Planetary Defense

[barry1]

Nice evil_genius_180, love the ship. This is one of the best Tos Era ships ive seen the last time. The phasers just look like Jediswords, funny

[Mr. Wilde]

Nice one.


Always try to enhance, change and distort every result of a Photoshop filter (or plug-ins in general). Those lunarcell planets I've seen around tend to cause the same effect like the infamous Photoshop lens flare. You go "Oh look, it's Photoshop!" and that's not a good thing IMHO.

[Forcemaster2000]

Looking good EG!

The only thing I'm noticing, is the ship is looking a little like a physical model to me...maybe it's just the lighting, but it seems to lack a sense of scale (if that makes any sense).

I love the way you've got the shot set up though. Very dramatic, and shows off the ship very well!

[evil_genius_180]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wilde

Nice one.


Always try to enhance, change and distort every result of a Photoshop filter (or plug-ins in general). Those lunarcell planets I've seen around tend to cause the same effect like the infamous Photoshop lens flare. You go "Oh look, it's Photoshop!" and that's not a good thing IMHO.

I don't have Photoshop. But, thanks for the advice. Usually I try to make my stuff my own, but I'm still getting the hang of LunaCell.

Originally Posted by Forcemaster2000

The only thing I'm noticing, is the ship is looking a little like a physical model to me...maybe it's just the lighting, but it seems to lack a sense of scale (if that makes any sense).

Thanks. (I think ) I honestly don't know how to correct that feeling, so I'll just cut my losses and move on to the next scene.

[Mr. Wilde]

Originally Posted by evil_genius_180

I don't have Photoshop.

Hehe, Lunacell in this case.

[Dann-O]

Well love the ship. Combining my two favorite Treks. Original Trek and DS9 extra crispy. Would make for an excellent fan film ship because you can make a 1/2 size TOS style bridge.

[Tovette]

hey Evil- nice render you have. I take it from use the proceedural clouds in your planet that you were unable to use the Satellite footage? Anywho, there's one rule with Lunarcell that you have probably already discovered- it's like an LOD, or level of detail filter. You will only be able to get a nice effect from it at a finite size. Once you start getting really big the planets will fall apart, mostly becuase there isn't enough information in the plugin to generate a high resolution image.
You'll notice there's three settings for the ground color- the base which is located up at the planet size sliders, the desert, and ice colors. To add a little more complexity to the continents I use the ice slider as another 'vegetation' color or another desert/arid color depending on the dominant ecology of the planet I'm making.
Another thing I'll do to add more life to the planet is create different versions, colorwise to different itterations of planets MINUS an atmosphere or or clouds. Then I load them all into photoshop, or gimp in your case, and then set them up in different layers so they are directly on top one another. I will then begin erasing out sections in the different layers or shifting the opacity of a layor above another so that I can combine all the different planet itterations I created. Then when I'm done with that I go back to Lunarcell and turn ALL the land settings to black and then turn on the atmospher and the clouds- making them white. This will act as a 'mask'. Then I import that atmosphere layer into my photoshop, or gimp, and then turn the screen layer filter in Photoshop to drop out the blacks. I add a drop shadow of the clouds after that, but very subtle. Hope that helps you out with Lunarcell.

[evil_genius_180]

Thanks, guys.

Thanks for the tips, Tovette. No, I didn't get the satellite clouds to work. I noticed that the LunarCell planets are a bit low on the detail, which is one reason I got mediocre results with this one. I'll try that thing you suggested when I'm a little more awake.

[Major Diarrhia]

Today's been a good day for great Star Trek pictures.

[uniderth]

Wow. That ship really looks good. You've done excellemnt work on this design.