Looking up at Infinity

[Cocateho]

I have a few tweaks planned out, but the first try turned out pretty well I thought. Going more for an artistic standpoint than realism.

[Upon Infinity]

The realism is not bad at all.  The grass is very good. Is that Terragen grass or imported?  The only problem I really see is that the stars are brighter towards the light and it should be the opposite.  Other than that, the image is very good.

[Dune]

Agreed. In this kind of light you usually only see the brightest stars or some planets, so I would drastically reduce the stars, but make them brighter. You can also add a distribution shader with min height (Y) to get them off the horizon. If your camera is more or less on the top of the planet that is.

[archonforest]

Great start. I like it...very moody stuff.
Agree with the comments about the stars.

[Cocateho]

The stars are just an image map, although I plan to aim the camera higher and play with the lighting a bit, but the higher camera angle with the image projected through the render camera should move the big patch of stars away from the sun's glow. The stars do need to brighten a little bit, maybe if I increase the strength of the second sun used to illuminate the background that could do it.

[Cocateho]

Here's an update, better y'all think?

[Hannes]

Hmm, although you wrote, that you're going more for an artistic standpoint than for realism, I think that these stars and your image don't really fit together. First they are way to bright and they seem vertically stretched in your last image. They don't even look like stars but somehow more like some kind of fairy dust.
It's of course a matter of taste, but to me this very nice and peaceful image would look a lot better without the stars and a more realistic moon (or without).
I hope you don't mind me saying this!

[TheBadger]

I like it without the space stuff. But I do see what you are after.
I think subtlety is your friend here. The planet is not working at any level for me.

[Cocateho]

I'm going to search around for another star field, one that's more spread out and not so clustered, might go with the image a bit more

[Dune]

Search for star background, and you'll find a procedural background tgc which can be adjusted more easily.