A Desert Dream of Water by wblack
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
A Desert Dream of Water
An Orion’s Arm future history image.
Desert mirage produced in Bryce 7 Pro.
A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky.
In this instance, composing an image of my Martian VTO/L in ballistic flight, my settings in the Atmosphere lab (which determine haze and ground fog opacity, density, and area (used in Bryce to realistically reproduce the optical effect of atmospheric distortion or distance blurring)) created a non-reflective desert mirage. Viewing the render on my 32” monitor I was inspired to enhance the effect. Going back into Bryce I opened the file and manipulated material settings of my desert sand ground plane texture, increasing reflectivity and rendered the scene again along with several selective masks for use in post. Post work involved blending the two images to this final effect, an image which iconically defines what my Martians are about: men who have turned their creative endeavors to building a new world, utilizing their engineering skills, their knowledge of science, their acumen to industry, in order to build a new domain for life, a world where free men may labor for their own benefit, constrained only by the laws of nature – not by the petulant demands of any whim-worshiping mob, predatory activists, or corrupt bureaucracy.
Future History Timeline Context Link: Orion’s Arm Future History Timeline.
Related Image Link: Mission Return.
Image Composition Notes:
Sky and atmosphere are custom, color matched against true-color images from the MSL Curiosity.
Terrains are Tectonic’s Evolved 2.
All models constructed in Bryce 6.3, rendered in Bryce 7 Pro.
As always thank you for your interest, thoughtful comments, and encouragement.

Comments (16)
Great work on this one...love the skewed camera angle,and the ship models are very well designed and textured! Great atmo and light too...a fave my friend!
Well done!
Stunning image and a great reed
excellent image
Amazing !
Fantastic image; models and lighting. Love the POV. Corrie
Fantastic scifi image, great work !
I love it amazing lighting the space ships are amazing and the way you got the water looking is very effective. Well Done 5+ Karl
right out of "Blue Mars;" well done!
Well Done 5+
Great use of texture and terrain!
Excellent work as always!
Great scene, very good point of view. I re-use bryce but the material lab is so strange to me. Mal means Evil/Suffering in French...
SUPER POV...LOVE IT
Excellent! Magnificent terrain and water.
Great scifi, I love it !