Lighting and more problems

So I realise I didnt mention much about my lighting so far. the lighting really wasnt hard to grasp. The concensus online is 3 well placed omni lights is enough to gain a good ambient light effect, which is what I wanted in space considering all the stars are tiny light sources.
For the final scene, I wanted to protray the bleak desolation of the planet hoth, so I set an omni light low to cast shadows across the snow dunes.











I also wanted to vent my rage in regards to animating objects to appear at certain times. I wanted my Tie to fire a laser, and upon contact with the Xwing, create the smoke effect. I tried EVERYTHING to do this proffessionally, looked online, tried layers, even animating visability but somehow it was always out of my grasp. I had to result to sneaky work arounds, namely hiding the lazer object inside the tie, and using the curve editor to ensure they traveled the same speed. as for the Xwing, upon getting hit, I animated it to spin, then snapped to a different perspective with the smoke now attached. Not the best,but hey, it looks good