[Irinikus]

I've been requested to build a model of COVID-19 in Maya, so here's my start: (The phospholipid-based viral membrane) 

I will build the spiked proteins next. (They consist of three interlocking y-shaped proteins) 

I've set this image up with depth of field:

[Intuition]

Nice with the DoF usage.

[pcar]

This could be a fun exercise in diff versions of tools, like give it a shot in PA9 or something.

[Irinikus]

Here's the latest rendering: (This image took 1.5 hours to render on my Quad 1GHz Tezro!)

[Intuition]

Nice, the DoF really adds to the microscopic effect.

Very nice bump and color map work as well as the modeling of the red prongs. Looks pretty organic.

[Jacques]

Looking very good, good detail, lighting and DoF.

[Irinikus]

I decided to add some erythrocytes and extra viruses to the scene. (The resulting image took just over three and a half hours to render!)

[necron2600]

This looks awesome!
Any chance you could share the source so we can load it in our own Maya 6.5's on IRIX?
Thanks

[Irinikus]

I will happily do so once I've optimised it. The only problem that I foresee, is the fact that I keep my texture files within my Maya directory on my secondary disk, therefore the scene would require these files to be stored in this location. If I could export it as a single file, which also contains the texture information, that would certainly help!

I've just found how to utilise all four of my machine's CPU's in mental ray (It was only running on two of them by default). So I'm currently rendering the scene to get an accurate time using four R16K's@1GHz .

[Irinikus]

Here's the final version, rendered in mental ray, utilising four R16K's@1GHz: (The scene took one hour, forty one minutes and forty seconds to render!)