A Director movie showing the orbits of the planets around the sun in the solar system. The planets were modelled in Lightwave, textures in Photoshop, and the textures and animation applied in Director 8.5 using the 3D engine and Lingo.

So far the relative speeds of the orbits are correct, as are the relative spins of the planets and sun. Obviously things are speeded up to relieve the profoundly slow real-time experience. The planets and sun are also scaled up quite unrealistically so they are all visible at once...

Added:

• Switchable camera views - click on a planet in the menu to see the view from nearby that planet. You can now see how the planets seem to move backwards and forwards in the sky, which I coud never get my head round before...

Still to do:

• If I feel really ambitious, and have lots of time on my hands (;-p), I might have a stab at some elliptical orbits and pluto's tilted orbit...

Click on the link to see the movie, bearing in mind it currently weighs about 555kb ;-)

UPDATE: see info on more recent versions of this prototype