SkyGen

HowTo


1. Run the SkyGen LScript. The following requester will appear.
NOTE! The SkyGen script  will attempt to open the LW_TextureEnvironment plugin automatically, but on some systems, doing this may crash Lightwave. When you run SkyGen script, if you are unlucky with your setup, Lightwave may crash when you click OK on the requester. If this happens, always open Textured Environment manually: Scene > Backdrop > Add Environment > LW_TextureEnvironment before running the script.

Even though there's quick reference of all the main functions right there in the interface, let's go through them in a little more detail:
 
Toggle Viper
 This option toggles the Viper preview window. Set it on unless you already have Viper open. Once you have loaded a SkyGen preset, you can preview it (and all the changes you make) with the Viper window. You will have to modify a parameter in the texture environment panel in order to initialize viper, but after that it's enough to just click "Render" in the viper preview window. You can also add your own presets (after you have done modifications) by clicking "Add Preset".
 
Toggle Presets
 This option toggles the Presets window. Set it on unless you already have Presets open. When running SkyGen the first time on a scene, you will have to modify a parameter in the texture environment panel in order to initialize Presets. After this you can find the SkyGen presets on the dropdown menu.
 
Select Sun and Moon default orientation
Skygen lets you set the default orientation of the sun and moon when running the script. This is just a rough start, so that you get in the ballpark... you can later just rotate the Sun or Moon REF objects to get the exact position you want.
 
Note that in some presets, the sun/moon orientation may dramatically affect the look of your final output!!

In some presets, the overall look of skygen will change based on the sun/moon orientation - the closer to the horizon the sun, the more sunset like red in the output. So, if you animate the sun rising from the horizon to the zenith, you will get a cool transition from red sunrise to midday blue. this feature varies from preset to preset.

You can use the Sun_REF control object to quickly animate the sun. Rotating the control object will alter the position, and scaling it will affect the size of the  sun. The sun will render approximately in the same position  as the sun preview object is displayed in the camera view.

Use the Moon_REF control object to quickly animate the moon. Rotating the control object will alter the position, and scaling it will affect the size of the moon. The moon will render approximately in the same position  as the moon preview object is displayed in the camera view.
 
2. Refresh the Texture Environment
You should now have  three windows open in the Lightwave layout: Presets, Viper and Texture Environment. Click on one of the axis buttons to refresh the texture environment, Viper and Presets.
 
3. Load a SkyGen Preset
There should now be a multitude of SkyGen presets available on the presets menu - it will default on WorkSpace, which is empty unless you have added some presets of your own.
 
(Click here for more info about the presets)

Doubleclick one of the presets  to load it to your scene. Click on one of the texture environment axis buttons to refresh the texture environment, Viper and Presets. You should now see your selected preset rendering in the Viper preview.

The Viper preview
 
4. Adjust the Clouds

You can animate the clouds billowing by moving SkyGen REF object. As the texture environment can be thought of as a ball that's one meter in diameter, be conservative when animating- you can start as low as 1 cm / sec. Another use for the control object is scaling the clouds.

SkyGen_REF object also has sliders to control the clouds. You can adjust the main parameters of the clouds with sliders.

Another option is the morph mixer: select the SkyGen_REF object, and press [p] for object properties.  In the deformations tab, open the morph mixer plugin (Doubleclick the "Mixing 22 morphs in 5 groups" text).
 

 
There are five slider groups: "Clouds", "Sun", "Moon", "Sky gradient" and overall "Color" adjustments.

Clouds
there are two sliders controlling the amount and detail of the clouds in each of the three cloud layers.

Moon, Sun
there are controls for the illumination the clouds get from Sun/Moon, as well as for the size and strength of the halo around the Sun/Moon.

Sky gradient
there's a single slider controlling the overall brightness of the sky gradient. The RGB sliders DARKEN the sky gradient.

Color
The RGB controls affect the whole sky (including sun, moon and the clouds) . The controls are ADDITIVE and thus LIGHTEN the sky. there's an overall darkening slider to compensate for this, and also to create other cool effects.

 After modifying a slider, click "Render" on the Viper panel to see the result. If you want to animate the clouds, just go to another frame and adjust the sliders there - a keyframe will automatically be created, and LW will interpolate between your morph mixer settings. In some presets (especially the space ones) some of the sliders will function slightly differently than what you would presume from the labels - experiment and have fun!!
 
The mixer controls have no effect on the legacy presets (available as a separate download).