The Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery

[JonWelch]

Here is my submission for the KS8 Beta contest. I haven't had much time to play with all the new features, but I'm loving them so much.

For this shot, I used the basis of an insanely detailed model from Grabcad: https://grabcad.com/library/nasa-space-shuttle-2 by the user Osvaldo
Just trying to open it in SolidWorks crashed my computer a handful of times.

As for the new features:
- I built a simple cone coming out of the thrusters, used a displacement map using a combination of Noise textures and built a custom Scattering Medium material to simulate an exhaust cloud. Then I inserted a disk set as a Spotlight inside the booster and messed with those settings until it gave the appearance that you see. I totally love the way the light bounces around inside of the scattering medium, I'm hoping to do a more detailed shot from the back some time in the future.

- The terrain below is also just a simple plane with a displacement map using a combination of Noise and Cellular textures along with a few different textures/materials to simulate a snowy, mountainous landscape.

- The clouds in the sky are once again a plane, with some minor displacement, with a custom Scattering Medium. I really love the diverse effects you can get with SM.

- As for the settings, I used the new Photographic mode in this shot, had a lot of fun messing with those new controls. And I like the addition of the new Bloom Threshold, that definitely was useful in this shot.

Besides that, minor post work was done in Photoshop for some brief lighting/color adjustments, but I've attached the Raw render as well.

Let me know what you all think.
Thanks and good luck!

[mattjgerard]

fantastic!