Well, PH, you have actually restored my faith in Paint.net. I was told about Gimp and paint.net at the same time and both were well recommended (was looking for something to take my hand drawn landmasses into so I could add terrain features). I actually downloaded PdN first but the tuts I found were hardly instructive in how to go about doing mapping stuff. Then I found the CG and the wealth of "targeted" tutorials for Gimp and downloaded that and got a lot further with it.

I love that globe, BTW, and thanks for showing me that someone that I know wasn't just whistlin' dixie.

The only crit I have for the globe is that the Space that is visible through the atmosphere seems way too dark. I would think that it would be paler due to seeing it through the atmosphere. Similar to the outer layer, if not even paler

Good job again, have some rep