CRUDESGRU One, Underway

[amaysingstories]

The ships of Cruiser-Destroyer Group One of the Earth Defense Fleet (USS Trenton (CA 1), USS Sword of Justice (DA 2), USS Sword of Honor (DA 3), USS Sword of Vengeance (DA 4), USS Sword of Independence (DA 5), and USS Sword of Freedom (DA 6)) fly in tight formation before the Orion Nebula.

With the Patron threat no longer an issue, the peoples of Earth are free to investigate the remains of their harvesting fleet. The first major discovery is that the Patrons' interstellar trade was made possible by an artificial wormhole network, accessed by reconfiguring the alien stardrive. Now with the whole galaxy opened up to humanity, the brave officers and crew of the United States Aerospace Navy take the first tentative steps into a larger universe.

Based upon my perpetual novel-in-progress, A Sword Into Darkness, a snippet of which can be found in the SFM Writers' Forum. Modeled and rendered in C4D, and composited in Photoshop.

Comments appreciated! Enjoy the pic!!

V/R, Tom Mays

[TheGreatRaja]

while the idea is nice the shot fails to carry it off.
The light seems to be very flat, with that much color in the background you should see it's effect on the ships. As it is they appear almost pasted on.
I'd suggest toning down the main light and add some multi color fill lights to the background

[amaysingstories]

I do have some fill lights back there, five if I recall, each one colored to match the background. I think the problem may be that the position of the ships occlude the lights for the most part, since there's nothing there to scatter the light around the hulls. The background light may be too bright, as well. If you look at the ships on the right, you can see the fill lights coming off the nebula illuminating the far side, and on the ships to the left, the fill lights make the illumination you're seeing slightly colored, slightly brighter. I agree, I may need to adjust levels or positioning, though.