Description
I recently introduced my boys to the original Star Trek and we’ve been watching them nightly this summer before bedtime. This scene was inspired by the continuing adventures of the Starship Enterprise 🙂
I used Vue d’Esprit’s “Planetary Terrains” twice. The main planet in the sky is a Vue d’Esprit world with the camera pulled way back. The foreground is another spherical terrain, so I can have the sun light peeking over the horizon naturally.
SteveWestby [lifer]
I just wish I had 3 screens at work to get the entire scene.
MystMan [donormember]
Great! Show your boys tomorrowland! Even you should watch it for inspiration. It’s so you!
SethEden [liferplus]
This is really awesome!!! I’d love to see more sci-fi art! 😀 Especially more stuff in the vein of Arcology/Arcosanti/Kardashev/Hyper-Neo Futurism. 😀
Steve Simpson [basicmember]
The story line pulled me in at first. I can relate to the kids and whole Star Trek thing. But what blew me away was the dual rendering! Just outstanding. Keep up the good work! Been a supporting fan for years. (No I’m not vying for a free T-Shirt)
Dennis M. [liferplus]
Just remember that worlds and clouds move, so when you do winter, move the worlds in the sky a bit, rotate the big one, and change the clouds. My favorite sets are where you take the same scene and do different seasons. I am hoping you do the same for this one. Day, night, winter, giant storms, et cetera.
Ginger [nonmonthly]
Clouds are not your thing – 9/10 renders with clouds look fake.
jjlem01 [nonmonthly]
This is a nice render but I have two vertical Portrait monitors on each side of my horizontal Landscape monitor.
It would be nice to have all renders with a Portrait resolution 1200×1920.
My setup looks something like this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1543300
Here are some portrait desktop backgrounds:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?tags=1200×1920
Ryan
I’ll try to do better next time Jon.
Jon [lifer]
Jeez, always the same borging placement of the planets, show some imagination Ryan, it’s dull.
Mario Carini [basicmember]
Beautiful! So realistic! When can I get there?
Jason [nonmonthly]
…and it’s incredible; I really do love this wall paper (so yeah, it’s not just on my iPad now!).
It took 18 years to find one that I like more than Lotus (http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/preview.shtml?i=lotus), but you did it! Maybe my next favorite won’t take such a long time to come along. 😉
AdminK [lifer]
This work of art definitely would make for a very elegant wall tapestry on your Society6 store Ryan.
Joe [lifer]
I like most of your papers but I rarely comment. This one is hands down my favourite in ages though. It’s absolutely fantastic.
Jason [nonmonthly]
I typically choose iPad wallpapers with various shades of blue and purple because I love the way they interact with the translucency in iOS. (Winter Rose was also a great one for that.). When I tried this one out, I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not, given how dark the image is. I LOVE IT! I was really surprised at how much I liked it. Thanks for all the great work and for sharing your talent with us!
Ruinexplorer [nonmonthly]
I somehow missed when this was released. I was just browsing for a new image and was captivated by this. Bravo!
Owen Clark [lifer]
One of the best ones I’ve seen for a while, great. Nice to see new theme coming through too.
JLMonty [nonmonthly]
Love the content, but due to failing vision, it’s way to bright, perhaps a somewhat dimmer version? Twilightish?
Obsidian [nonmonthly]
Love the inspiration for the work and connecting with your boys through Trek. I imagine our world could look like your’s if we were more Trek-like.
Italo [lifer]
My personal favourite.
Nilay T [nonmonthly]
Absolutely love this one Ryan. Surely one of my favorites in a long time. Especially like the cityscape.
Any chance a Surface 3:2 resolution is coming soon?
Richard H. [lifer]
I see that the main render has now been replaced with a version without the weird brown cloud. So now it matches the two- and three-screen versions, and is an improvement overall. This is good.
The only two slight oddities I spot in the new single-screen render, though, are as follows (and I wonder why they should have happened, because it just seems strange):
1. The crop of the picture is slightly tighter; e.g. the small moon at the top-right is now slightly clipped (whereas there used to be space above it), and there are fewer buildings to see at the left. I preferred the slightly more zoomed-out appearance of the original.
2. The colour balance is different. The new single-screen render now matches the double- and triple-screen renders, which is good; but it’s odd that there’s a difference. The new renders are all a bit darker/blacker. In the original, more shadow detail was visible, which I found helpful. I actually thought that the original was a bit too dark in any case, but the newer renders are all more so.
Overall, even though I didn’t like the funny brown cloud in the original, I think it would have been nice to retain it as a pickle jar variant, rather than just erasing it from history. (Especially as quite a few of us will have downloaded it.) I have a fondness for the original even though I think the new version is an improvement.
Kevin [lifer]
I have always been impressed with your cityscapes, naturescapes, and nightscapes, but this is hands down the best wallpaper I have seen this year. I have been begging secretly for the longest time to have a cityscape and a planetscape together just to see how it would turn out, and I have finally got my wish. Not only that but it turned out spectacular, I love the contrast the buildings make with the planet and the shoreline makes with the clouds.
I have to agree that the cloud among the buildings seems out of place and is better left out, I would however like to see a little more color in the dark clouds above the horizon (perhaps a red hue with the sunset or a dusk blue?).
Wonderful work as always Ryan
Dr ZUL [lifer]
I have to agree with Angelique, the cloud placement is a little distracting, especially the cloud in the foreground of the single screen version. It just doesn’t look right, it seems out of place. The cityscape and the planets in the background look great. I love your renders that have planets in the background.
Angelique [lifer]
This would be so great but I feel the clouds are ruining the photo 🙁 It’s too much distraction (too much “extra”) in the sky and the clouds just block the view of the lovely sunset and beautiful star-filled sky, as well as they don’t look realistic (too dense). I hope my comments are not offensive, I just mean them as constructive criticism. Your works have gotten so impressive in the quality of the render, very sharp and many things have improved such as water looking ever more realistic but in many recent renders I feel you’re adding too much to the scenery, kind of “gilding the lily”, otherwise spoiling simple perfection such as was your trademark in the past. Also (about the clouds specifically) many clouds in the past looked very realistic but lately they don’t. Must be something with the newer software but most times they don’t look right. Everything else about this scene is awesome though.
Richard H. [lifer]
I’m interested to see that you’ve removed ‘the cloud’ from the dual- and triple-screen versions, Ryan, after my previous comment. I do think they look better without it; thanks. But the single-screen scene still has it, so will we be getting a new single-screen render? It’d be nice to keep the with-cloud version as a pickle jar variant, but the new cloud-free render is my preference. Thanks!
Susan [nonmonthly]
I used to love the original Star Trek program and this ois a good reminder of it. I love it.
Jenanne [lifer]
Love this one, Ryan! It does remind me of those early Star Trek episodes. 🙂
Glenn [nonmonthly]
I very much enjoy the planetary structure . One must accept “Artistic License” with any art and believe me, this is art! Kind of reminds me of “Childhoods End” Stunning. But…I agree with Richard, the brown clump is odd, probably should go.
gorelets [nonmonthly]
Just a quick note to say that I am a big fan of all the gotham series and this one fits right in with the mix as a sort of “external” view of those. The dark screens are my favorite because they don’t occlude desktop icons and they just look fantastic to me. More power to you.
CatScratch [nonmonthly]
I’m not a astrophysicist but how does orbital mechanics work in your universe? Multiple large bodies in proximity tend to bump in the night over the long run, or so I’ve been told. Otherwise, very nice.
cmmnoble [nonmonthly]
This looked great on the thumbnail–and is absolutely spectacular on the desktop. I particularly like the colors. And the reflections in the water are superb. 🙂
Richard H. [lifer]
I really like this one very much indeed. However, for improvements, there are three small details that I think might be tweaked:
1. For me, by far the biggest problem (and the only one I’m really bothered about) is the dense clump of cloud (or is it smoke?) in the middle of the buildings. It looks unreal to me, and spoils what would otherwise be a really nice cityscape. Maybe a little wispy whitish cloud here would be acceptable, but not this ugly brown stuff! Moreover, despite the fact that it’s really dense, you can see building lights through it, and they look unrealistic too as a result. I personally think it’d be better just to get rid of this cloud/smoke entirely.
2. On the subject of cloud, whilst I don’t dislike the cloud on the horizon to the right of the picture, it too looks rather dark and dense to me; there just seems to be too much black within it. Can it be toned down a little?
3. Finally, although I do like the light/dark contrast created by the rising sun effect in the picture, I do nevertheless feel that the foreground and horizon (and bottoms of the buildings) are a bit too dark. Could the sun be made to have risen a bit higher, perhaps, so that we get stronger sunlight shining off the tops of the buildings and not quite such a dark foreground?
But these are minor criticisms. Overall I love the content and composition of this image; it’s one of the best. Beautiful.
Chris [lifer]
Once again you have excelled yourself, with a very few exceptions every new wallpaper you produce rate at least 8 out of 10 even the pickle jar. Question I know you obviously cannot take requests but may I ask if you have ever had any inspiration from Babalon 5. in the mean time keep up the great work and thank you
Rodewaryer [nonmonthly]
You never cease to amaze, kudos on the inspiration too, it shows.
CompguyG [lifer]
Beautiful, Ryan. This is so “Star Trekkie” and I love it!
Leon [nonmonthly]
I always look forward to seeing your latest work. Keep doing what you’re doing. Nothing compares to the work you create.
Mocuishle [lifer]
Would make a great story! I am a lifetime member and always look forward to a new painting, especially I like the holiday-themed pieces. Am seriously considering the Lifetime Plus membership as well.
David [lifer]
Not sure what more you could do with this piece, but will be excited to see any further alterations. This is currently my desktop wallpaper and will remain so for a while.
Been a fan since I was 19, way back in 2004. Cheers!
betsey [lifer]
beautiful…
Chris [lifer]
Once again you have excelled yourself, with a very few exceptions every new wallpaper you produce rate at least 8 out of 10 even the pickle jar. Question I know you obviously cannot take requests but may I ask if you have ever had any inspiration from Babalon 5. in the mean time keep up the great work and thank you
Clayton [lifer]
In the tri screen it seems as if the building are starting to fall over. Kinda screws with me. Going to have to revert back to my last paper.