CompuServe Messages

John, As the author of the "Destination: Deep Space" chapter in New Rider Publishing's "3D Studio Special Effects" book, I can offer the following suggestions. Place a large sphere around your entire space scene (encompassing all the elements, including the camera.) Assign it a shiny but completely transparent material; if it's one-sided, invert the object normals; if 2-sided, turn Shadow Casting and Receiving Attributes to OFF. You can then push and pull vertices (subtly) on the surface of the sphere to distort its surface, tesselate it to smooth it, and then place colored Omnilights inside the object. (You can make the Omnilights have specific ranges; you should also set them to Exclude any other objects in the scene.) The lights will pick out the specular highlights on the sphere, resulting in gaseous-looking clouds. Another approach is to paint a nebula image (preferably 24-bit) and map it inside the sphere. Good luck! — Jon