Most of these were done quite a while ago. I’m kinda bored today so I thought I’d post a few for the heck of it. I find the majesty of the planet Earth to be some sweet sweet eye candy so here’s a few glamor shots.
Incoming:
Makin’ the rounds:
Blue Marble:
I have a couple more I’ll post next. Feel free to critique if you like, I’m no professional just for fun.
The Circle of Life:
I was gonna post two more, but I keep receiving an upload failed message. Perhaps I’ll try again later. Enjoy…
I guess no one likes and no one dislikes. Can’t complain about breaking even 
not bad! the first two look awesome!
The first one is very good, the atmosphere and style works really well
I love the styles you’ve achieved in each image, while not as ‘lifelike’ as the others my favourite is probably the third image in your first post. It’s a different way of looking at the planet we see every day. I hope those others upload eventually.
I am very happy that you all like these images. Compared to a lot of the other stuff on blender artists they’re quite simple, most of them are just sphere’s ya know.
The second one was probably my earliest creation out of this group. The first one is one of my favorites, I really like the halo around the planet. I’ve gone back and forth as to whether I would prefer a more realistic halo that only covers the lit side and the one I have. I think I like the one I have, not realistic, but I think it really draws attention to the beauty of Earth.
The third one was my first experience with the Blender compositor. Possibly my favorite, I like the contrast quite a bit. A modified version of that one is the backdrop on the main menu of a video game I am working on, currently untitled.
The fourth one I really enjoy the concept, the circle of life, but I continue going back and forth as to whether I’m happy with the artistic style or not. I used GIMP to go a bit more cartoony with it, probably over did it a bit with the glow on the planets, a bit too white.
The other two are still coming up with ‘Upload of file failed.’ Must be something funkied up with the files I don’t know.
Oh yeah, the Earth in the second image is actually inside of another slightly larger mostly transparent sphere to give it a bit of an atmosphere. It is the specular level on this sphere that I think really helps the effect.
The first image is similar only the transparent sphere is done with Fresnel.
Twin Brother:
I converted this from PNG to JPG and now it uploads! Probably could’ve enhanced the detail on Mars a bit, but I’m really happy with the starry background, not too much and not too little.
Twilight:
This one is the backdrop for the in-game menu on mah video game.
You my friend, are an expert at using artistic license. You exaggerate visual features without over-doing them. I find such things quite difficult to get right myself. I commend you.
Your second image is very near as Earth is seen from space. Now compare with Nasa images from the Moon of Earth and you understand why you don’t find Earth Images, only blue marbles and so (CG images).
Your latest image (the moon and the earth) is awsome, looks really cool.
Nice Asteroid ther, I would have used the displce modifier to get in a few more bumps.
I was not expecting to receive such generous compliments, thank you!
@Bao2: Do you mean because the Earth actually appears significantly smaller when viewed from the moon?
@TheRobbi5: I can agree with that sentiment. Some of the smaller details on the asteroid are actually cloud bump maps, could’ve easily changed this to a displacement map. That asteroid was actually just a cut up sphere with a couple of displacement maps, not sculpted at all. I probably could’ve thrown in a few rocks and such too.
I really need to wrap myself around Blender’s sculpt mode more, especially with all the new tools in the latest 2.5 release.
Edit: By the way when I made the ‘Incomming’ image I did not have a laptop of my own, I was using a friends OLD work PC. It didn’t have a 3d graphics accelerator and only 256 MB of RAM, might have been 128MB.
Edit: Now that I think about it I may have upgraded PCs by the time I did that image, guess I can’t remember. Anyway the fact that Blender ran well on that old hunk of junk is a testament to it’s versatility. Kudos to the Blender programmers!
