Anthropomorphic sci-fi project

PLANETS

Tyron Beta, a rocky, lifeless world.

Tyron Beta, a rocky, lifeless world.

Tyron Alpha, a temperate, hospitable, yet sparsely populated planet.

Tyron Alpha, a temperate, hospitable, yet sparsely populated planet.

The population of Alpha's sole inhabited landmass is relatively small and sparse.

The population of Alpha's sole inhabited landmass is relatively small and sparse.

A golden-brown sister in the sky.

A golden-brown sister in the sky.

Alpha's north pole consists of a solid landmass connected to its lower latitudes.

Alpha's north pole consists of a solid landmass connected to its lower latitudes.

The dry atmosphere of Beta leaves the blue fringe on its terminator clearly visible.

The dry atmosphere of Beta leaves the blue fringe on its terminator clearly visible.

A hard black-and-white (and VERY high resolution) texture encoding Alpha's land and water areas.

A hard black-and-white (and VERY high resolution) texture encoding Alpha's land and water areas.

Trying to figure out how to create realistic coastal water variations on Alpha.

Trying to figure out how to create realistic coastal water variations on Alpha.

Beta's entire surface started out as a procedurally-generated texture.

Beta's entire surface started out as a procedurally-generated texture.

I baked the procedural texture using the same map as Alpha so that I could easily edit portions of it.

I baked the procedural texture using the same map as Alpha so that I could easily edit portions of it.

At one point, I accidentally dragged the atmosphere object out of place away from the planet object. The look of that was too cool not to save.

At one point, I accidentally dragged the atmosphere object out of place away from the planet object. The look of that was too cool not to save.

A very early look at the development of Alpha's land textures.

A very early look at the development of Alpha's land textures.

My story takes place in the Tyron system, which consists of four planets. Its habitable zone is occupied by the binary twin of Tyron Alpha and Beta, orbiting each other at a considerable distance. Further inward exists the toxic, high-gravity world of Gamma, and out at the fringe, the cryogenically-frozen Delta, both of which I have yet to portray.

Despite its size, the population of Alpha is surprisingly small at only around 90 million. Its industry and economy have become mired in a cycle of stagnation, the fallout of a centuries-old political catastrophe whose events have been forgotten but whose wounds never fully healed. The responsibility for keeping the system alive has largely fallen to a small, industrious group that keeps to the shadows, working unseen and unthanked by most of the population.

Tyron Beta was actually among the very first 3D assets I created for my story in 2023, one of my earliest "real" projects after learning Blender. After watching a number of tutorials on YouTube with many different artistic approaches to designing a planet, I combined the attributes and techniques I liked the best to create this world.

Being remarkably similar in character to Earth, Alpha was dramatically harder to design and make it look "right." The shapes of the landmasses themselves came from drawings and ideas I had formed years ago, but working out colors and the response to light were incredibly challenging. Resources like Google Earth show an idealized, abstract representation of the planet instead of accurately portraying land from space, and the vast majority of space photography available was taken from relatively low orbit, giving me a limited number of vantage points I could reference. With my relatively crude approximation of atmospheric density and light scattering, a single layer of clouds with no dimension or depth, and an ocean limited to one uniform "roughness" value, I managed to create something plausible at a glance, but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It's good enough for my immediate plans, but these assets will need a near-total rework at some point in the future.