Posted on June 17, 2014

“Cronus” continues my exploration of Vue d’Esprit’s “Planetary” mode. It basically allows you to move the camera high enough that you are looking down at the entire planet that you were working on. The planet in “Skyward” was made in this manner, but I wanted to see if I could use it to create a gas giant type world.

This render combines my gas giant with a smaller terrestrial type satellite. Both were rendered using Vue d’Esprit 11.5. It’s still very much a work in progress so expect a few alternate versions. As I said before, it’s a lot of fun making planets in Vue!

UPDATE:I’ve added a new version of “Cronus” this morning. I’ve flattened the clouds a bit and, as suggested, added some haze to the atmosphere. Still, this is meant to be a fanciful gas giant (and it’s my first) so I don’t mind sacrificing realism in that pursuit.

The main benefit of this new version is that the gas giant is all one, raw, render. The first version was actually a Photoshop composite of 2 different renders. My main goal is always something that I can re-render without Photoshop and this version satisfies that nicely.

The name was taken from one of my first Bryce planetscapes. I think an updated “Cronus Rising” may appear sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Another benefit of this 3D approach to planet-making is that I can move my “camera” down into the cloud layers themselves for some very interesting views. Stay tuned!

In other news, the first batch of Thank You cards went out today!

In other news, the first batch of Thank You cards went out today! The boys are working on their signatures and are getting a real kick out of seeing how my fans are in so many different countries.