[CC] Phase-shifted planet

[MysteryMeat]

So, I'm joining a DnD campaign with a neato setting and decided to do a mockup of the game world.

As it's been explained to me, someone decided it'd be a great idea to shift a planet from one dimension to another without thought for what might already be there, resulting in both shattering against each other and the two cores merging, eventually forming a stable cloud of debris upon which life is, against most odds, still possible.

So, I drew this:

Problem is, I feel like it's missing something and can't figure out what. Was trying to go for the classic "space shading", which tends to be pretty binary, but I feel like in doing so I've made the debris field a bit sparse for what's supposed to be two planets-worth of matter despite not being able to fit much more in with any success.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Drazelic]

I have no idea what I'm looking at. As far as I can tell, it's a melting pacman floating in a black void? I have no clue what you are talking about with debris fields and planets and whatever?

You might want to render your objects at a level of contrast where they're actually visibly explicable.

[MysteryMeat]

Noted. It's easier to see when blown up to proper scale, but I have problems with proper contrast because of my eyes being wonky.
I'll get a reworking up soon.
For reference, I was going for sort of this vibe to the shading:

[BatElite]

I don't understand what you mean with that shading ref in regards to your piece, since that has a very different lighting situation.

Your piece is difficult to read because the chunks of planet are only slightly darker than the atmosphere(?), which itself is only slightly lighter than the background. The chunks even use the black the background uses. As a result the piece looks more or less black except for the core.

The core is a bright light source (you'd probably also have a star or something that the planet was orbiting. I didn't take this into account in my edit.) and you indeed shaded the chunks accordingly, but not harshly enough. You've also only accounted for one hemisphere it seems. Since those would be more brightly lit by the core, adding chunks in the back can give you more constrast. This can help the foreground chunks read better in case you want to keep them dark.

[Decroded]

Regardless of how u draw it i dont think my mind could ignore how impossible it is that this environment could support life as we know it.
The flaming hot core would quickly burn all the oxygen since there is no crust to seal it off from the flames.
Water would just fall down into the core and evaporate i guess.

I can imagine a scifi world with contained habitats setup to mine the exposed rock or something but its hard for me to accept fantasy or scifi that isnt somehow connected to the reality we live in.

[MysteryMeat]

Not my campaign, though I assume there's some stuff that's keeping that in check. I definitely plan to ask about that.