After weeks of re-working the VEX shaders, I am finally back on track. Here are a sequence of WIP shots (dated 27 Mar) highlighting one of my initial goals of the project - to recreate a sunrise from space sequence:
At first glance, the shots look similar compare to my early versions (created using Maya and After Effects compositing trickery in 2010), but believe me there is a world of difference, especially when things start moving. If you scrub through the sequence, you can see a hint of atmospheric scattering at work as the sunlight penetrates the atmosphere.
Naturally, I will have to add in the Sun with accompanying flares and effects during post-production in the eventual final version.