PIX!!! Thank you very much! I will try out the new sky effect and re-post on this image. Thanks again for your help and the advice on the book. (What a difference it makes). The animation is coming along very good. Poser 5 is keeping us busy with the new render room and all that you can do to a CS2 import in it, but we are going to keep at it till its done :). I hope yours is making head way. Cant wait to see it!

very nice work, may be better with an other sky as already said ;=)

Looks good, cool work on dust and jets

YL and Django < (Fett)? :) thank you both! Good comments, advice and suggestions help my rendering out a whole lot. I pass on what ever I can. I hope to have the new image up soon. I did a test rendering last night from a PS7 file and I do like the effect a lot better.

Thanks again Pix. If you see an effect that I did that you want to try, just let me know. I havent updated my old web site for a few months. http://server3001.freeyellow.com/grantdv/kesselrun/Kesselrun.htm check out the "short clips" section. You will see alot of the old animations that I have been re-rendering. I will be updating it with the new animations in December.

Well done. That about sum it up, ay?

pixelicious glought, i'm glad that you're moving away from the carrara created sky. as i mentioned, i can almost always tell when people used it and i think that just reminds me that i'm looking at 3D and not a real scene. but i think that your clouds are too blurry. you might want to try with some photos first. (maybe). but if you still want to paint them, i seem to remember... and i haven't really looked in a while which is kind of pathetic... that skies are lightest near the horizon and darkest directly overhead. I think that would help your cause. also you might want to try making the clouds with more authority. it looks like you were unsure how to depict them so you just fudged them hoping to get away with it. be bold. make dramatic cloud shapes. make the sky worth looking at. the whole scene is still good, and i'm so glad to see the carrara sky go! - pix

Everything comes together pretty well. The metal of the object looks like it has spent too much time at Davis-Monthan though. The dazzle orbitals near the lights are good. It really is hard to make something futuristic without the trite failures of the past like rotating jet pods. I know you are looking to me for something beyond 3rd law propulsion but It has not yet been communicated in language the lay sheet metal worker can understand.

This is a good composition. And as much as I like the ship model I am more drawn to the buildings in the back and the fog effect. The one thing that disturbs me visually is the red highlight on the bent wing. Is that supposed to be from the rocket glare, if so would it be on that part of the wing or would you see it across the belly of the ship and maybe the ground??

Oh My!!! Thank you all for the interest in this image. I will work my way down. Pixelicius, you caught me and your right I did blur them out of my first judgment pass thinking they looked too much like our own clouds. I have been a bit afraid to render what my imagination has told me to do. It is hard work trying to depict something you have never seen before and still have folks believe in it. I am going to add the sky again and hold nothing back on it this time. I have a multi-color sky that I started working on after your advice that looks close to what I wanted to depict. Please check the image in about a day and let me know what you think. Tallpindo that is so true. I love the Osprey and tried to use its movements for this ship design and animation. Its the only thing that I have seen to date in real world tech that could have a 747 ground breaker added to its wings and still get buy with landing transitions. A lot of good air frames have been blown off over the past years but look at the XB-70. Early 70s and still looks like it never came from earth-tech. or is that the Aurora now? Memaci! The red light is from one of the red approach beacons that runs on two sides of the landing pad. (I will be posting an image from the 4 second landing gear animation tonight that shows the beacons.) At points in the animation the ship passes over them (3) and the red shadows shows up on the hull of the ship as well. I do find it hard to try and pick a frame from an animation to post when a lot is going on in the background up to that point. I may have to get the new site up and running sooner then planed.

This was my first choice for the new sky but I blured it out the first time. It is still hand made using PS7. I also added a few layers of them on this image.

Ooooo... this is a real treat for all sci-fi addicts. :o)