Hey guys. I’ve been working on cgi for a Star Wars video that I’m making for class. The video is gonna start off in space, so I had to model a realistic earth. Here’s what I got so far. It has an image mapped to color, a spec map and a bump map. The clouds are a separate object with an alpha texture and a bump map. Depending on where the sun is, the shadowed side has city lights. I want to make an atmosphere effect, but I’m not sure how. If anyone knows how, I’d appreciate the help. Crits are welcome 
I want to make an atmosphere effect, but I’m not sure how. If anyone knows how, I’d appreciate the help
Have you seen this tutorial?
http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/create-a-realistic-earth
No I havent. But I definitely like that method of doing the lights more than the way I used. I made the sun project a stencil onto the earth. I think I’m going to change it now. I don’t like the textures used in the video. I think the ones I used look more realistic, even though the resolution isn’t as high
I have found that the easiest way is just to blur it, change the color to blue, and then add it onto the original image.
If you want I could show you the nodes.
I did what the tutorial above said and used a blue sphere with alpha & fresnel. Works good, but has a hard edge. That’s fixable with nodes