Under the Domes at Nightfall’s Edge An Orion’s Arm future history image. Dusk under a Martian residential dome, a hundred years on, post landing on the planes of Syria Planum. The Martian population is breaking 5,300. The builders of the dome and its interior structures are the second generation raised on Mars; their elders are the first generation raised entirely in converted cargo containers, temporary habitats, and in the cramped residential decks aboard the ships which brought their parents from Earth. The Martians have expended lifetimes of labor just building the infrastructure to support their growing population. Future History Timeline Context Link: Orion’s Arm Future History Timeline. I set a large number of challenges for myself with this image: in this case the render time involved for each element (30+ hours for each self-illuminated residential building with individual IBL’s (based on the window textures sourced from CG Textures)). Landscaped elements populated with Bryce trees added to render times. Additional testing was required to balance light levels between the deeper darkness under the dome with the dusk lit Martian landscape outside the dome: the sun is right on the horizon lending an almost surreal illumination to the colors of Martian stone and sand. Dealing with extremely low-light levels meant much tweaking of materials to deliver visually correct ambience in conditions of extreme light deprivation. The labor required two and half months of model building, testing, rendering, material tweaking, and rendering again before I reached the goal, the final appearance which matched my initial conception. Under the Dome I wanted to capture the luminance of internal lighting behind the windows of buildings of my own design – the interior of the Martian residential dome reflects an esthetic that is uniquely Martian, embodied in the shapes of the buildings which reflect the shapes of the vehicles which transported the founders from Earth, in the landscaped park with its outcrop of Martian stone, even in the neon tube colored exterior building lighting and landscape accent lighting. On Earth the city lights are slowly going out as collectivism, criminality, and an irrational predatory mob activism dismantle a once magnificent scientific and industrial civilization. Starvation, fear, and poverty reign across the former industrial nations, purges dismantle nations, mass executions and killing fields are the norm. Petty criminal lords rise in the wreckage, spurring their maddened followers on with the credo “might makes right” as businessmen, industrialists, any who can be labeled “the rich and wealthy,” doctors, engineers, scientists and finally, the academics who spurred the madness on, are put to the gallows, the blade, the torch. The Martians, having attained a level of wealth in productivity, can extract from the industrial capabilities, the target of their labor, a measure of the good life, and take satisfaction in what they have built for themselves. Image Composition Notes: Sky and atmosphere are custom, color matched against true-color images from the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity. Terrains are from Tectonics Evolved 2 Science Fiction set, terrain Martian textures are tweaked versions of David Brinnen’s Pro terrain materials. All models are my own Bryce creations, constructed in Bryce 6.3, rendered in Bryce 7 Pro. As always thank you for your interest, thoughtful comments, and encouragement.