hi,
i am not so sure if I want to have the trees stop at the snow. As I said before, without trees, the second frame looks quite barren and not at all interesting. I think that I'll just make less trees at the top, rather than removing them.
As for the planet, I took out the atmosphere and made the planet look like a moon. It actually looks pretty good. Also, because the planet has no atmosphere, I changed the sunset to be behind the camera so the moon with its terrain is clearly visible. The moon is also quite big in the picture. I'll post it once the picture is rendered.
Jahnu