BLEND FILE
(New Re-upload!)
COPY LINK AND PASTE INTO ADDRESS BAR . CLICKING ON THE LINK TAKES YOU TO AN ERROR MESSAGE.
http://www.mediafire.com/?injxnaxltj4
My goal was to make a photorealistic Earth that could be used on any sphere, only used one material, and only needed one object.
I worked on it on and off for about a month.
Uses 5 textures
-Color Map
-Elevation Map
-Cloud Layer
-Spec map
-Cloud Shadows
Here ya go.
Threw together an Death Star Earth explosion for fun.
WOW! thats very cool how did u do this??
Like the lighting, I usually create the earth with an atmosphere and clouds (which is fun to animate) But, yes, it does look photorealistic 
you should try replicating the picture of earth rising over the moon
anywyays, Good job.
@trueblues700 :
step 1. Download maps/textures (this is a fairly good site)
(you can also google earth texture maps)
step 2.
center your cursor (shift+c) and create a sphere
step3
duplicate the sphere (shift+d) and increase its size (skey) by 1.03 ( or just really close)
step 4
apply the earth surface to the inside sphere as a texture and apply the clouds to the outside sphere (and make sure you get the alpha chanel to work properly -tweaking stuff )
and… that’s basically how you create it. Of course, I’ve been having trouble with transparency in the cloud layer - I used Cinema4d to make my last sphere - looks realistic too, but probably not as realistic as this guys
Nice video. “It is like a million Blenderhead voices cried out and then were silent.”
That’s really neat. Did you use the new Explode modifier for the animation?
AMDBCG- Actually, I think you may be missing the point. I made a mateial on one sphere using an extra cloud texture to simulate shadows, thus decreasing render times a phenomenal amount, without using raytracing or shadow calculation.
Trueblues700- I think I will post a blend file later for people to take a look at.
DramaKing- Nope. Just good old well placed icospheres as particle emitters. The final particle count was around 213000. The plaxis wave was a circle animated to expand and emit particles. The was an icophere that was animated to stretch in the z direction for the center beam. There were two icopheres to emit the main ball of glowing debris. (I actually ended up rendering it almost hd because of the speed of rendering)
Thanks for all the comments and positive feedback, everyone.
Oh and
When you make earth, use a minnaert shader on ref 1 dark .325.
That’s superb. I’ve been trying for ages to make an Earth and never got it that good. No crits at all.
…but…
are you sure you uploaded the right .blend file ? The Earth in the file renders great, but there are only 5 textures used, and there are no cloud shadows. There’s no cloud shadow texture packed either, but there is an Earth at night texture included but it isn’t used. Also, where did you get the textures ? It’d be nice to have higher-res versions.
EDIT : i’m wrong about the cloud shadows but there are definately only 5 textures used.
Sorry about the seven textures, musta been a typo. About the night texture, earlier on, I had a night texture, but later decided it didn’t fit, so I removed it. That’s why there is an empty texture space. I didn’t realized it was still packed. Guess I didn’t actually delete the texture.
It looks more realistic than many earths I have seen here. Thank you for sharing your blend file!
The second one isn’t as realistic – a little too overexposed. But the first one is really nice.
First - i love your earth and explosion! very reaslistic and can easily be passed off as real.
Second(bad news) - the file you uploaded doesn’t seem to be there anymore. maybe you can spare a wee little re-upload? pleeeaassseee? I would love to reverse-engineer this baby to see what it’s made of, lol!
It’s nice, yes. But not what you can really pass off as photorealistic. There are too many giveaway signs.
The mediafire file doesn’t work!
Re-uploaded the file. It should work again. Now everyone who wants it please download it now so that I won’t have to re-re-upload it.
Love the explosion video…truly spectacular!
Nope. Still can’t download it. It says Invalid Key or something :no:
But the pictures and video look nice 
Don’t know why this is 3 stars.
I think we’ve all tried to make the earth at one point, and few have gotten it looking as good as you have. Let alone as one object with one material.
But for such an awesome looking explosion you think you’d texture the death star a bit better!! haha. I’m just being picky. Well done though really.
Keep up the good work
invalid quickkey as of this post date-time. Pics look excellent, tho.
Mediafire still doesn’t work 
Sorry.
I really don’t know what’s going on with the link. I copied it from mediafire again and it worked, so I guess it should work for others. If it doesn’t, (and you haven’t lost interest), please let me know, and I will try a different sharing service.
