I hope to see more Contests here in any direction possible .. its a idea for the future.
Most likely you will have to use many different programs to accomplish what you want. or a renderfarm of some kind.
Lightwave and Truespace etc. . can easily handle Space environments
and for you Bridge Crew and Sets. Poser or Cararra, DAZ would be the way to go proven by Fretslayer.
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I have not animated in a long time in lightwave .. but in you asteroid scene . there are a few ways to do it .. Hypervoxels.. it has been done, and done well
(I was talking with Fretslayer about this. and I started to think on it) if you have in your scene space filled with hypervoxel Asteroids your render is going to rocket up.. so your going to have to find some cheats to help that.
No now I am no AL3D or Fabio .. who know what they are about work in the business .. But I have an idea ..
in your Space shot. lightwave speaking I am sure other programs will be the some, (EG180 jump in here with any Truespace info
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You can render a background with distant Asteroids. and use that
then create your nearer Asteroids with very low poly details. these you could give a general motion
Close to your ships you can have the big ones small ones to interact with your ship..
just a few thoughts for that scene.. not sure how it would work. but worth a try.
