3D Solar System of Rotating Planets and Moons - Page 4

The Sun

Task: Create a sphere in the centrepoint of the circles, Radius 30, 32 segments. Name it SUN.

Explanation: Now we create a nice, stable, G type star that should support our planets without risk of exploding or frying everything. Use the REGION ZOOM tool and zoom in to the first circle. At the centre of the circle, create a sphere, Radius 30. The segments should be set to 32.

The Planets

Task: On the right hand side of each circle, create a sphere. Dimensions - Sphere1 : 5, Sphere2 : 8, Sphere3 : 8, Sphere4 : 10, Sphere5 : 30.

Explanation: Here we create our planets on top of our circular orbits. No moons yet, they come later. In our viewport, we should be able to see our sun, and surrounding that, our first circular orbit. On the right hand side (the east vertex, to be precise) create a sphere of 5 units in size. In reality, we could actually make our sphere anywhere we want, though it helps to keep things in perspective for our example. This is a small, rocky planetoid like Mercury.

Zoom out a little, so we can see the second orbit. Again, create a sphere on that right hand side, 8 units in size. This is more of a Venus. On the third orbit, make another sphere of 8 units in size. (You can actually shortcut that process by CLONING the second sphere. To do that, select the MOVE tool, select sphere2, and once you've done that, hold down the LEFT SHIFT key and move the sphere on the X axis to the right. Move it into position, let go of the mouse button, and make sure COPY is selected. Press OK, and we've cloned our planet.)

Now we have our Earthlike world, it has its own moon, which we will create a little later.