Concept
The majority of the following text has been cut directly from my post on the trueSpace Forum. This covers the basic concept of the proposed Sun Catcher animation.
In all honesty, the inspiration for Sun Catcher came from a 3 second CGI clip I saw on an Odyssey 3D DVD called, 'Odyssey Into The Mind's Eye'. The clip was called Fairytales by Liebrand Images and when I look back now the similarities are minute. I only saw the clip once and a few days later I wondered whether it would be possible for me to model the central sphere in the clip that looked kind of like a sun. I never intended to make an animation out of it I only challenged myself to attempt the model.
The Sun Catcher animation tutorial:
The Work In Progress introduction post