Galaxy Explorer

By the time the Verdajuvel model was complete I had already assigned all the materials. I had to do this because of all the duplicating of parts I was doing. If I hadn't applied materials at the earliest possible moment, going back and applying them later would have been a very onerous task. I was able to start doing test renders straight away.

I decided the first poster had to be on the theme of the 'Galaxy Explorers' and should feature a galaxy. That's a bit ironic given that if Verdajuvel was doing its exploring job, it would actually be in galaxy, not hanging around outside. But that's OK. I persuaded myself it was doing some 'big picture' reconnaisance work.

Thanks to the World's impressive array of space telescope we have some truly beautiful images of galaxies. I wanted something that could be described as a 'classic galaxy shape' and that was more edge on to reflect the shape of Verdajuvel and fit within the design of the poster. The go-to galaxy is the Sombrero.

My basic poster design outline was - from top to bottom - headline text, Sombrero, Verdajuvel, Cerulean subtext. That was relatively easy to set up in Blender with an image in the compositor. Then I got into trial after trial of different star fields, and different ways of enhancing the Sombrero, and different lighting schemes for Verdajuvel. The image below turns up the colours in every respect.

I printed a few of these trials out on paper and quite quickly came to the conclusion that less is more. Yes, the galaxies can be amazing colourful places, but for this poster a more subdued, elegant palette was needed. I settled on the poster below and am pleased with that. It's great that, if you look for it, you can see the forest under the dome.