunarity adjusts the turbulence of the clouds – a setting of 1 creates featureless blobby clouds, higher settings introduce more disturbance but a setting of 5 or more starts to add repetitive patterns into the clouds, for now just leave it at its default setting of 2.0. Octaves change the fractal detail of the clouds – higher settings increase detail but impact render times. Leave the Octaves at their default setting of 6.0. Cloud Type allows you to change the procedural template for the clouds – cumulus and cirrus clouds plus jet trails are available. Leave it set to cumulus for now.Adjusting the SettingsAdjusting the Settings••Back to the Clouds tabBack to the Clouds tab••Choose Choose ““Low Altitude Low Altitude CloudsClouds””••Change the setting to Change the setting to match the box to the leftmatch the box to the left••Make sure texture Make sure texture shadows is onshadows is onAdjusting the Settings Cont.Adjusting the Settings Cont.••Choose the High Altitude Choose the High Altitude tabtab••Change the settings to Change the settings to match the ones to the leftmatch the ones to the leftAdjusting the CloudsAdjusting the Clouds••Go back to the Go back to the STCloudsSTCloudstexture for the low altitude cloudstexture for the low altitude clouds••Click the fall off tabClick the fall off tab••Set the Z axis fall off to 4%Set the Z axis fall off to 4%Finishing upFinishing up……••Close texture settingClose texture setting••Go back to the atmosphere tabGo back to the atmosphere tab••Change the Change the qaulityqaulityto mediumto medium••Press F9 to renderPress F9 to renderFinal productFinal productReferencesReferences••Skytracer2 for dummiesSkytracer2 for