element5: ofcourse I don’t mind! This is exactly what I want. Please give me as many suggestions as possible! 
taavi: The background clouds is photomapped. For the smoke, I have yet to tweek the transparancy, which I will try to increase as they move further away from the ship. The level of detail will also be higher in the final particle render, which currenly only took 15 minutes with the simple settings.
The pyrocluster looks promising - it does need a faster alpha falloff further away from the ship though, because it is indeed a bit too opaque. Will be fun to find out the rendertime for the fullres with increased quality settings in the volumetracer too 
Good show, keep going!
As i can understand, this is just a test and not the final point of view…?
I hope the smallers ships will head more toward the camera, it will add some intensity to the scene. Becaus eright now it seems a bit “falling” from the mothership…
The result is anyway great so far, i especially like the mothership texture. And the pyrocluster color fits very well with the background.
Damn…this Pyrocluster test is starting to look really great…damn…thsi is really going to look awesome…update …me interestend very much on this Pyrocloud stuff! :bounce:
Looks better and better with every update. the pyro effect looks cool.
I have some questions about pyrocluster, it’s just for curiosity 
I don’t know anything about it so some maybe some questions are very noobish.
Works with max or vray scene lights?
works with vray or brazil r/s in Max 5?
support wind effects or custom particle emition setting?
thanks
Thanks all, and sorry for the late reply. Been actually concentrating on my studies/work for a change 
JamesMK: Thanks, the transparancy is a bit tricky to fix (at least for me), so I might leave that for post work. As for render times, they are not bad at all. I have several render passes at final resolution done (total of 5) that will be compositioned later. They only took 15 hr in total including high quality settings for Pyro.
nataz: I have actually done just this, with the smaller ships nearing the camera. Cheers!!
DimitrisLiatsos: Thank you!! I am very exited myself over the ease of use. I have heard many complaints on Pyro, but I got the basics pretty fast. In now tweeking them further and see if I can improve it.
plaguelord: Thanks! As for Max, I think it was first developed for it, prior to the C4D module (please correct me if im wrong here). I cant speak for the Max connection, but in Cinema, all those things are covered when used with Cinemas Thinking Particles node based system (which also was made for Max in the start?)
One funny thing that I noticed this week was that in my WinXP system window, my processor speed was set to 1.9 GHz…which was a bit odd concidering I have a 2.5 GHz P4. Seems the jumper settings got reset when I flashed my BIOS and all this time of rendering, I have only been using 2 thirds of my processor capacity :banghead: …Im still in the process of hitting myself!
Anyway, thanks all for you comments, suggestions. I’ll post updates tomorrow!
Cheers!
Peter C.
Peter, since you seem to be aiming for an effect similar to the entry of the “city destroyers” in ID4, you might find this bit of info helpful (or amusing – note the bit about using cotton):
http://www.vfxhq.com/1996/id4-a.html
And if you find yourself really rushed for a high-quality render, you can always opt for compositing in a still from some cloud chamber footage and save the particle fx for doing the fire. Even though it can be rather expensive (individual clips run about US $149 from Artbeats), you’ve got such a photorealistic background and high-quality models that it may be worth considering that kind of investment – particularly if you plan on rendering out a complete animation sequence for your portfolio.
Looking forward to seeing the new renders tomorrow! 
Peter where are u friend…i was thinking last night of your beautiful scene…updates? :bounce:
So sorry for the delay guy’s, been cought up in the HL2 frenzy, unable to stop playing such an excellent game.
Above is the merged testrender that I have done in full final resolution. I would be very happy to hear your thought on it. The sperical crafts are closer to the camera now, please note that this is not their final color (will be a mix of colors to break the white/blue background). Also, one thing that is lacking yet is the comet tale for the second ship which I’ll render this weekend. Furthermore, Im experimenting with ground explosions and smoke to make the conflict more apparant.
Please give me some critique on this as Im nearing final render.
nuclearman: Thanks you for the link. This was what I set out to do at first, but since the backdrop was done, I’v been going twards the “comet tale” style.
Thanks again all for your patience and commitment to viewing my progress, now Im eagerly awaiting your thoughts!
hey that looks pretty good. i like the smoke efect and the background is perfect
keepgoing
That turned out quite nice Peter,really effective,I think you accomplished your desires with this.The look has mass,it has depth…I think you got it,it turned out real well…:arteest:
It’s looking very good overall, and it’s pretty hard to come up with any major suggestions for changes… if pushed, I would perhaps argue that the scene as a whole feels a bit empty, but I have no idea what to do about it while preserving the general “feel” :shrug: Bloody good stuff at any rate.
Love the ships and the composition, but I lose a sense of the ship’s size. I think the ground lacks enough perspective. That is, the ground beneath the second ship should have much, much smaller trees than that beneath the closer ship. Otherwise, I’m really looking forward to seeing how you finish it.
Man thats really cool very nice composition great job here you do amazing friend
cant wait to see your next update:bounce:
Thanks everyone
I have been so buisy with work lately, having finnished two scientific articles that has just drained my energy. What i will try to do is to redesign the smaller ships into more complex and interesting crafts, which I have already thought out a design for. Im also going to work more on the lighting of the particle trail as it stands out a bit too much IMO. This goes for the second ship also, which will have a less dense trail after it. Lastly, I want to try some explosion effects on the surface.
James, true about the execc of space, but this is what I wanted as it gives a sence of depth which I otherwise seldom succeede with, usually I clutter my sceenes too much. Hopefully, the explosion effects will give a better balance.
Artships, the ships are identical in size, so the proportions should be ok, but I’ll see if can enhance this somehow.
Im really going to try to get back on my feet this weekend, especially as time is running out and I will complete this.
Cheers and thank you all again for your support!
happt to see you back in full force Peter…All the best to you getting your plans just as you intend them to be…I’ll be watching,I like your effrots thus far,and think this continued work is very much worth it…Until next time…:arteest: 
Me too I’m in a critical step… hope you can do anything to finish it :shrug: … anymay… much respect & all supprt DEZ…
jdd