This is a piece I'm currently working on. The planets are made in Bryce and the star fields are painted in Photoshop. I read Greg Martins articles about celestial art and got a few great tips for painting star fields. I'm not finished with the Bryce-planets yet - the ones you see are placed there for reference. I'm also modelling the great white star cruiser that will be the focus of this scene. Maybe I'll add a star or two in the background :) I'm trying you achieve a classical sci-fi feeling / style similar to the one from the illustrated TTA-books (Do you remember "Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD" and "Great Space Battles" from the late seventies?) Tell me what you think! /anders

I tried Martin's tutorial and was impressed with the results but with my memory I've already forgotten how and didn't keep the link. Do you still have it, Bazze?

Attached Link: http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html

yes sure. Here it is: http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html

The wip looks fine, if a little small - and will certainly look better with improved planets. The problem with achieving a 'style' from the Terran Trade Authority books is that there wasn't a particular style to them. They were rehashed book covers or unused art from many illustrators, and so were comprised of many styles. To hazard a guess, I'd say your scene looks most like the style of Angus Mckie. Looking forward to progress.

Thanks, Bazze!

Nice starscape! I look forward to your progress on this.

Here's the next version. I've snatched a mars surface and removed most of the bigger stars. I haven't really begun on the space ship more than in my mind. As soon as that I finished will remake the planets so that they are lighted from the same direction as the vessel. "Mars" is there just for reference for now. I'm glad you like it so far - I've also received comments like "try not to make something that has already been made 1000-times". Yes I know this but I'll twist this into something else of my own before I'm done.

Nitpick: Mars doesn't have an atmosphere. :-) Otherwise, quite nice looking. I'd only make the blue much darker.

No atmosphere? Haven't you seen "total recall"? :D

Erlik: "Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed mostly of the tiny amount of remaining carbon dioxide (95.3%) plus nitrogen (2.7%), argon (1.6%) and traces of oxygen (0.15%) and water (0.03%). The average pressure on the surface of Mars is only about 7 millibars (less than 1% of Earth's), but it varies greatly with altitude from almost 9 millibars in the deepest basins to about 1 millibar at the top of Olympus Mons. But it is thick enough to support very strong winds and vast dust storms that on occasion engulf the entire planet for months. Mars' thin atmosphere produces a greenhouse effect but it is only enough to raise the surface temperature by 5 degrees (K); much less than what we see on Venus and Earth"

Heh, nitpick city. Even if Mars had an atmosphere as thick as Earth's, at the distance from the planet in the pic it wouldn't show at all at this scale. Jupiter's atmosphere is around a hundred miles deep and it doesn't show in even quite close views of the 'edge' of the planet. The implausibly-large-atmosphere-halo is an aspect of contemporary space/fantasy art (mostly non-professional). It must be rare in earlier works because I don't remember seeing any. I just did a random scan of my not insubstantial collection of space art books and didn't spot one example. From a purely personal point of view it bugs the hell out of me, interfering with the suspension of disbelief. But art is art and people should do as they wish.