[mverta]

Yes, this will work, as will modeling a real Fresnel lens, but you begin lighting the scene almost entirely with caustics, which takes forever and is noisy as hell. Definitely don't recommend it.


_Mike

[msantana]

Thank you!

One trick that I have used is to use a Sky Dome, set to pure black, with the sun emitter turned on, and positioned directly above the scene like noon lighting (the least coloration). Then I rotate the entire scene 90 degrees on the X or Z axis. Most space shots have the sun source coming from directly to one side or slightly above or below the horizon line of the ship. Since putting the sun at the horizon turns it yellow, I turn the scene on its side, instead, leaving the sun directly "above" and preserving as much of the intended surface color as possible, and then white balance in post as necessary. Putting the camera above the rotated ship just looks like the scene is aligned normally, but you get the traditional parallel light look.


_Mike

Mike,

I gave your approach a try and I have a scene that clears out on SL 15 under Maxwell 1.7.0.1 on 3 or so hours with 7 or 8 emitters (lights and key lights).

However, using your trick (with black sky dome and allowing the sun as the only emitter at noon) the scene after 10 hours (SL 19) is still very noisy. I think it is going to take several days before I get something that is going to be usable, let alone clean.

Is this considerable increase in render time normal in your experience?

I must admit, the approach does look like a space scene (even before color correction is applied).

M.