Problem is not so much creating the planet, which is easily done using Carrara / Amapi / PSP / Photoshop, etc. Rather the, um, challenge is to place the created object behind the clouds & beneath the horizon.

I have created a pseudo-planet using a mapped sphere with high transparency settings. I haven't been able to reproduce the phases. Alpha planes don't work as enabling tranparency makes the alpha image visible.

Pity we can't edit the planet textures. Maybe in Vue 5? :-)

Cybermonk, thanks for the link. At last I understand the difference between displacement and bump mapping.

Cheers,
Mark