Earth from space

surf

surf

Veteran
I am always impressed by "Earth from the space" pictures. So I have made tryed to make one. What do you think of it?

universum9nw.jpg
 
Lighting is the maker and braker of pics like these.

Make sure the surface of your atmosphere has an Light Incidence Angle and gradient on it, so it will fall off accurately, as well as aspects of the ground textures as well.

At Nasa's web site, you can download very high res images of the earth from space, ready to be slapped on a model.

Maybe I'll try one.

EDIT:

And I do mean High Rez:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_monthlies.html

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

And some great ones: SOme for sale.

http://planetpixelemporium.com/earth.html
 
Last edited:
Rapier_100a said:
At Nasa's web site, you can download very high res images of the earth from space, ready to be slapped on a model.
Click to expand...
well, I have tryed to create a shader that looks like the surface of the planet.
 
I'm thinking that I need a animated cloud layer for ultra realism, becuase all those layers are always static, and the real worlds cloud aint static, of course for still render its pointless, BUT look at any movie with CGI earth from space and I bet they have moving clouds (the cheaper budget movies don;t) ok, so thats a gross over generalization but you get the pictuce.

Anhar
 
well, I'd use animated cloud if I was gonna do a video, but I use the hih res still pictures for still shots

Anhar
 
I see. I have tryed to create my own shaders look like the Earth. I would not animate the clouds, buit simply rotate their layer. I think it gives the right feeling.
 
What sells top film quality earth shots are volumetric clouds.... which are often accomplished by a good old fashioned matte painter.

Don't bother animating your clouds. From a global perspective they're static. Only time I see "animated clouds" is for nuclear explosions and the effects thereof.

You can get 90% of the way there with a good shader though, so keep plugging at it.
 
here's an earth a made a little while ago. this was actually in development for a film ...

no stars or sun etc. just the 3D render. the final comp looked much better but you get the idea.

earth.jpg
 
THIS is the best thing ever for this kind of thing, and hours of fun (and it can also be used for projects!)
All courtesy of the US tax payer: WORLDWIND

It's fun to zoom from far away all the way to see your house!

Needs a somewhat decent computer to run, and relies on a good internet connection to update the satellite images as you zoom and pan, but WAY WORTH IT!!! Now in its 1.35 incarnation, including Earth, Moon, and several planets including Mars and Jupiter:



w.jpg


http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
 
To get a good tutorial on how to animate the clouds, you might want to take a peak at Total Training for After Effects on the first volume 5.5. They animated the exact pictures that you saw on the links.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top