Planet Filter's Rings Tab
Your planet can have three rings, an inner ring, middle ring, and an outer ring. Each ring has several settings:
Visible - Check this box if you want the ring to be visible around the planet. If this isn't selected, this ring is not displayed.
"Start Value" and "End Value" - The range is 0 to 100; 0 is just outside the planet and 100 is the outer edge of the ring extent. The "Start Value" must be lower than the "End Value". Also, the ring values must not overlap among the different rings. The inner ring's values must be lower than the middle ring's value which must be lower than the outer ring's value.
Color - The color displayed in this box is the base color for this ring. If you click in the box, the color dialog box will be displayed and you can select a pre-selected color or define your own. Click here to view the color dialog box.
Opacity - In reality, rings are made of bits of ice, rocks, and other materials which are in orbit around the planet. This "layer" of matter may appear somewhat transparent depending on what material is in the ring and how dense this material is. This setting allows you to control the transparency of this ring.
0.1 through 0.9 - The value chosen represents the percentage of transparency in the ring. The more transparent the ring, the more the background image or planet shows through. Values range from 0.1 through 0.9 where 0.1 shows 10% of the ring and 90% of the background image and is the most transparent. The opposite of the range is .9 where 90% of the ring color is displayed and only 10% of the background color shows through. This is the least transparent setting.
InvLuminance - Inv stands for inverse, so this is the Inverse Luminance and behaves the opposite of "Luminance" below. That is, the opacity for the rings is based on the inverse value of luminance found in the color's settings. Noise causes this value to vary within the rings to make it look natural.
Luminance - The luminance value used is defined in the color settings and is usually represented by an "L", where the other color settings are Hue and Saturation. When luminance is chosen, the opacity is based on the value of luminance in the color setting. Noise causes this value to vary within the rings to make it look natural and pleasing.
Brightness - Value from 1 to 100; 1 is the least bright and 100 is the brightest. Sometimes the ring colors seem dull. This is a quick way to brighten them up without changing the base color.
Banding - Value from 1 to 50; Banding reduces the individual bands to make it look more realistic. If this was set to 1, then the "ring" would appear as 1 band of color. If it is set to 50, then the ring is broken into 50 random sized bands orbiting the planet. If the band value is high, anti-aliasing will cause some of the bands to be blended together. Banding is a setting that is hard to distinguish in the preview window. You often won't see the effect of the different banding values until it is rendered as a larger image.
Ring Extent - This gives you an easy way to "stretch" or "reduce" the rings around the planet. The values for this setting range from smallest (0) to Largest (100) in a slider control. The ring extent takes this value and stretches it out. It can even extend beyond the preview window. You are actually extending where the "Start Value" and "End Value" are located for the rings.
PREVIEW WINDOW: As you change the different parameters, the preview window is updated so you can see the effect that the changes made to the planet. If you choose "OK", this planet* will be placed in your pre-selected area in your image editor. If no pre-selected area was chosen, it will be centered in your entire image area. The planet can also be placed on a transparent layer.
* The planet created is based on random number generators, so the planet placed on your image may not be exactly the same as in the preview window, but it will be very similar.
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