The only image texture used in this scene was the starfield background. The planet’s surface is entirely procedural. The atmosphere shading was created using a simple node setup using the Geometry node and a ColorRamp that fades from red to blue to cyan. The halo around the planet was created by creating a flat, circular ring around the planet with a TrackTo constraint so it always faces the camera. I used vertex colors to make it only glow on the lit side of the planet (which, unfortunately, means it can only be viewed properly from this angle; if anyone can think of a better way, I would love to hear it!). A combination of a sharpen filter, lens distortion, and a flare filter create the photo-reminiscent appearance that becomes visible if you zoom in closer.
Happy Blending!
EDIT: If for some reason you want to use this in a video or something, feel free - as long as you give me credit. (P.S.: You don’t need to credit me to use it as your wallpaper… :P)
I like this a lot, especially the fact that it is procedural!
I’m working on space backgrounds right now and with your idea of tracking a plan to the camera, came up with a really great solution to make it glow only where lit: I used a gradient texture to fade out the plane in a circular pattern. The atmosphere only shows up where lit and I used a mixture of translucent shader, emit shader ant transparent shader to make it look more “atmosphere-like”.
Care to share your planet on BlendSwap? I’m definitely considering posting my atmosphere solution as my first proper contribution to BlendSwap as well.
If the halo is meant to be a bloom effect, you could do that in the Compositor, eg. Filter > Glare: Fog Glow.
Or is it meant to be an artistic representation of the thermosphere?
I did use fog glow, but for other reasons; it creates the bigger, hazy white glow. The blue rim just around the edge is supposed to simulate the backscattering of the atmosphere, but I couldn’t get a volume material to do quite what I wanted.
EDIT: Woah, I’m on a different monitor now, and that halo is way bigger and brighter than I had previously thought. Oh well, at least it doesn’t look horrible.
Care to share your planet on BlendSwap? I’m definitely considering posting my atmosphere solution as my first proper contribution to BlendSwap as well.
While I’m honored you think this is worthy of BlendSwap, I doubt I’ll be posting it there, mainly because the actual .blend is a mess. I’d probably create a new version first.
SSS to represent atmosphere? That’s brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?! Excellent render, BTW. Your atmosphere is definitely a lot more convincing than mine, but that might be partially because your planet has a substantially denser atmosphere. (Is your username by any chance related to the Journeyman Project? If so, you sir, are awesome.)
I use the humble Fresnel for my atmospheres and effects, aiming for a more realistic thin atmosphere which works for nicely for LEO. All lighting effects (stars, airglow, city lights) are constant, their visibility controlled by Scene > Color Management > Exposure.
Here’s come clips (low-sample renders, no Compositor):
I am to new in Blender to comment on the technicalities but as a Sci-fi fan I can say that I really, really like the final effects. Can’t waint to start doing similar things
(Is your username by any chance related to the Journeyman Project? If so, you sir, are awesome.)