I recently decided to learn Blender, and I have long wanted to render a realistic atmosphere.
Using basic math in the shader editor, I could reach a satisfying result.
From that point, I wanted to add some dynamism. I quickly thought about that eclipse shot from Dune part 2 which I adore, and then move on to adding a shadow on the planet.
Then I imported the render in Nuke, and added the Sun & Moon (with animated rotos), the flares, the bloom/glow and the ship (also an animated roto)
Thank you for your interest !
Final comp
Blender viewport. A very simple setup
Raw blender render -
The atmosphere is a volume shader with a gradient density, following a physical, exponential decay. It gives off this nice realistic gradient that goes from orange to deep blue. The atmosphere has been thickened a lot, for aesthetics
The sun and moon are just two rotos