Requesting help Creating a lovely Transparent Sphere

[foravalon]

Hello Celestia Gurus,

What I'm looking to create is a transparent Ovoid approximately 200lys in height, 120lys in length and about 60 in width. After Seeing the Nebula that Jestr created for the Black Hole 108 Nebula addon at the Motherlode I know that something like what I have in mind is possible.

What I don't have is the skills or expertise to do something like that in Celestia myself. Nor the program to create the appropriate 3ds or cmod model if that's what's required.

What I Do have is a rough draft of what I'm creating in the form of a Google Sketchup model, But alas I can only afford the free version which doesn't allow me to save the file as 3DS.

Is there any kind soul that might have the knowledge, skill, or capability to help a brother out? Bonus points if you're a geeky Star Trek Fan like myself.

Thank you!

[jeffg]

I'd also like to create a semi-transparent sphere / planet. I've created a semi-transparent green texture, but Celestia lights it up seeming to ignore the transparency. I've been able to apply it onto an comet asteroid and make it transparent. In fact I love the blueish overlay to Halley's comet, if it were just a perfect sphere (seems to be done as a vector as I can't seem to find the texture/mesh for it). I just starting to learn this program. I want to strip out planets and create my own galaxy. Not sure how to do it yet.. but that's my thought.

[selden]

Celestia's default planets use the Alpha channel of a texture for specularity, providing highlights on oceans.

If you want a translucent sphere, you'll have to provide your own spherical model.

[Reiko]

One thing you might try is making a basic sphere in anim8tor and export it as a cmod. Then open the cmod up with wordpad and set the opacity for the materials to 0.5. Maybe that will make it transparent.

[jeffg]

One thing you might try is making a basic sphere in anim8tor and export it as a cmod. Then open the cmod up with wordpad and set the opacity for the materials to 0.5. Maybe that will make it transparent.

I didn't see an export to cmod, so I exported to 3ds and then converted it to cmod. I was able to get a good looking sphere, but it came out to 10mb after splitting the faces enough times to make it look smooth (and still not as smooth as I'd like). I didn't get the opacity option to work, but I was able to apply a semi-transparent png texture that did the job. I'm concerned about the file size. I would think this could be done much more efficiently as that planet doesn't come up as smoothly as everything else. I'm new to 3d modeling.

[selden]

Anim8or can export directly to CMOD if you install an export plugin.
For details, see http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celest ... g.html#4.0

[Hungry4info]

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't a cloud map work?

[fsgregs]

I have two transparent spheres you can have. They were created for me three years ago by Jestr for use in one of my educational activities. One is tinted a faint blue, and one is tinted a faint white. They are currently 80 light years in diameter, but can be made any radius. One is a CMOD and one is a 3DS texture.

I asked Jestr to make them so transparent as to be no more than a faint bubble, barely visible in space. If you wish them denser, you will have to edit the CMOD or 3DS.

They are spherical, so if you need them a different shape, you will have to edit the mesh.

Send me you email address and I'll email them to you. They are about 4.5 MB in combined size.

Frank

[foravalon]

That would be awesome, Frank! I'd love to check them out as more proof-of-concept.
I'll PM my email addy to you,

Unlike 3ds files, cmods are just plain text files, is that correct? If that is the case I'm hoping I'll be able to see the information they contain and kind of reverse engineer/jury rig them into something more of what I'm looking for.

Though I have no objection to learning a new program, like Anim8tor, for use in creating models in the long term, what I'm rather more curious about is whether someone out there might be willing to aid me in modifying the 3d Model I've already created for use in the Celestia. I'd be more than willing to post the Sketchup .skp file as an example of what I'm trying to achieve. In fact, it looks a lot like this:



Once again this is for a geeky and beloved Star Trek project, Any help in translating/refining the model would be greatly appreciated!

[Reiko]

That would be awesome, Frank! I'd love to check them out as more proof-of-concept.
I'll PM my email addy to you,

Unlike 3ds files, cmods are just plain text files, is that correct? If that is the case I'm hoping I'll be able to see the information they contain and kind of reverse engineer/jury rig them into something more of what I'm looking for.

Though I have no objection to learning a new program, like Anim8tor, for use in creating models in the long term, what I'm rather more curious about is whether someone out there might be willing to aid me in modifying the 3d Model I've already created for use in the Celestia. I'd be more than willing to post the Sketchup .skp file as an example of what I'm trying to achieve. In fact, it looks a lot like this:


Once again this is for a geeky and beloved Star Trek project, Any help in translating/refining the model would be greatly appreciated!

Yay! Another Star Trek fan. I would try and help you but none of my 3d modeling softwares will import a .skp file.