Free and open source software for the planetarium dome and other immersive environments.
A look at free and open source desktop planetarium software KStars, and why it deserves a a spot on the hard drive.
Links for this episode:
KStars https://edu.kde.org/kstars/
KStars user docs https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kstars/kstars/index.html
Inkscape https://inkscape.org/
SVG format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics
And intro to open source astronomy software and a bit of an overview on Stellarium.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Stellarium https://stellarium.org
Stellarium web https://stellarium-web.org/
Waylena’s post on custom Stellarium landscapes https://fossdome.com/a-stitch-in-time-or-space/
Waylena’s post on using Stellarium remote https://fossdome.com/stellarium-remote-fun/
Hugin Panorama photo stitcher http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
This week I talk about how I got started using Blender and ways to go about learning it if starting today.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Darkfall Cosmic Shaders https://darkfallblender.blogspot.com/ , https://youtu.be/vbj20u53uW8
Blender https://www.blender.org
Waylena’s inexplicably popular 8-second video https://youtu.be/PICxEYvYT-
Blender online user manual https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/
Blender Fundamentals playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1F2ddGya_-UvuAqHAksYnB0qL9yWDO6
Waylena’s Blender for Fulldome Workshop Materials https://github.com/waystar/2019-Blender-Workshop-Materials
Ron Proctor’s Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RonProctorProfile/featured
This week I list 10 things I use GIMP for in my planetarium work.
Links mentioned in this episode:
GIMP https://www.gimp.org/
NASA Photojournal https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/
Using Gimp to Slice Images https://fossdome.com/using-gimp-to-slice-images/
The 2019 annual meeting of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association was held last week, hosted by the Ritter Planetarium of The University of Toledo.
It was special for me because my planetarium career started at Ritter Planetarium in February 1992. Honestly I had planned to stop conducting workshops for a few years so that I could concentrate on my GLPA executive community duties. But Alex Mak asked so of course I said yes.
The result is a very revised version *NEW!* for Blender 2.8:
https://github.com/waystar/2019-Blender-Workshop-Materials
https://github.com/waystar/2019-Blender-Workshop-Materials
Click the “Clone or download” button to download the whole thing in a zip file.
Drop me a line if you find mistakes or OS-related differences. (I test on Linux and Windows.) Also, let me know if you find any of it particularly useful and I would LOVE to see what you make.
And of course, if you are having trouble with something in particular that you are trying to do, let me know. If I can’t help get it to work, I might be able to suggest alternate approaches to get the same effect.
This was another great memory.
I had lots of wonderful help running the workshop, and I was very proud of the result. The materials include several examples of methods for creating fulldome content with Blender 2.79.
The materials are currently on my GitHub account – click “Clone or Download” to download the whole thing as a zip file.
2017 Blender Workshop Materials
I hope to remake the materials with Blender 2.80. Mostly the same, but the interface and shortcuts have changed. The new features are still evolving and could merit a new chapter.
I’m keeping the Blender 2.79 materials around, though. Folks with older computers might not be able to run Blender 2.80.
