Ghost of Avalon
Personal Project
Personal Project
Mastering the destruction of a planet, or more the depiction of a destroyed planet was always on of my benchmarks. Laying down a sound method that I could repeat on future images was important so I chose to begin in a #D Application and then proceed from there.
Various textures were thrown together and then applied to a spherical model in Lightwave for rendering. I cannot even begin to count the number of attempts I made at this trying to come up with the right texture and the right mood. Above is one of the first attempts, which eventually made it to the final with some heavy editing.
Originally, the idea was to give the planet a sheared look to it, the the interior rock quiet visible. Then of course came the science and the question of whether or not the magma would cool like this, how did the planet break apart, if it was an explosion then wouldn't there be much less in the way of a sheared surface, etc.
In the end I choose to go a different route, which you will see soon.
In the end I choose to go a different route, which you will see soon.
Next came the nebula background, created from a cloud image heavily modified with the smudge tool.
Light sources are added in a way to create depth and distance.
Additional light sources, colors and noise are added to give the image 'body'.
The new planet is placed within the image. Saturation levels on the planet were a real issue for me, but due to a saving error, I was stuck with it and had to make it work.
An asteroid ring (foreground) is created in Vue to help maintain a common light source and perspective. The back ring was cut from the front ring, reduced in size and cobbled together, hence the hokey angle. I eventually chose NOT to go with this depiction.
A close-up of the planet after desaturation. Great care was giving to give the planet a stringy look, almost a crumble. Back shadows helped bring out the 3D quality of the planet.
Color and vibrancy are added to the image in addition to a scattered asteroid field and two spaceships.
A change in orientation was tried (didn't work out) replaced the ships and darkened the overall image.
As will often happen, if I spend too much time on an image, I may disable 90% of the layers and basically start over with what i have learned about the key elements of the image. This one had real potential, but I decided to hold off on it and complete this view at a later date (Return to Avalon).
Continued to play around with the asteroid textures, positions and quantity. The nebula was starting to wear on me so I greatly reduced its opacity.
Tried adding quite a bit of haze to the planet, to set it back a bit. The inclusion of the foremost asteroid was to solidify the perspective and depth of the image. The texture on the asteroid was quite nice so I decided to employ it to all the other asteroids in Vue and re-render. The haze decreased the amount of detail in the planet to such a degree I simply dropped it all together.
Final image. The purple starfield on the left turned out to be one of the best elements of the piece. The overall image was darker than I had attended but it did bring out the starfield in a way i could appreciate.
