Wow... It's been pretty quiet in this section for a while. And while I haven't been inspired enough lately to contribute anything, I consider this as an achievement, minor that it may be.
First of all, many thanks to staff member Kevin Kipper who solved my problem of image mapping onto a planet object. And to Jordan T for his starfield background.
The vapor "column" is three localized cloud / stretched PF density nodes. Its upper limit doesn't extend much further than the top of the image,,, I tried tweaking a "smoke column" clip (Jordan's I believe) but to no avail. If anyone has a better solution, please have at it.
Io, for those who don't know is the innermost large moon of Jupiter. Its surface is free of cratering due to constant resurfacing of its crust. The plumes are probably not due to material shooting directly out from underground, rather it the being much hotter molten sulfurous rock flowing out from vents, contacting the frozen surface which then vaporizes and explodes upwards.
That's the science lesson for today. Test in 15 minutes...
