I found something interesting. When trying to translate / rotate the sphere object in the .tgd I used for my "arrival" image, it became a multi-faceted solid instead of remaining a smooth sphere. The clip file is available in File Sharing if you want to have a look. I'd like to know if anyone else is getting the same. You won't need to do any displacements.
After a few tests using a new default shader and sphere object, I was getting the same result each time. So I reset the sphere to the default scale of 1 /1 / 1, did not translate or rotate, rendered and it came out normally. Then when I made at change in position or rotation and started the render, it made it through the pre-pass, but crashed as soon as the final began. After three attempts with the same result each time, I thought probably it's a bug. Or my computer.
Please have a look - I'd like to think it's really not my computer. Thanks in advance!
Dont use the scale to size, use radius. :) Scale should just be 1,1,1. if you do mess with it I think proportional scales work best like 1,2,1. Also try proper surface normals when scaling the sphere instead of scaling deforms normals.
(...head slap!) That makes sense. Duh! Sometimes I approach an idea completely off base. Thanks, Jordan!
I've used scales many, many times and gone "Whaaa??". Still do sometimes in brain farts.