Solar Corona (Essence)

This uses 1 sphere, 3 disks and 2 Essence textures.

• First use varyabsrgb to create changes subtle changes on the suns surface between white hot and light yellow.
• Then use a disk for the corona, rotate the oject axis so that the y axis was perpendicular to the surface of the disk and add the cylindturb texture with the z axis extending perpendicular from the surface of the disk. We used cylindturb because we could translate the texture along it's z axis to create the illusion of movement much more effectively than radialturb.
• Then add another disk and place it less than 1 unit behind the first, apply the radial Impulse texture to create the glare around the sun.
• Now apply radial to another disk, this time making it black to blot out the stars behind the corona that would show through the glare (it looks pretty unrealistic without it).
• Make sure all objects are bright, and parent the second and third disks to the first. We can save the sun itself as one object, and the corona group as a second object. In the stage editor track the corona to the camera so that it would always be perpendicular to the camera (only good if the camera is moving a little bit).

Last Update: July 13, 1995
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