corona sun angle

[peterguthrie]

Although I do prefer the new method for moving the corona sun around, I do sometimes miss being able to type in the angle… what about having both?

It would serve as a handy reminder to what your vertical sun angle is, and you could type it in as well for more accurate control.

If this isnt clear I’ll try and explain it better

pg

[Juraj_Talcik]

I miss it too but you can now type it in rotation slot (in 3dsMax, the bar in top down under viewport) when you uncheck targeted.

But even then the rotation is from vertical… so 30 degree sun angle is 60 degree.

[romullus]

Maru added additional controls to sun object: Target CoronaSun - Corona for 3ds Max :: Requests - Chaos Forum

Don’t see a reason why it can’t be done officially, though.

[peterguthrie]

thanks guys, that helps a lot.

would be cool to have what Maru did added officially

[peterguthrie]

for sure its quicker and more intuitive now, but many people I’m sure have different sun angles set up for different cameras - so numeric entry is often better for that.

If I had to vote for one or the other, i’d go for the previous one, but if we are sticking with this new corona sun then having numeric entry (similar to maru’s scripted thing) would help a lot.

(using it in non-targeted mode as Juraj suggested is a massive help - i just need to subtract my sun angle from 90)

[peterguthrie]

i’d definitely like to see it added anyway. Little things like this make all the difference. When you are adjusting things like that 50 times a day then the mental arithmetic toll adds up

[Juraj_Talcik]

It’s not the same because I am rarely in rotate gizmo mode. So when I need to change the sun, I need to also change into rotate mode, ideally also the correct space. That’s two, or three clicks as opposed to one. Plus doing small math. It’s just annoying since sun is such an important asset to work.

[romullus]

@Rawalanche

When you use non targeted mode, and activate rotate gizmo, the three boxes at the bottom of the Max’s UI are now numeric entry for your sun, so you can rotate your sun horizontally using Z axis, and vertically using Y axis. Only difference is really that 0° now means sun is perfectly perpendicular to the ground (noon) where as previously it would be perfectly parallel (sunset). It requires some change of mindset, but other than that it’s the same thing. If they were added back to the modifier panel, they would behave exactly the same way transform type in boxes above trackbar now do, with only difference that the Y angle would be flipped

This is true if one uses pivot point center. Try it with selection center or transform coordinate center and your sun object may rotate in a quite unexpected way. This is definitely less convenient than simple controls in modify panel.