1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,790 - [Martin] Hey everyone, Martin here for cgboost.com 2 00:00:02,790 --> 00:00:06,120 and in this short video, part of the quick tip series 3 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:07,160 we are going to have a look 4 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:09,280 at constructing something very handy 5 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:14,150 for your environment shots, a starry night sky element. 6 00:00:14,150 --> 00:00:15,878 I mean, you could just download an image 7 00:00:15,878 --> 00:00:18,340 or shoot a night sky shot 8 00:00:18,340 --> 00:00:20,820 and that can work very well in day shots 9 00:00:20,820 --> 00:00:24,270 but once you start searching for night sky elements, 10 00:00:24,270 --> 00:00:25,450 you will usually find out 11 00:00:25,450 --> 00:00:27,520 that they are grainy or blurry, 12 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,910 usually unusable for 3D purposes, which means yes, 13 00:00:31,910 --> 00:00:34,710 we shall make our own starry sky from scratch, 14 00:00:34,710 --> 00:00:36,090 using just shader nodes 15 00:00:36,090 --> 00:00:37,160 and layer on top of it, 16 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:39,190 various elements from a soft glow 17 00:00:39,190 --> 00:00:42,570 to animated clouds and of course, the moon. 18 00:00:42,570 --> 00:00:44,610 In the end, you'll be able to put it into any 19 00:00:44,610 --> 00:00:45,870 of your night scenes 20 00:00:45,870 --> 00:00:47,400 to serve as a backdrop 21 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:50,650 that you can easily adjust and animate. 22 00:00:53,410 --> 00:00:55,610 This video is, by the way, closely connected 23 00:00:55,610 --> 00:00:58,510 to my master 3D environments course in Blender 24 00:00:58,510 --> 00:00:59,740 where you will learn, for example, 25 00:00:59,740 --> 00:01:01,700 how to make deserts, mountains, 26 00:01:01,700 --> 00:01:04,600 highlands, oceans, 3D clouds, 27 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:06,150 weather elements and more. 28 00:01:06,150 --> 00:01:07,330 For a few weeks still, 29 00:01:07,330 --> 00:01:09,760 this course will be in early access stage 30 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:11,500 with discounted prices. 31 00:01:11,500 --> 00:01:14,663 So yeah, check it out if I peaked your interest. 32 00:01:15,830 --> 00:01:18,130 Let's start this lesson by making a sphere 33 00:01:18,130 --> 00:01:20,200 to serve as our sky dome. 34 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:24,060 Make it a rather large one, like 1,000 meters, 35 00:01:24,060 --> 00:01:25,550 which you can set here. 36 00:01:25,550 --> 00:01:26,810 Once you do, however, 37 00:01:26,810 --> 00:01:29,750 it's best to raise the view clipping in here 38 00:01:29,750 --> 00:01:31,898 to not have your viewport cutted off. 39 00:01:31,898 --> 00:01:33,300 Apply the scale. 40 00:01:33,300 --> 00:01:35,120 It's usually a good practice, 41 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:36,130 especially when you plan 42 00:01:36,130 --> 00:01:38,780 on doing some texture mapping node work, 43 00:01:38,780 --> 00:01:40,010 which we are. 44 00:01:40,010 --> 00:01:42,300 And since I'm not planning to use the sphere 45 00:01:42,300 --> 00:01:43,570 as my environment, 46 00:01:43,570 --> 00:01:46,480 rather as a 2D background for my scene, 47 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:48,550 I will, in fact, delete most of it 48 00:01:48,550 --> 00:01:51,180 and use just this half sphere, 49 00:01:51,180 --> 00:01:53,410 which you should do that this point 50 00:01:53,410 --> 00:01:55,610 for later use in your own scenes 51 00:01:55,610 --> 00:01:58,290 is deactivating the shadows of this object. 52 00:01:58,290 --> 00:02:01,210 I mean, if you make a really large sphere, like this, 53 00:02:01,210 --> 00:02:02,890 it will, of course, cast a shadow, 54 00:02:02,890 --> 00:02:04,750 obstructing parts of your terrain. 55 00:02:04,750 --> 00:02:06,660 So to avoid this, right off the bat, 56 00:02:06,660 --> 00:02:08,270 we need to go down here 57 00:02:08,270 --> 00:02:10,960 and uncheck the shadow and ray visibility. 58 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:12,650 That is if you're in cycles. 59 00:02:12,650 --> 00:02:15,940 If, like us, you will construct the sky for EEVEE, 60 00:02:15,940 --> 00:02:17,830 and let's switch, in fact, 61 00:02:17,830 --> 00:02:19,730 you will need to create a new material 62 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,560 and down here change this shadow mode to none. 63 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:26,590 With this done, name it Sky Dome, 64 00:02:26,590 --> 00:02:29,040 make its shading smooth by right clicking 65 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:30,320 and choosing it here 66 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:32,830 and also, you can hit Control + 2 67 00:02:32,830 --> 00:02:35,320 to add more subdivisions to it. 68 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:36,630 All right, and with that, 69 00:02:36,630 --> 00:02:39,803 we are ready to map some starry sky onto this image. 70 00:02:40,910 --> 00:02:44,630 So first, let's start working on our material here. 71 00:02:44,630 --> 00:02:46,120 Open up the shader editor 72 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,280 and start plugging stuff into this color socket. 73 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,020 To start off, it's going to be this noise texture node. 74 00:02:53,020 --> 00:02:56,120 And we can also fly inside of our sphere 75 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:57,360 to see it better. 76 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:59,430 If you activate the Node Wrangler add-on, 77 00:02:59,430 --> 00:03:03,030 which I'm sure you know is among your built-in add-ons, 78 00:03:03,030 --> 00:03:05,347 you just need to activate it in Preferences 79 00:03:05,347 --> 00:03:08,390 and I don't even know why, at this point, 80 00:03:08,390 --> 00:03:10,790 when clearly everybody is using it, 81 00:03:10,790 --> 00:03:13,063 it's still not active by default. 82 00:03:14,700 --> 00:03:16,560 But anyway, with it active, 83 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:19,360 you can just press Control + T with the noise selected 84 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,470 and you get this coordinate mapping setup. 85 00:03:22,470 --> 00:03:25,510 And in here, just leave everything as is. 86 00:03:25,510 --> 00:03:28,070 To be honest, you didn't even need to add it in 87 00:03:28,070 --> 00:03:32,030 because Blender uses these generated coordinates by default, 88 00:03:32,030 --> 00:03:35,600 anytime you don't plug anything into this vector socket. 89 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:38,573 But I wanted you to know the Control + T shortcut. 90 00:03:39,430 --> 00:03:42,710 And you can also already jump into the render preview mode 91 00:03:42,710 --> 00:03:45,520 and you can see something is happening. 92 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:47,920 It just doesn't look like stars. 93 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,690 But we'll work on that right now. 94 00:03:50,690 --> 00:03:52,710 To achieve the starry sky backdrop, 95 00:03:52,710 --> 00:03:55,610 set it to about 1,000 in scale 96 00:03:55,610 --> 00:03:57,910 and detail of six or more 97 00:03:57,910 --> 00:03:59,730 and leave the rest as is. 98 00:03:59,730 --> 00:04:03,060 Now, let's see, you have this typical color noise, 99 00:04:03,060 --> 00:04:04,910 which we don't really want. 100 00:04:04,910 --> 00:04:07,310 Instead, we want to make it stars. 101 00:04:07,310 --> 00:04:09,520 So first logical step would be to get rid 102 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:10,960 of the colors. 103 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:11,813 You can simply do that 104 00:04:11,813 --> 00:04:14,040 by adding the trusty companion 105 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:16,340 to all shader editor edits, 106 00:04:16,340 --> 00:04:17,710 the color ramp node. 107 00:04:17,710 --> 00:04:20,410 Now, when you adjust the endpoints like this, 108 00:04:20,410 --> 00:04:22,310 well, well, well, right away, 109 00:04:22,310 --> 00:04:24,083 we have some nice-looking stars. 110 00:04:24,083 --> 00:04:27,190 They are dim but when you plug them 111 00:04:27,190 --> 00:04:29,350 into the emission shader as well, 112 00:04:29,350 --> 00:04:31,140 they start emitting. 113 00:04:31,140 --> 00:04:33,710 That was easier than you thought, right? 114 00:04:33,710 --> 00:04:37,570 I settled at the values of 0.65 for the black point 115 00:04:37,570 --> 00:04:41,870 and 0.7 to 75 for the white point, 116 00:04:41,870 --> 00:04:45,010 depending on how bright you want your stars to be. 117 00:04:45,010 --> 00:04:46,370 Okay, let's select the nodes, 118 00:04:46,370 --> 00:04:48,050 hit Control + J to frame them 119 00:04:48,050 --> 00:04:52,400 and name the frame here in the sidebar menu Stars. 120 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,680 You can even change the color and the size here. 121 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:57,160 So that's the starry field 122 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:01,040 and next up comes the bottom edge light glow. 123 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:03,570 The node you can use to create a gradient seeping 124 00:05:03,570 --> 00:05:05,930 from below onto your starry field 125 00:05:05,930 --> 00:05:07,920 is this gradient texture. 126 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:11,240 Let's, in fact, unplug the starry field first 127 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:15,360 to not see it, and plug in this gradient texture by itself. 128 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,260 First, into the color and then into the emission. 129 00:05:19,260 --> 00:05:20,600 And here's a little trick. 130 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,830 If you hold down Shift and right mouse button drag, 131 00:05:23,830 --> 00:05:25,690 you create this reroute node 132 00:05:25,690 --> 00:05:29,100 and now, let's drive our connections from this point. 133 00:05:29,100 --> 00:05:30,260 The advantage of this 134 00:05:30,260 --> 00:05:32,565 is next time we want to plug something 135 00:05:32,565 --> 00:05:34,770 into these two sockets, 136 00:05:34,770 --> 00:05:36,690 you don't have to plug it in twice 137 00:05:36,690 --> 00:05:39,400 but instead, you only plug it here. 138 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:41,570 Saving time like a pro. 139 00:05:41,570 --> 00:05:43,650 Okay, back to the gradient texture. 140 00:05:43,650 --> 00:05:45,410 By default, you can see it's positioned 141 00:05:45,410 --> 00:05:50,410 from +x to -x going from white color to black. 142 00:05:50,690 --> 00:05:52,810 I found the gradient to be kinda hard. 143 00:05:52,810 --> 00:05:57,050 So in fact, let's switch to this quadratic one first. 144 00:05:57,050 --> 00:05:59,310 Second, I want it to come from below, 145 00:05:59,310 --> 00:06:00,630 not from the side. 146 00:06:00,630 --> 00:06:03,650 So for that, let's hit that Control + T shortcut 147 00:06:03,650 --> 00:06:05,570 and this time, we will use it. 148 00:06:05,570 --> 00:06:08,070 By the way, leaving the coordinate method 149 00:06:08,070 --> 00:06:10,320 to generate it has one advantage. 150 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:13,750 And that is if you later start scaling your sky dome, 151 00:06:13,750 --> 00:06:16,240 the texture will stay the same. 152 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:19,010 So now for it to shine from below, 153 00:06:19,010 --> 00:06:22,850 we just need to rotate the y-axis -90 degrees 154 00:06:22,850 --> 00:06:27,730 and push it on x-axis until we see some result. 155 00:06:27,730 --> 00:06:29,530 And you may need to hold down Shift 156 00:06:29,530 --> 00:06:32,010 when manipulating with this x value 157 00:06:32,010 --> 00:06:34,850 because it gets very sensitive. 158 00:06:34,850 --> 00:06:36,220 Now would be a proper time 159 00:06:36,220 --> 00:06:38,490 to add a camera to our shot. 160 00:06:38,490 --> 00:06:39,763 So let's add one. 161 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:43,363 Position it wherever you want it. 162 00:06:44,900 --> 00:06:46,710 Raise the end clipping, of course, 163 00:06:46,710 --> 00:06:49,780 to avoid far distance clipping of our sky dome 164 00:06:49,780 --> 00:06:52,490 and set up any resolution you want. 165 00:06:52,490 --> 00:06:56,190 I will use the cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio 166 00:06:56,190 --> 00:06:57,983 and a fairly wide lens. 167 00:06:59,540 --> 00:07:02,230 And now with the better idea of the final shot, 168 00:07:02,230 --> 00:07:04,790 you can play around with the mapping a bit more, 169 00:07:04,790 --> 00:07:06,523 even with the x value. 170 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,180 A very fast way to control the color of this glow 171 00:07:10,180 --> 00:07:13,370 is to simply add a mix RGB node here 172 00:07:13,370 --> 00:07:17,250 and make it a color method with vector one. 173 00:07:17,250 --> 00:07:19,430 Now you can just play with the color here, 174 00:07:19,430 --> 00:07:21,099 making it slightly bluish, 175 00:07:21,099 --> 00:07:23,583 or any other color you want really. 176 00:07:24,590 --> 00:07:28,120 Finally, we want to blend it with the starry field. 177 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:31,720 So for that, you can, in fact, add one more mix RGB node 178 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:33,020 and leave it to mix. 179 00:07:33,020 --> 00:07:34,810 Plug the stars to the first socket, 180 00:07:34,810 --> 00:07:36,520 the globe to the second socket 181 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:37,913 and here we go. 182 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:40,700 And by the way, if at this point, 183 00:07:40,700 --> 00:07:43,270 the globe is too soft at the edges for you, 184 00:07:43,270 --> 00:07:45,410 you can always add a curves node here 185 00:07:45,410 --> 00:07:47,910 to raise the intensity for the midpoint, 186 00:07:47,910 --> 00:07:50,010 low points or high points 187 00:07:50,010 --> 00:07:52,090 or make it more contrasty. 188 00:07:52,090 --> 00:07:54,350 A really handy node this one. 189 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:57,680 You can also rotate this on y somewhat more 190 00:07:57,680 --> 00:07:58,710 to make it coming more 191 00:07:58,710 --> 00:08:01,230 from one side or the other. 192 00:08:01,230 --> 00:08:04,720 Frame this network and call it Glow Bottom. 193 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,280 This one can function as anything really. 194 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:09,160 For example, an atmosphere layer 195 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:11,713 or a dimmed glow of the coming dawn. 196 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:15,510 Next up, we can start adding the moon. 197 00:08:15,510 --> 00:08:17,970 I have found that by far the easiest solution 198 00:08:17,970 --> 00:08:20,400 is to just use an image texture 199 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:22,570 and stick it onto your sky dome. 200 00:08:22,570 --> 00:08:26,463 So you can search for a CC0 transparent moon texture, 201 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:29,830 download it and just import it 202 00:08:29,830 --> 00:08:32,210 with this image as planes add-on. 203 00:08:32,210 --> 00:08:35,040 Another one of those indispensable add-ons 204 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:37,680 that should be active by default. 205 00:08:37,680 --> 00:08:39,040 So once you add it in, 206 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:41,690 make it larger and stick it onto your sky 207 00:08:41,690 --> 00:08:43,800 with the snapping options activated. 208 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:45,940 Hit Center and Align Rotation 209 00:08:45,940 --> 00:08:48,510 and then just move the plane across the dome 210 00:08:48,510 --> 00:08:50,440 while holding Control. 211 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:52,280 Place it where you want the moon to be 212 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:54,040 and in the shader editor, 213 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:56,640 plug it into the emission as well. 214 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:58,210 To control the color of the moon, 215 00:08:58,210 --> 00:09:00,730 you can again add the color mix node 216 00:09:00,730 --> 00:09:03,500 with a similar color as we used for the glow, 217 00:09:03,500 --> 00:09:05,960 only you don't have to make it as intense 218 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:07,400 in the factor here. 219 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:09,240 If you want the emission to be controlled 220 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:10,640 by this color mix too, 221 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:12,950 just plug this output into it. 222 00:09:12,950 --> 00:09:14,800 Also, you can adjust the emission 223 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:16,720 if you plug in a curves node 224 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:18,380 in between the mix node 225 00:09:18,380 --> 00:09:20,100 and the emission socket. 226 00:09:20,100 --> 00:09:22,340 It's, in fact, better if you raise the dark point 227 00:09:22,340 --> 00:09:23,680 and bring down the highlights 228 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:26,400 so that the emission more evenly spreads 229 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,260 across the moon. 230 00:09:28,260 --> 00:09:31,810 Cool and you know what will make it even more cool? 231 00:09:31,810 --> 00:09:35,570 Activating the bloom option in Eevee Render settings. 232 00:09:35,570 --> 00:09:37,270 I ended up with this settings 233 00:09:37,270 --> 00:09:40,800 of 0.6 in the threshold, larger intensity 234 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:42,430 and bluish color. 235 00:09:42,430 --> 00:09:44,790 Now, to ensure the moon sticks to the surface 236 00:09:44,790 --> 00:09:46,020 of our sky dome, 237 00:09:46,020 --> 00:09:48,773 you can first parent it to the object, 238 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:53,830 and then you can also add the shrink wrap modifier 239 00:09:53,830 --> 00:09:55,173 with default settings, 240 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:58,210 make the target our sky dome 241 00:09:58,210 --> 00:10:00,690 and you can also add a bit of offset 242 00:10:00,690 --> 00:10:04,190 so that the moon never intersects through the sky dome. 243 00:10:04,190 --> 00:10:07,650 Very nice, but the moon is missing a bit more glow to it. 244 00:10:07,650 --> 00:10:09,613 So that's what we'll do next. 245 00:10:10,850 --> 00:10:12,970 The moon glow we could create in many ways. 246 00:10:12,970 --> 00:10:16,140 For example, by sticking in a spherical gradient image 247 00:10:16,140 --> 00:10:17,780 behind the moon image plane 248 00:10:17,780 --> 00:10:19,040 but I wanted it to be part 249 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,450 of my sky dome material. 250 00:10:20,450 --> 00:10:24,070 So instead, I duplicated the bottom glow network 251 00:10:24,070 --> 00:10:26,560 and reused it to make a moon glow. 252 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:29,010 So first off, let's plug it in by itself 253 00:10:29,010 --> 00:10:32,040 and change the gradient type to be spherical. 254 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:35,040 Then it will be just a matter of scaling down the glow 255 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:36,630 and positioning it here 256 00:10:36,630 --> 00:10:39,380 so that it's where the moon is. 257 00:10:39,380 --> 00:10:40,840 Before we do that, however, 258 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:43,980 we can change this mapping type to texture. 259 00:10:43,980 --> 00:10:46,950 Without going too deep into how the texture type differs 260 00:10:46,950 --> 00:10:49,670 from point type, what's important now 261 00:10:49,670 --> 00:10:52,980 is that if you want to make your texture smaller, 262 00:10:52,980 --> 00:10:55,430 in point type, you would have to go up 263 00:10:55,430 --> 00:10:56,540 with the scale 264 00:10:56,540 --> 00:10:57,650 while in texture type, 265 00:10:57,650 --> 00:11:00,570 you can input numbers smaller than one, 266 00:11:00,570 --> 00:11:03,170 which at least to me always makes more sense, 267 00:11:03,170 --> 00:11:06,400 especially if I want to experiment with placement. 268 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:08,730 So after a bit of playing around with the scaling 269 00:11:08,730 --> 00:11:11,960 and positioning, I arrived at these numbers. 270 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,916 This is, of course, not the most user-friendly solution. 271 00:11:14,916 --> 00:11:19,916 The glow is traveling over a sphere kinda unreliably 272 00:11:20,140 --> 00:11:22,120 but you can do that. 273 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,760 And mind you, the numbers here will, of course, 274 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:27,270 depend on the position of your sky dome 275 00:11:27,270 --> 00:11:29,870 of the camera and also where you want the moon 276 00:11:29,870 --> 00:11:31,270 to be in the shot. 277 00:11:31,270 --> 00:11:33,130 And if you find a better solution for this, 278 00:11:33,130 --> 00:11:35,250 definitely let me know in the comments. 279 00:11:35,250 --> 00:11:37,450 Next up, there's the color node. 280 00:11:37,450 --> 00:11:39,730 I left it at about 0.5. 281 00:11:39,730 --> 00:11:42,120 I did not want it to be too colorful 282 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:46,020 and finally, I plugged it in with a very low factor 283 00:11:46,020 --> 00:11:47,940 and mix blending type. 284 00:11:47,940 --> 00:11:50,550 However, this glow wasn't good enough for me. 285 00:11:50,550 --> 00:11:52,850 I want it to have a larger outside glow 286 00:11:52,850 --> 00:11:54,810 and smaller inside glow. 287 00:11:54,810 --> 00:11:57,490 For that, fortunately, there is an easier solution. 288 00:11:57,490 --> 00:12:00,090 You just use this glow texture twice. 289 00:12:00,090 --> 00:12:03,870 Before we do that, however, let's frame this new network. 290 00:12:03,870 --> 00:12:06,050 And then duplicate this color node 291 00:12:07,530 --> 00:12:09,690 and also, duplicate the mix node 292 00:12:09,690 --> 00:12:12,490 and plug it behind the first one. 293 00:12:12,490 --> 00:12:14,570 Finally, plug the new color node 294 00:12:14,570 --> 00:12:16,033 into this new mix node. 295 00:12:17,150 --> 00:12:19,480 Okay, that just blended in the very same glow 296 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:21,030 as the previous one. 297 00:12:21,030 --> 00:12:23,120 Only making it more intense. 298 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,510 However, a node that will allow us 299 00:12:25,510 --> 00:12:26,820 to play around with the shape 300 00:12:26,820 --> 00:12:30,140 of the second glow is again this curves node. 301 00:12:30,140 --> 00:12:32,670 By making a contrast curve like this, 302 00:12:32,670 --> 00:12:35,130 I was able to bring down the less-intense parts 303 00:12:35,130 --> 00:12:37,560 of the glow and bring up the highlights, 304 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:39,770 making a smaller, more intense shape 305 00:12:39,770 --> 00:12:40,970 in the center of it. 306 00:12:40,970 --> 00:12:43,380 Then just edit the factors up here, 307 00:12:43,380 --> 00:12:45,830 blending them until you like the result 308 00:12:45,830 --> 00:12:47,750 and you can also play around with the color 309 00:12:47,750 --> 00:12:49,633 of the two glows here, of course. 310 00:12:51,653 --> 00:12:53,600 Very good, this is getting us somewhere. 311 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:55,610 Final layer of detail we'll add 312 00:12:55,610 --> 00:12:57,433 are going to be these clouds. 313 00:12:58,487 --> 00:13:02,550 For that, we'll use a noise texture, a 3D type. 314 00:13:02,550 --> 00:13:06,530 So again, plug this in here for now by itself. 315 00:13:06,530 --> 00:13:09,750 Scale of four and we can make it quite detailed 316 00:13:09,750 --> 00:13:11,550 and a level of 12. 317 00:13:11,550 --> 00:13:14,130 Also add a bit of distortion. 318 00:13:14,130 --> 00:13:15,810 Next, bring in a color ramp 319 00:13:15,810 --> 00:13:17,670 to be able to make it black and white. 320 00:13:17,670 --> 00:13:19,910 And increase the contrast like this 321 00:13:19,910 --> 00:13:21,960 by bringing the two points together. 322 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:24,300 0.45 for black point 323 00:13:24,300 --> 00:13:28,850 and 0.55 for white point looks about right. 324 00:13:28,850 --> 00:13:30,540 To plug it into our network, 325 00:13:30,540 --> 00:13:31,940 bring in a mix node 326 00:13:31,940 --> 00:13:33,960 and plug our last mix output 327 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:35,480 into the first socket 328 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:38,350 and for now, let's leave the second one empty, 329 00:13:38,350 --> 00:13:40,660 making the cloud white for a while 330 00:13:40,660 --> 00:13:43,410 because now we're making only the shape of the clouds. 331 00:13:43,410 --> 00:13:45,600 So we will plug this noise texture 332 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:46,700 into the factor. 333 00:13:46,700 --> 00:13:48,810 That essentially mixes in the white color 334 00:13:48,810 --> 00:13:52,090 to the spots defined by this cloud network. 335 00:13:52,090 --> 00:13:54,250 Now we can see the cloud shape clearly 336 00:13:54,250 --> 00:13:56,460 but of course, we don't want it to be this white. 337 00:13:56,460 --> 00:13:58,360 Before we solve the color though, 338 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:00,670 let's figure out the mapping. 339 00:14:00,670 --> 00:14:02,710 With Control + T, add the mapping network 340 00:14:02,710 --> 00:14:04,680 to the texture but this time, 341 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:08,040 we'll choose this object method to drive our mapping. 342 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:11,090 However, we will not use the sky dome itself 343 00:14:11,090 --> 00:14:13,330 but rather, let's add a new empty 344 00:14:13,330 --> 00:14:16,760 and choose it down here in the object picker. 345 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:18,290 It's now very, very small 346 00:14:18,290 --> 00:14:20,800 but if we scale it to the scale of our sky, 347 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:22,670 which was 1,000, 348 00:14:22,670 --> 00:14:25,270 the clouds became the right size. 349 00:14:25,270 --> 00:14:27,330 And you can even change the type of the empty 350 00:14:27,330 --> 00:14:29,470 to be sphere. 351 00:14:29,470 --> 00:14:31,110 Having a helper object like this 352 00:14:31,110 --> 00:14:33,490 is a great method to have direct control 353 00:14:33,490 --> 00:14:35,380 over the positioning, rotation 354 00:14:35,380 --> 00:14:37,020 and scale of your textures, 355 00:14:37,020 --> 00:14:39,390 especially textures you want to animate, 356 00:14:39,390 --> 00:14:40,470 like these clouds. 357 00:14:40,470 --> 00:14:42,760 If now you want to make them move, 358 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:44,560 you can simply keyframe the empty, 359 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:48,480 rotate it or move it, whatever looks best for you. 360 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:50,410 Now, there's a small downside to this 361 00:14:50,410 --> 00:14:52,750 because when you scale your sky dome, 362 00:14:52,750 --> 00:14:54,910 the clouds will not scale with it. 363 00:14:54,910 --> 00:14:57,180 For that, there's a simple solution. 364 00:14:57,180 --> 00:14:59,367 Just parent the empty to the sky dome. 365 00:14:59,367 --> 00:15:00,590 See? 366 00:15:00,590 --> 00:15:01,473 All good now. 367 00:15:02,690 --> 00:15:05,440 Okay, it's time to adjust the color of our clouds. 368 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,460 I mean, I don't want to make anything elaborate here. 369 00:15:08,460 --> 00:15:10,620 Basically just make the clouds darker 370 00:15:10,620 --> 00:15:12,780 with a brighter spot around here 371 00:15:12,780 --> 00:15:14,370 where the glow of the moon is. 372 00:15:14,370 --> 00:15:17,810 And since we already have this glow position figured out, 373 00:15:17,810 --> 00:15:21,150 you can just duplicate this network and push it here. 374 00:15:21,150 --> 00:15:22,040 To see it better, 375 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:24,263 let's again plug it in by itself. 376 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:27,660 You can change the type here 377 00:15:27,660 --> 00:15:29,990 to be this quadratic sphere 378 00:15:29,990 --> 00:15:33,120 because that one gives you a smoother glow gradient 379 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:35,890 rather than the sharper sphere type. 380 00:15:35,890 --> 00:15:38,090 Then just play around with the mapping node again 381 00:15:38,090 --> 00:15:40,950 until you find a proper position for the glow 382 00:15:40,950 --> 00:15:43,450 to be around this point where the moon is. 383 00:15:43,450 --> 00:15:46,520 You can also plug in our favorite color ramp node 384 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:49,620 but this time, we can use it to color the thing. 385 00:15:49,620 --> 00:15:52,250 By adding a dark blue to the darkest point 386 00:15:52,250 --> 00:15:54,590 and soft blue to the brightest points, 387 00:15:54,590 --> 00:15:57,930 you can color it in a much more believable fashion. 388 00:15:57,930 --> 00:15:59,860 Like this, for example. 389 00:15:59,860 --> 00:16:02,350 Now we want to use it in this cloud structure. 390 00:16:02,350 --> 00:16:04,830 So instead of the plain white color, 391 00:16:04,830 --> 00:16:07,470 plug in this color ramp into the second socket 392 00:16:07,470 --> 00:16:11,528 and voila, we have achieved much better looking clouds. 393 00:16:11,528 --> 00:16:14,560 And now you have this good looking sky dome 394 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:16,650 that you can easily scale, rotate 395 00:16:16,650 --> 00:16:18,007 and pan around with your camera, 396 00:16:18,007 --> 00:16:20,530 appending it to your night scenes. 397 00:16:20,530 --> 00:16:22,320 Of course, this whole shading network 398 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,380 could be made much more elaborate, 399 00:16:24,380 --> 00:16:26,070 adding more structure to the clouds 400 00:16:26,070 --> 00:16:28,490 and overlaying even more elements. 401 00:16:28,490 --> 00:16:31,720 However, I wanted this tip to be short and easy. 402 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:33,697 So that's where I'll leave it. 403 00:16:33,697 --> 00:16:36,220 If you watch the previous video I've made, 404 00:16:36,220 --> 00:16:38,100 focusing on weather effects, 405 00:16:38,100 --> 00:16:39,830 you can, of course, add in, for example, 406 00:16:39,830 --> 00:16:41,830 a falling snow simulation 407 00:16:41,830 --> 00:16:43,170 and with a bit of work 408 00:16:43,170 --> 00:16:44,940 and building a few other elements, 409 00:16:44,940 --> 00:16:48,619 create a simple, yet good looking real-time scene in Eevee. 410 00:16:48,619 --> 00:16:49,670 And of course, 411 00:16:49,670 --> 00:16:52,240 if you want to make some more advanced environments, 412 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:55,800 you can join my master 3D environments in Blender course. 413 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,531 There I'll guide you through all the important steps. 414 00:16:58,531 --> 00:17:00,900 And with that, I thank you for watching 415 00:17:00,900 --> 00:17:01,970 and see you next time 416 00:17:01,970 --> 00:17:04,830 in some of my other videos here at CG Boost 417 00:17:04,830 --> 00:17:07,030 or at my personal YouTube channel. 418 00:17:07,030 --> 00:17:08,960 Links are in the description. 419 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:10,760 Stay creative, my friends. 420 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:11,962 Martin out.