I have a strange need in Carrara which is starting to be a little frustrating. I would like to put a backdrop skydome in (just like the background or atmosphere. This would be different than the current setup of a simple 2D image. The reason I want to do that is because I would like to be able to do space animations with something like Starbright in the backdrop that would animate from any angle but use a different background for the skylight when doing a GI render. This way I could do studio lighting with a star background and I could do it all in one single render rather than compositing. -Kix

Surely there's no reason why you can't create your own skydome? All you need is a large enough sphere with your backgound image texture mapped to it. Or am I missing something?

If you make a large sky-dome, you'll need to create and work with a lighting rig. (Easy to do with DCG's Master Lights) Just set your Dome to not receive lighting or shadows though.

DCG's Master lights? Which plug is this? Thanks :)

You know, it was created by Digital Carver's Guild but now it's just part of Carrara under the Edit menu. You can adjust the characteristics of multiple or grouped lights, simultaneously. A great time saver. Mark

Thanks - Gothca :)

You could easily map a 2-d starfield to a sphere. I did this in Bryce a year or so ago. As I recall it was really simple. Another old Bryce trick you could use is to take a tiny cube with a fairly light texture replicate it many times and position the results so that they appeared to be distant stars (vary the color somewhat and there you go.) - but what do I know? I just got XP SP2 to install today after a year of trying.

Bikermouse you have now updated to be almost out of date!!! With Vista just around the corner and newer computers taking five minutes to render what takes me 27 minutes I think those 'stars in the backgound' are a place too far!