Animate a starfield

Using the star and space brush presets you can quickly paint a starfield and animate flying through it.

To animate a starfield

1. Change your scene color to black (Select Windows > Settings/Preferences > Color Settings, then under 3D Views, click the Background color swatch.).
2. Switch to the scene painting view (open the Paint Effects Panel, and select Paint > Paint Scene).
3. Select Brush > Tool Settings and turn on Paint At Depth.
4. In the Content Browser (Brush > Get Brush), or on a shelf, click the brush preset you want to paint with. The brush galaxy.mel, in the galactic folder, is recommended.
5. Drag across the scene to paint stars.

   Paint Effects paints the strokes on the view plane at the depth determined when you click in the scene to start the stroke. If you start your stroke near the front of the grid plane of the perspective view, the stars will be very close. If you start your stroke near the back of the grid plane of the perspective view, the stars will be very far.

6. Repeat steps #4 and #5 until your starfield looks the way you want it to. Make sure you start your brush strokes at different depths so that there are stars to “fly” through. Also, change the brush occasionally to add a galaxy or space glow.
7. Move to the first frame and click the Auto keyframe toggle (the key icon at the bottom right of the Maya main window).
8. Switch to the scene view (Panels > Perspective > persp) and select the camera (View > Select Camera).
9. In the channel box, select the Translate boxes, right-click and select Key Selected.
10. Move to the last frame in the animation and dolly into the scene.
11. In the scene view, click the Play Forward button to check that effect is as you want it.
12. Render the animation. See Render a scene with Paint Effects strokes. Glow brushes do not require lights to render.