The Secret Universe - 3D animation

Maybe my coolest 3D animation ever, but my i7 needed round 5 days to render this 10sec clip in 4k resolution.

Rather unusual!
ANd what RAM memory does your computer have?

Sorry my delay for the answer, didn't note your question before.
32 GB

That is very strange. "otherworldly" is an understatement.

I see you are really getting into it ... Cool!

Thanks :) Including fractal art it's one of my biggest passions to create such 3D art, but time consuming nonstopp.
Have an own website for this if anyone of you may look.
http://www.3rdart.de

Super impressive Stefan ... I've a strong interest and admiration!

Thanks Gene, but for admiration there are others who take the possibilities of 3D creation to a superior level. When you take a look at Pixologic's Zbrush software and what artists do with it, that's so stunning great that it will make us speechless.
Before becoming busy with video stocks i've created some more or less simple figures with this software and still sell these at Content Paradise. That's magic, but the software is so complex, .... when not using it regular any perfection is far out of sight.
The animation clip above "The Secret Universe" is made with Bryce3D, my ever first 3D software. Usually a landscape generator, but also very well for space scenes and abstract modelling as you see. Very easy to use and much fun by experimenting and well working on even slow PC systems. Can import .obj or .3ds models, create absolute new surreal and real textures, ............ aaahh, the possibilities are so extreme wide open, only the personal fantasy is a border.
Btw. i got it also to create single images which took my PC some days to render only this one. Playing with rough mirroring surfaces and ambient light can be a bit tricky.
Actual i spend a lot of time with fractal software (Mandelbulb3D, Mandelbulber), another passion which startet at WIN95 times with Fractint. It's more fun and pure experimenting, but more about this fractal art is like a religion for itself and their enthusiasts.

Well I am very aware of the attention and time it takes to get anywhere in that field - I've dipped my toes in a few times and gotten distracted, confused, bored, or simply failed. My intent is usually to create scenes more from my mind than what goes on around me in "real life" but I very seldom do more than repair or hide flaws.

However, it's always very interesting looking at the creative results of other people's work. And I don't really judge, rather, I prefer to enjoy.

Your mention of Zbrush spurred me to look it up, and I just downloaded Scuptris to see if I am at all suited for this kind of stuff.

" My intent is usually to create scenes more from my mind than what goes on around me in "real life" "

Same me, fantasy is king!
Getting distracted, confused, bored and simply failed maybe the follow of first steps with the wrong software which can be more or less complicated. For example VUE (landscape generator) needs extreme PC ressources. Cinema and filmmakers use it also in big productions because it offers high end reality. TERRAGEN is like Gimp, a walk with blind eyes.
For experimenting with landscape generator i would recommend BRYCE 7. You cannot fail with it and it makes much fun to see in (nearly) real time how light and sun position will change the mood. More about this they have on board booleans (geometric architectural objects) and metaballs (fluid forms) for modeling. Also animation is very easy. Create any scene, go to keyframe timeline palette and draw the slider so that for expl. you can set a new keyframe 10 sec later (250 or 300 frames). At this new keyframe you change anything withing the scene (position, light, sun, clouds, surface textures or what else), click on save and render. Big surprising experience with endless fun and possibilities. Especially for space scenes with rotating moving planets, changing surfaces and flying spaceships BRYCE is 1st choice (although to be true, creating a perfect 360° rotation is a bit tricky).
SCULPTRIS is nice because it's free and you have all the time you want to decide if you will buy Zbrush or not. But that's all. Maybe not the real software to see if you're suited for this kind of stuff, because it's too special. But you can import objects which you create in SCULPTRIS also in other 3D software like BRYCE where you can texture and animate it.

This is great information! I thank you for it. Last night I succeeded in making a strange blob.

I'll look into Bryce 7 more later tonight, but for now I'm saddled with another "fixit" project ... I let my talking head client read from notes under the camera and I can see his eyes flitting back and forth to camera and notes. Dumbass mistake on my part ... now hours of fixing (if even possible!) .. wish me luck.