Five Billion

[TheBlackHole]

The year is 5000000000 AD. The sun has become a red giant and is melting the Earth, humanity having moved to the former Orion and Eagle nebulae.
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Render time: 0:10:34
Render settings at factory defaults
Lava shader is my own
31 atmo samples
Postwork in Photoshop 7 (yes, I know it's an old version) to make the sun more realistic, mimic intense heat refraction like you see over fires, and brighten the sky around the sun as well as add a lens flare.

[Henry Blewer]

I like what you have done with the sun. Cool concept!

[PorcupineFloyd]

Now that's inspiring! I like pictures with stories. Good pictures with good stories.

Great concept and picture

[Viktim]

you can almost feel the heat:P  good job!

[TheBlackHole]

The solar effects are almost entirely postwork. For example, the sunspots were mede by burning away areas of the sun and then painting a color sampled from the sky over the spots with "color" mode. The flares were made simply by first slightly distorting the image with a filter and then smearing the edge with the smudge tool. The outer corona was made by painting the same sampled color over the edge of the sun with "screen" mode and then smudging the crap outta it. Finally I added a lens flare and then faded it with screen and some transparency. The "heat" effects were accomplished by distorting the entire image with a filter (same time as before; the two "steps" pf using the filter were actually one and the same!) and then slightly smudging parts but not too much or else it would destroy the image.