Thanks for all the comments. I have been doing several of these kinds of test lately and, being that people have asked me about who some of these effects are done, I thought I would give a little insight into what I'm thinking (and doing) when I make them.
First, I don't what to give off the impression that I have a full understanding of how any of this is done. There are
many attemps at images like this that you all never see (because they look like garbage.
However, that is not to say that I don't have a general methodology I use when making the images. This image (the second one), is not a GLOBAL clouds setup, so it is simpler and thus a slightly different thought process goes into making it than a full planet. In this kind of shot I usually only use three cloud layers:
1. Small "popcorn" clouds.
2. Large Storm/Fog type clouds (depends on the effect you want)
3. High altitude thin clouds (which can work as both the tops of large storm systems or just high clouds)
This way of making cloudscapes can work pretty well at ground level too but the main strong point is in space because the small clouds give a perception of scale, while the large and thin clouds give the impression of depth. And besides, if you look at real images you can, for the most part, break down the cloud formations to these basic groups (depending on image you look at of course). This image is a good example (
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-407/p20.jpg). Remember that I am not recreating the clouds themselves, but just the
effect. Also if you look at some of my other images you can see the same approach being used (such as here for example,
http://nvseal.deviantart.com/art/Low-Orbital-Clouds-71030064). Hope this makes sense and can help some of you. I kind of made all this up as I wrote so if something isn't clear be sure to ask.
