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Im still taking baby steps with Blender (2.69) I was hoping to add a sky to my scene using the settings mentioned in the help.

I have a sun lamp in my scene, but I cant spot where the options are for adding sky and atmosphere.

I know this is a basic question, but can someone point this out for me and provide some steps on how to add a sky to a scene?

enter image description here

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3 Answers 3

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In Cycles the settings for a background do not work the same as BI.

Add a Sky Texture in Properties > World if you want an automatically generated sky, or use an Environment texture for using an HDR image as the sky.

To "connect" a node to the backround color from the properties editor, click the little dot next to the color field, then select the type of node:

enter image description here

Note that you will have to manually align it to your sun lamp, or try this addon.

The best technique I have found for manually aligning the sky texture is:

  1. Select your lamp and press . and then CtrlShiftNumpad 7 to align the view looking straight into the lamp:

    enter image description here

  2. Make sure you are in perspective view (Numpad 5 to toggle) and enable viewport rendering (ShiftZ)

  3. Click and drag on the sphere in the sky texture node settings to rotate the sky texture until it is lined up with the view:

    enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you just elaborate a little bit on manually aligning it. Other than that, this looks perfect, thanks! $\endgroup$
    – jakc
    Commented Feb 6, 2014 at 10:09
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In user perspective (render mode), rotate the view around the object till the bright spot in the Sky is right behind the object you want to be lit. Then change to user ortho (F5) and solid mode, select the lamp (sun) and translate it till it is behind the object. Then change the camera to the sun (ctrl + 0) and then rotate the sun camera till the object is right in the middle of the view. This will point the sun's rays right at the object. Now the sun rays (they all run parallel) run parallel to the line between the bright sky spot and the object. So no matter where you place your camera next, you will always have the impression that the rays (and shadows) radiate from the bright spot, as they should. Select the camera object and press ctrl+0 again. You're ready for the shot.

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Make sure that the transparent checkbox is unchecked in properties editor > render settings > film section, too.

If it is checked, then an added sky can disappear! Well, its still there technically, but not visually.

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    $\begingroup$ This will make the sky transparent, which is not what the OP wants AFAICT. This can be useful if you want to add the sky in separately in compositing, but otherwise it doesn't really answer the question. $\endgroup$
    – gandalf3
    Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 18:07

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