Solar system

[J_M_D]

(UPDATED IMAGE AT THE BOTTOM)

Hi again

This isn’t really the “finished version” of this project, because I’ts an animation. I’ve got quite a lot of help on how to animate this, and because of that I’ll post this so you guys who has helped me can see what your helpfull replyes has been used to

I haven’t made any of the materials my self (well I’ve changed some quite a bit, but they all came from downloaded materials), and as far as the modelling are concerned, there isn’t much to it… Just a bounce of spheres. As told, it was the animating which was the hard part. Further more, many of you probaly thinks “this isn’t looking as good as it could”, fx. could you say that the sun is way to big. But, this isn’t made (as normal) just to look good. This is an (allmost) perfect illustration of our solar system, which means:

• The sun and the planets relative size are exactly as they are in reality
• The planets axial tilt are as in reality (can only be seen with Saturn)
• The orbit of the planets inclination is as in reality
• The lightning of the scene is coming from the sun, and therefore only the side of the planet that are facing the sun is visuable
• The eccentricity of the orbits are as in reality (can’t really be seen in this still pic)
• The suns location relative to each orbit, is exactly as in reallity (the orbits aren’t circles, and the sun isn’t in the center of the orbit) (can’t bee seen in this still pic)
• The relative orbital time of all the planets are as in reality (can’t bee seen on this pic of course)
• The rotation time of all the planets and the sun are as in reality, and they time also matches relatively to the planets orbital time (again, can’t be seen on a still pic)

Thats all the good things I have to say to this project. The bad thing, which im a bit sorry about, is that the orbits size isn’t at all as in reality, relative to the size of the sun and the planets. I had to make the orbits very small, because if not, even the Earths orbit will be so large, that the sun will have to be only a little dot. So the orbital sizes are all wrong… I just gotta live with it :(…

Well, here’s the pic. All the 8 planets are there, but the 4 smallest (Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars) is likely to be confused with the stars in the background. Again, in the animation, these are a lot easyer to see (because the stars aren’t moving, and the planets are)

I know it probaly could be better, but it’s realistic.
I want to use the animation as a screensaver for my computer. Of course if anyone got some ideeas to make it better (look nicer or more realistic), do let me know

[Photoguy]

Wow, that’s uncanny! i made one almost exactly like that!
nice job, you probably got all the materials from the open material repository, right?
Good work, keep it up!

[J_M_D]

Thats correct, I got the materials from the open material repository. Great site
And thank you

[watchthis]

I think u could do better on the suns texture. It just looks like a cloud texture. I think that in reality, or to the naked eye, in space that the sun is just a giant whitish yellow lightbulb looking thing. The things you see in pictures are enhanced. thats just my ideas though.

[J_M_D]

I have bettered the solar system quite a lot. It hasn’t changed that much though, but it does look better and more complete :).

I have changed the suns texture a bit, as watchthis suggested, but it realy isn’t much. It’s just more yellow and less red now, really.
The most significent updates I have done since last post, are:

• Added all the relatively big moons to the planets. Most moons are so small that they wouldn’t show at a render though. The total moons added is 6 (Earths, Jupiter (4 moons (the gallilei moons) and Saturns biggest moon (Titan).
• Jupiters material has been totaly changed. It is now an image texture, which looks a lot nicer than before.
• Saturns texture has been modified to look more like the real deal.

I have done some other stuff two, but those are the most important updates :).

Hope you will comment everybody

[watchthis]

its a better sun texture… I was thinking about it being brighter though. It doesnt look like it illuminates a galaxy right now, but whatever, you can do whatever you want.

[J_M_D]

I do understand you :). When you look at the sun it doesn’t at all look like that. But the actual look is quite a lot like you see in the pic. Try this link and see the sun through a telescope (or as seen from space): http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/assets/channels/education/ae/sun_main.jpg

But anyway, I do think you got the hang on something… It doesn’t look much like it emits light, exept for the halo around it. I will try to fix this somehow.
And eh, by the way… The sun doesn’t ‘illuminate’ a galaxy, just our solar system :).

[watchthis]

oh ya, my bad… solar system, not galaxy…

[photogen]

you need some fire on dat sun (particles maybe? dupliverts)
and i dont like them mountain things on it but its alright.

[J_M_D]

Your right photogen. It doesn’t look much like the sun is emitting a lot of light as in reality. I have tried to fix this (and i think it’s a lot better now), but not with particles as you suggest. I’ve just added some more light on the sun and changed it’s material a bit. But hey, it works…

The mountain things is the protuberans. It does look kinda like it would be better without, but it wouln’t. It makes a lot of (good) difference, also to the surface of the sun that is shown in the pic (not just the periferi). So I will be keeping it.

An other thing I’ve done is to make the shadow of Saturn on its rings totally black, not just dark. The only lightsource that really matters here is the sun, and since it doesn’t hit the rings in the shadow of the planet it shouln’t just be darker. It should be totally black, like the sides of the planets that aren’t facing the sun.
An other little thing with this exact frame I’ve chosen for the render, is that you can see the Earth and the moon, as black spots on the sun (down right). The same situation is seen on the last uploaded pic.

Here’s the render:

2nd update… And I posted this as a finished work… Well once again, do comment, and tell me what can be made better. Personately I’ve started to think it’s quite good