A friend of mine (who's studies at the Movie Academy in Amsterdam) was working on a scene where a guy get's followed by satellites tracking down his cellphone. In order to make the scene look believable - and cool - he asked me to make 3 CG-shots of a satellite hovering above the earth.

The earth is made up of 3 sphere's. Separate passes were rendered from 3ds Max, and composed back together in Combustion to allow for any immediate changes, wich proved very useful! The final animations vary from the satellite slowly twisting and turning, to a crash-zoom into the earth's reflection in the satellite's lens.

My friend's reaction when I delivered the finished shots: "I'm afraid they'll acuse me of stealing footage from a hollywood movie...!"