Do anyone know how to create planet Earth shader with city lights in a "night" side?

# 1 22-12-2003 , 06:56 PM

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Join Date: Dec 2003

Posts: 10

Do anyone know how to create planet Earth shader with city lights in a "night" side?

Hi!

I am ex-3dsmax user, and I am trying to create in Maya photorealistic planet Earth shader, with city lights in a "night" side of the planet. I'am mean 2 textures shader: one texture visible only in a "day" side of the shader and second texture visible ONLY (!!!) in a "nigh" side of the shader.

Just in 3dmax it's very simple: self-illumination->falloff->shadow/light; but in Maya... couple of weeks I can't find the answer to my question, and this is not a first Maya forum where I am asking to help.

Please if someone know a tutorial about it tell me, or gave me the right direction for my research.

P.S. Please, do not answer like "just use incandescence" (it's dosen't work); or "just use surfaceLuminance"; please explain HOW to use.

Thank you.

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# 2 22-12-2003 , 10:11 PM

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Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Sweden

Posts: 571

Alright, this took me 1 min to set up, if you get the hang of the node based structure it isn't too hard.
Check out the image I prepared. The ramp is just a ramp with white-black range (you need to tweak it to your preference). The grid is where you put your file node (I didn't have a good one handy). You then multiply the ramps out-value with the files and you input that into the incandescence. Hope it helps. (the stucco is just for some color)

edit. You should perhaps clamp the surfaceLuminance, I don't know what valuerange it has, but it seems to work fine without.

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Last edited by fredriksson; 22-12-2003 at 10:15 PM.

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# 3 23-12-2003 , 01:37 PM

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Thank you!

It's work great!

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# 4 23-12-2003 , 01:43 PM

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Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Paris, France

Posts: 418

I have a good Earth Shader that you can download from Simply Maya (see the link in my signature)

I didn't include the night map in the released ZIP file; but if you want to play with it, here it is....

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