MODELS

    Groundplane
This was of course the basis for the world.  I am grateful to Nathan Shipley for allowing me to use a previous ground plane that he had created.  I took his ground plane and altered the geography to fit the look I was intending.  My goal was to create a land that was mountainous and would coincide with the precious world that exists within the atmosphere of this world.  It is from this mountain world that floats high above the surface of this wold that you descend from.  Here is a basic image of the geometry of the groundplane along with the texture map I placed onto it:

    Sky
The sky was the next most important element to the congruity of this world.  I wanted to give the effect that you have landed on a planet that had similar features in terms of the geography to earth, but I also wanted it to feel like a planet that has an atmosphere like none other anyone has ever seen.  So I found some beautiful images from the NASA image database and layered them all together and fiddled with their color schemes to create an atmosphere that was out of this world.  The texture map has been applied to the background of this page, and here is the model that I placed this texture onto.

    Planets
Since I wanted to give the effect of being on a completely different planet other than our own, I thought it would be wise to include a few orbiting planets and moons which were visible from the surface.  I again used some images from NASA to create the texture maps.  I took many images and layered them together in Photoshop and created some fantastic elements on each.  For the main planet, I created some volcanic explosions all around the planet, and then the light from these explosions made the underlying mountainous terrain visisble.  There is a high degree of air turbulance on this planet, which accounts for the large cloud cover and swirling effect made fromt the smoke of the volcanos.  Here is a model of the main planet along with the texture map.

The planet also has two orbiting moons.  One is very similar to earth, with a large amount of water on the surface and cloud formations similar to those found on earth.  The other is a firey brother to the planet that it orbits.  The surface is mostly made of lava and fire, this accounts for the redish yellow hues.

Now, these three objects are visible from the surface of my world.  They are so close in orbit that they are visible through the atmosphere.  Here is a shot from above the planets and it's moons.

Miromen
There is a set of three statues which were left on this planet many years ago, and they still stand tall amongst the new lifeforms that have taken habitat on this new planet.  The inspiration of these statues came from a sculpture I saw in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art done by Gustave Miro.  The texture is supposed to represent the underlying bedrock of this planet with it's years of layering and colors.  Here is a shot of them standing amongst the various creatures that habitat this planet.

Lifeforms
There have been many different lifeforms whom have called this planet their home, but as of today there are only two living species that inhabit the lower land regions of this planet.  There are however many whom live in the atmosphere and feed off of the plentiful amount of nutrients in the atmosphere.  The first of these two species are called Xhar-Shap.  "These creatures were born on a highly volcanic and highly choatic and tectonicly active planet.  Thus they evolved their own shock absorbtion system to maintain their sanitity in an ever changing world.  While extremely friendly and outgoing these heavy-drinking creatures tend to make friends with any lifeforms which they encounter." -Mathew Alan Powers(creator of the Xhar-Shap and Denzetia)

The above creature(also created by Mathew Alan Powers) is called a Denzetia.  "Denzetia are a peaceful and non-challant race of aliens.  Starting off as beings of pure energy, they slowly gain corporial form over the centuries as they harden.  Deep philosophers and mystics, Denzetias seek to explore the deepest truth.  Though that may seem aloof and distracted, they are very much aware of their surroundings."-Mathew Alan Powers

Keyhole Portal
This is how the user exits the world and gets transported to the NEXUS.  I wanted this model to have a surrealist sense of perception.  That accounts for the diminishing perspective to the small door at the end.

Trees
These trees are adaptive to the rich fertile air of this planet.  This is why some of them have the ability to float above the ground and thrive off of the nutrients in the air.

I hope that you all enjoy and take comfort in my world!