2026 (02)

First project of year (2026).

I have this AI generated wallpaper that is pretty cool that has this great sci-fi book cover vibe. I thought it would be fun to recreate it in Blender with a more realistic look.

Here is the image:

My first challenge is the astronaut. As I’ve commented in past posts, AI image to mesh tools are not great. Well, some are but they all have a catch. MeshyAI and Tripo3D are two that are fairly decent but you have to pay to get the model. They let you generate but restrict downloads to either a very low poly and crappy mesh or, in Tripo3D’s case, create a great model but make you subscribe to get it. Fair. But they say they are free with limited generations and downloads and then are not.

Hey – I’m cheap so it’s mostly my fault.

No worries. This is not animated and I’m not saying it all has to be modeled.

So. Plan B.

Using Midjourney with some prompt tips from ChatGPT I created some usable walking astronauts. I asked for a chroma blue background and the results were about 90% there. Then, with a choice I liked and was close enough to my concept, I upscaled it in Topaz Labs Bloom tool. It gave me some extra crisp detail. (You won’t see it in the example as the image is reduced for the post.)

Now to PS. I masked out the chroma blue (as best I could in old version – CS5) and made sure it was clean on edges.

The cast shadow is OK but can be touched up in post. The actual masked image is about 4K so will let me work well in composting.

~ by cp40guy on February 8, 2026.