CYCLES sky+clouds system - procedurally based

hello friends
i came into simple idea of getting something like procedurally generated sky with cycles.


here is blend https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0DHyr5Sb3MXNTNhcU1PRkRDZVE/edit?usp=sharing

basically it is a clouds (noise) texture , blended with sky model - now i need someone to help me with :
1 - get rid of “under horizon” part - i tried to mix with transparent shader using color ramp with alpha but with no luck…
2 - plug in some colors into clouds texture - i have no idea how to change their color…
3 - if anyone can make this sky better - improvements are welcome

the blend is free 4 u to use!

cheers

tom

  1. Do you need to get rid of the under horizon part? Wont the ground plane or landscape object obscure it anyway?
  2. Try running the output of the noise texture through a colour ramp node - that may work.
  3. Post the node setup - and i’ll have a play when i’m back home.

ad1 - but clouds are rarely that low - its better to have them start a little above horizon…
ad2 - i will try…
ad3 - grab the blend - this will be easier for you

thx 4 help!

For the clouds to stay over the horizon, try this:


The color ramp has alpha set to zero on the left marker and 0.5 on the right marker (for example, in this image). That’s the overlay factor for the clouds.

Move the left marker to raise the clouds over the horizon. Move the right marker to affect the transition in between no overlay and full overlay.

I looked a bit into changing the colors of the clouds. Right now, I understand what all the nodes do but I don’t understand the result. :confused: When you reroute the noise from anywhere along the branch before the overlay, you get an almost white texture which doesn’t match the result. I must look deeper… and most probably break everything. :wink:

i tought that you could use a sky map in cycles now !
if possible then this would be over the horizon only!

happy cycles

That’s it. According to the colors on Pxl666’s image, that’s the new Hosek/Wilkie sky texture like in my version. The colors are much better and you must really increase the strength. That’s all the differences I’ve seen so far… :confused:

kaluura - may u explain in what purpose we need “separate rgb” node - i see it works , but i dont see why/how…
anyway - your method seems to work

okay
so far heres what i came up with


im pretty happy with these clouds as of now…
grab the blend https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0DHyr5Sb3MXOVFpYTNlWXpIWlE/edit?usp=sharing

file is free to use

cheers

The “Separate RGB” node is used to access the different components of a vector. Here, the Z value of the generated UV map.

A “Separate XYZ” node dedicated to the vectors is planned but nobody really cares. “Separate RGB” does the job just fine and will keep on doing so for compatibility reasons. So… :wink: