This truly incredible image was produced by Lightfarm Studios and was composited over a 5 week period "by seamlessly matte painting over 100 aerial pictures of giant proportions." This original artwork piece was inspired by the book “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C. Clarke and the end product is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Originally found on Retouching Academy, I was truly awestruck by the piece. I'm rarely found mouth-agape at a project, but this one really got me. Excellent, excellent work.

Click the images below for full resolution so you may gape at the astonishing detail:

Being mesmerized by the magnetic feeling the concept brings, Milton faced the puzzle of matte painting seamlessly over 100 aerial pictures in Photoshop. In a highly detailed vortex of the world scale proportions to finally set this window of many interpretations. For the futuristic astronaut, our awarded CGI artist, Chris Chui, went mental on the detailed model, cloth simulation, textures and light rendering. Chris broke through the high end of CGI technology of cloth simulation with Marvelous Designer 3, which made the astronaut’s suit possible. Thanks to Rafael Vallaperde, hundreds of gigabytes of video capture were selected and carefully edited along the deep beats by the Russian musician Vitaly Ghost.

Watching the behind-the-scenes video, I can't help but be incredibly impressed. Well done to a great product from a very talented team.

[Via Lightfarm Studios via Retouching Academy]