Building Earth in Blender
This tutorial is the result of many hours of work, test rendering, and writing. Users will build two different Earth models, and learn how to achieve details such as masked specular shading, cloud shadows, and city lights. All the maps used in the tutorial are free, and instructions on how to find and download them are provided.
For more example renders and clickable links to the various maps, see the Earth page of my planets library.
Tutorial: PDF File, 4th Edition (46.9MB)
Photo-Realistic Model .blend File
The .blend files may be used in your own productions, but please provide credit according to the specifications given within the .blend files.