BG Competition Entry - The Dawn of Nibiru

Artwork Works in Progress
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The topic for this competition (“What really happened?”) is by far one of the most perplexing and challenging concepts/themes I’ve heard for a competition. The day after it was announced I began researching a ton of conspiracies; some made me laugh, some made me shake my head in disgust, but, this one conspiracy about a planet that NASA is supposedly hiding from us intrigued me. After more research the full conspiracy is that this planet (Nibiru) is supposed to collide with earth in a cataclysmic event, some say. Others, while still believing in the existence of Nibiru, don’t believe that it will collide with earth. I chose not to depict the cataclysmic event for the competition and just focus on the intact planet…for now. Though there isn’t much of a story or event surrounding it I am hoping aesthetics will carry me through, plus making a planet is fun either way. :stuck_out_tongue: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_cataclysm#Planet_X)
Still trying to work out some color design/schemes I want to make it look distant but still have a glimpse of familiarity throughout. I created the custom planet map from taking NASA image textures and warping them as well as adding more colours in PhotoShop. I want to add cooler coloured nebulae and clouds without being too repetitious. I tried using smoke/fire sim for a sun in the background but it looked terrible. Sorry it’s very noisy it was rendered at about 100 samples. Would getting feedback on my WIP be violating the rule of “It must be a personal project consisting of one artist”?

Nibiru_render.jpg960×540 619 KB

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My main focus right now is the actual planet, I will go back and details some nebulae and such later.

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Nope, feedback is a natural part of the process. As long as they’re not doing anything that pushes pixels in the app, it’s all you.
As far as story-telling goes, I really can’t figure out what’s going on in the picture.

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That’s what I stated in the original post; I don’t really have a story so far–right now, I’m focusing on aesthetics (modelling, materials, lighting) and raw composition. Story would help but I can’t really find one so far :confused: