The sun tool

The sun tool is a very handy tool to control the lighting of the scene. Illustrated below is the location of the sun tool in the toolbar and what gets displayed when raised:

The sun direction tool

Sun positions are listed in the current scene and saved by it. A sun position can be recalled from the current scene contents by double clicking it.

The sun direction tools contains buttons to create, delete, save an apply a sun position from the list.

Sun positions are always relative to the position of the observer, so a sun position in the lower part of the tool means that it's night time. Always. Therefore, a sun position will be deterministic only for a fixed camera position. If the camera moves slightly, then the sun position will not be identical. Note that at a planetary scale, you won't notice the change unless you move by kilometers. But to be able to strictly reproduce a sun position, a camera position should be recorded too and both should be recalled.

Realistic sun direction

The sun direction tool allows to set the sun at any position in the sky. In reality, the sun can not be seen anywhere. It follows a trajectory depending on the location and time on earth.

NDunes can simulates the real sun direction by selecting the time (GMT/UTC) and decimal GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude in degree). By pushing the trajectory button, the accurate sun trajectory of the selected day and location becomes visible in the top view and the position is constrained to it. To get back to free mode, simply uncheck the button.

When the pinpoint button is pressed, the latitude and longitude values are updated to match the current view location.

Exact sun position and trajectory from time and location on earth

Sun trajectories for animation

In NDunes, the sun can be animated for real time scenes or video rendering. To enable any sun animation, you must first create a trajectory that defines how the sun moves between two saved positions.

The Trajectories tab displays all available sun trajectories. Each trajectory is defined by two previously saved sun positions.

List of trajectories and parameters

The Duration property sets the duration of the animation in the simulation.

The Use time checkbox is available when the two sun positions have been saved using the real gps coordinates and time. When checked, the animation interpolation is done accuratly between the start and end timestamps. Otherwise the interpolation is done between the sun directions.

To use the recorded sun trajectories, simply drag and drop the trajectory list items in the timeline to create a sun animation track and sequence. For further informations about the timeline, please see Animation.

Using the camera toolbar

The wind tool