How to make this animation look more like a satellite orbiting a binary star?

Question

I'd like to increase the reflected light from the two rotating stars off of Suzanne the satellite, without making them appear brighter to the camera so that the pulsing of the two colors is noticeable.

I'd also like to darken the overall scene so there isn't so much "stray light" reflecting off of un-illuminated faces, and so that deep space looks closer to black.

note: I've left the default sun so I can see what I'm doing, I may like to keep it on at least low, to help with depth perception. Camera is 512pix square f=20mm at [7.5, -2, 1.5].

Original light blue color for satellite - The dot is half way between saturated (no red) and the center(equal values) but since that scale is quite non-linear, the value is low, only 0.24 here. Based on suggestions from @Matt I'm changing the color to 100% white [1, 1, 1] now.

import bpy
import numpy as np

pi = np.pi

n_frames = 150    # 5 seconds

binary_period = 30
th_bin = 2 * pi * np.arange(n_frames, dtype=float) / float(binary_period)
rbin = 1.0
x_sat = np.linspace(-5, 5, n_frames)
y_sat = np.zeros_like(x_sat)
z_sat = 3.5 - 0.2*x_sat**2     # parabolic (but velocity not correct yet)

aloc = 0.8*np.vstack((np.cos(th_bin), np.sin(th_bin), np.zeros_like(th_bin))).T
bloc = -aloc
sloc = np.vstack((x_sat, y_sat, z_sat)).T

makeit = True

if makeit:
    # create the universe
    asiz, bsiz, ssiz = 0.55, 0.55, 0.5
    ok = bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_ico_sphere_add(subdivisions=4, size=asiz, location=aloc[0])
    a = bpy.context.active_object
    a.name = 'a'
    ok = bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_ico_sphere_add(subdivisions=3, size=bsiz, location=bloc[0])
    b = bpy.context.active_object
    b.name = 'b'
    ok = bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_monkey_add(radius=ssiz, location=sloc[0])
    s = bpy.context.active_object
    s.name = 's'
    s.rotation_euler = [0, 0, 0.5*pi]

    bpy.context.scene.frame_end = n_frames

    for i_frame in range(n_frames):
        for obj, loc in zip([a, b, s], [aloc, bloc, sloc]):
            # print (i_frame, obj.name, loc[i_frame])
            obj.location = loc[i_frame]
            obj.keyframe_insert(data_path="location", frame=i_frame+1, index=-1)

renderit = True

if renderit:

    # from: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/17840/5334
    scene = bpy.context.scene
    scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'
    fp = scene.render.filepath # get existing output path
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format = 'PNG' # set output format to .png

    ffracs =  [0.1, 0.5, 0.95]

    for i_frame in range(n_frames):

        # set current frame to frame 5
        scene.frame_set(i_frame+1)

        # set output path so render won't get overwritten
        scene.render.filepath = fp + 'f01_' + str(i_frame)
        bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True) # render still

    # restore the filepath
    scene.render.filepath = fp

Answer 1

There are three things I'd recommend.

One is making your background black. Any other color will artificially reduce the contrast, making the stars (and Suzanne) seem less bright than they are.

Another is improving Suzanne's material. It should be a correct, Fresnel diffuse (if diffuse is what you're going for), and it should be a lighter color, something closer to white. It looks dark green at the moment. Dark colors don't reflect as much light as light colors (that's why they're dark ;-) ), so the light source has to be brighter. Colored materials react to colored lights in funny ways. In particular, your green material is going to be preferential to the white light, over the red light, making the red light look dimmer, even if it's the same intensity.

For a (mostly) correct Fresnel diffuse shader, just mix a diffuse shader with a glossy shader, plugging a fresnel input node into the factor slot on the mix shader. Fresnel in factor, diffuse in top slot, glossy in bottom slot, mix piped to surface. This will make her reflect light a bit more reasonably.

Lastly, if you need a sun lamp to "see what you're doing" then something is wrong. It's necessarily going to mask/diminish/hide the effect of the two stars. It won't LOOK like Suzanne is being lit by the pulsar because her dark side isn't DARK... it's being lit by the sun lamp. If you want to make the depth more obvious, decrease your focal length, and re-position the camera.

Hope that helps!