Creating a skybox

Tulkamir

Hey, I've gotta make a skybox for a custom UT2k4 map, but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it is...

Should I just use stock photos and make a matte painting for it? Paint it by hand? Is there any tools that can help?

Also, does anyone know of any sites with good royalty free stock images of skies?

Thanks a bunch.

CrazyButcher

I think terragen is often used for this ?

Daz

Don't know anything about working with UT2K4, but I've done worse than to use http://www.1000skies.com/ and http://www.flickr.com/ and some cunning use of photoshop

Black_Dog

I was just mucking about with my first skybox yesterday. I haven't got too far yet, but I can recommend skypaint ( http://www.skypaint.com/ ). Basically it lets you view a skybox from the inside, and transfer that view to and from photoshop for painting.

The full app is not free and a trial version will watermark skyboxes, but it's a small mark and easy to paint out (I'll buy it if the app proves useful). I found it quite easy to use and highly effective - just make sure you flatten before handing a view from PS back to skypaint.

As for cloud references, I hit up mayang, cgtextures, morguefile, imageafter and google image search.

Eric Chadwick

You could also find some free HDR images, then convert those to skyboxes. Worked well for me in the past. 3ds Max has an easy way to render the six cube images automatically, from whatever input you want to use.

Gizmo

You could take a look at my page see if it helps:

http://www.3dstyle.net/support/advskybox.htm

Tulkamir

Thanks for all the helps guys. Looks like I should be able to get started fairly easily now.

Eric Chadwick

hey, nice one gizmo.