Herding the Space Whale

Herding the Space Whales

My entry for a 3d World Magazine forum creative challenge entitled alien planet
Background starfield painted in Gimp
Planet and space whales modelled in Sculptris
Planetary shield modelled in TopMod
UFOs modelled in Wings3D

Scene rendered in Kerkythea Echo 2008

Postpro in Gimp - Download the Hi Rez image to get the best detail

Free software FTW!

This is a narrative for this scene if you're interested!!

"When early colonists from earth started moving out amongst the stars, setting up on new planets in alien systems, They encountered an unforeseen problem. They launched the satellites they needed to communicate with Earth, only to have them disappear.

Investigations revealed the presence of massive creatures dwelling in the vacuum of space, surviving on energy derived from the light of nearby stars and feeding on the debris of asteroid fields and planetary rings. Naturally these creatures were attracted to the orbiting satellites and found them a particularly tasty snack.

These filter feeding creatures were dubbed 'space whales' by the unimaginative colonists. On contacting the dominant alien species in the systems where they were most prevalent, the colonists discovered that space whales were a 'domesticated' cattle, herded from planet to planet grazing on the mineral waste. These animals were prized by the alien species for their waste, a dark matter which could be used to power their Saucer-like space ships.

The aliens (who have an unpronounceable name and thus save the narrator the job of trying to spell it) had developed a system of planetary shields and communication arrays that form a satellite cage around their planets, negating the need for satellites and providing a space dock with elevators down to the planet surface."