Re-entry

This looks like Clay's volume fire which I like very much and often used for the fire comming out of the nozzle, but in blue. I think it is not good here, I would have gone rather for a bright red underbelly of the crafts. Creating the distorted air from the heat is a challenge I have not taken yet. Smoke is easier but tricky to get right. If the vehicles are coming down, I would start with a booleaned torus and give it a massive smoke material. The composition and everything else is very good. The ships look very good, too, as do the chasing aircrafts.

What I was trying to do was to make it look as if they coming from space and trying to pull up before they hit the ground (obviously). Still working on it and also making a new ship that looks more like a flying triple barrel bazooka. But I am not giving up on this picture or the fleet picture. Renderman if you want to play around with the picture you are more than welcome I can email you the bryce document.

I like alot of things. I like the over-all light levels. The fire underneath as re-entry is a great idea and works well here. For me the main thing missing is the streaming of hot gas like a comet, a space ship re-entering has a tail extending upward. To do this would require careful materials but it can be done in a number of different ways. Usually, if an object is re-entering it has slowed down significantly by the time it gets this close to the ground, at least that is the case with a spaceship that is designed to land safely on the surface. A crashing ship or a random asteroid might would continue to gain speed as it fell. Despite your efforts it still seems like we are close to the Earth's surface. To look more like re-enry into space you might need to check out Horo and David as htye have created that effect before by turning the world or should I say camera upside down. Nice work it is a great idea.

That is a great looking fire but not sure the affect you want for this application. What are you trying to accomplish or should I ask are these space ships entering the planets atmosphere. I could play around some with the effects if I know what you want and see what I can come up with. You really should check out Davids Plasma fire in the materials exchange and then for smoke you could use the volumetric burning tire smoke in the atmospheres under Clouds Volume. You could put the smoke in a cone or a cylinder and make some adjustments in the material lab with the Base Density until you get the affect you want. The same goes for the fire plasma. You can also change the color of the smoke in the materials lab. I am sure that others might have some suggestions but this would be a good place to start