Coincidentally, I was working on a similar project some time ago, with the opposite goal (melting and then destroying the Earth
). Where did your storyboard image come from?
I was working with a guy here named Freelancah (Sami) who created a quite nice lava world. You might try contacting him as the workflow we were creating would be similar to what you'd need here:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,11970.0.htmlThe general idea would be to create the planet in each of the major states you want it to evolve to/from (easiest with 2, before and after, but do-able with more). Then you can use various methods to fade/transition between them, starting with the simple Merge Shader, which would do a fairly basic fade-like transition (depending on blend mode, mix shader, etc.), or more complex as-in adjusting coverage and displacement of various surface shaders and terrain displacement. You could use an image sequence for continent movement if it needs to be accurate and if such a sequence of e.g. continental movement is already available.
Just some preliminary thoughts to get you started...
- Oshyan