Skymaker is a simple blend-file that lets you create skydomes that you may use to light your scene with, or just use as a reflection dome. The file features simple sky color change, clouds and automatic saving of color and emit maps of your sky. Further there is a second blend wish is a simple test scene where you are able to test out your skies in a simple way.
This page is the manual wish will teach you how to set up and alter your own skies.
Files:
There are a couple of files in the folder you need to know about:
Skymaker.blend - This is the base file that will create your skymaps
Testblend.blend - This is the test file where you are able to try out your skies
Color0001.png - This is the color image of your sky
Emit0001.png - This is the (fake)emit map of your sky
Setup a sky:
The first thing you do when you've opened the file is to go to the world-texture button, there you will find a colorband. This is the key to your skies. By altering the colors, you will alter the skycolor. Left is the ground direction. Let your imagination go wild here, if you want a realistic sky, then look at photos, how does skies look closer to the ground and what gradient do they have?
If you then change to the Clouds texture you are able to change the color and the size of your clouds. If you want to change the cloud intensety or turn them of, don't use this settings to do that. I will show you how to do that later.
Now we have created a new sky that is ready to be used. Just press F12 to render and take a look at it. Isn't it lovely?
Oh, yeah... you maybe want to alter your clouds some more? Press the world button and select the clouds texture. From her you can change the cloudapperance a bit more. With the Col-value you control the intensety of the clouds (opacity), if you want to turn them of, just set it to zero. With the dX-value you are able to move the clouds horisontaly if you want another apperance.
Now... it's time to push the magic button... render!
As soon as you have rendered the image you will have two files that is called color0001.png and emit0001.png in your blendfolder. This is your final skymap. If you want to try it, just fire up Testblend.blend and push F12. Your new sky is automatic used by the blendfile.
Here's some examples made with the skymaker:
