What a great amount of massive stunning practice! really amazing pieces.
Just when I think I’m getting the hang of shaders something like this pops up. I really do have a long way to go! Really great work.
Very lovely and realistic materials, great work!
I have a planet full of crystals that needs well crystals put in it,
crystals like that could be useful, is it avaiable to put in our game?
Awesome job materials. I tried to do and my result was much lower than yours. I congratulate you. Any tutorial?
An old topic, but since 2015 I haven’t seen anyone capable of reproducing anything like this. It’s pity mr. Gogov failed to produce a tutorial.
Oh wow, @decembered you really surprised me with this comment. Actually on both ways 
I’m really sorry to see, that you were expecting to have such tutorial, which I was planning to make on that time. I didn’t have enough time for that. 2 months after my post here, people start producing hundreds of good images on that topic, even without my tutorial, and I thought not need it anymore. The community already got the clue how to build such materials and scenes.
Not sure how much people will appreciate such content now. There are many good stuff out there, on the same topic.
I’m still busy since then, and making good tutorial, base on my perception it is time consuming thing.
Also, responding well to the community, been active and supporting them meanwhile, is something which I couldn’t guarant, and do on that time, even now.
Since that study, I’ve learned a lot new stuff, and now, if I must to reproduce it again, it will be better vs the previous approach. Completely in a new optimal manner. But again… time is the constraint … I cannot promise anything
The only one positive, I see from this artistic work now, looking back 7 years ago, is that I never used volume shader compare to others. I think everything was done with simple glasses, gradients, procedural noises, crack textures, particles, and post-production.
Now blender 2.91 is much powerful, flexible, and for creating such content could also include many other techniques and methods for different productions …
Appreciate your comment @decembered
BestRegards,
ivaylo
I completely understand what an issue time constraints can be - my problem too.
In fact I made a somewhat successful attempt on visualizing crystals (Lotsa Crystals, https://www.blendernation.com/2019/07/05/behind-the-scenes-lotsa-crystals/), but it was much more a sudden eureka moment, not a result of any serious studies.
What amazes me in your work is how you have managed to simulate internal/subsurface irregularities those are convincingly look as though they sit millimeters below the outer shell. UPD: fresnel as an input to gradient?
These days I’m trying to reproduce a Himalayan Salt lamp sitting on my table. At a closeup it has some absolutely wondrous subsurface crystalling structure, uneven, cracked, layered, yet still transmissive.
I’ve been dallying with glass and principled shader and procedural textures for days, but I am yet to find out how to simulate this fine subsuface structure convincingly.
Ok, @decembered, I see.
Well I need to look over my archived drives to see exactly how I achieve that. Honestly, I’m not sure … for the exact technique I’ve used on that time. What I can tell you for the future is:
Doesn’t matter the exact technique, the custom approach chosen for a certain the result. The most important from my perspective, is you understand the principles, the fundamentals of how (physically), and then to try reconstruct that into the digital world. For me the most effective way of gaining knowledge is exploration. You pic an image (your goal) and you try to achieve it… like with the crystals, and then you learning, you are in the path.
Sometimes we can define the methodology differently, but this don’t mean a mistake and we cannot compare worst/better.
Well at the end we can, but this is the end result, something which is finished. What I’m trying to say is to put the power and attention on the process (you said it - “Study”), not on the final result.
The final result, will be the good product of your study. This is a process and there are many ways for achieving quite similar things… Here each of us need to ask him/her -self about the constraints like - time, cost-budgets, efficiency, acceptance, audience, level of completion, etc.
If you want, send me more information of what you want to achieve - private message, and I will try to help you.
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Try this one @decembered.
This is newly created, but need some post production to get the exact feeling.
Show the image after 
Thanks a great lot!
Will try it.