Planet Tutorial

Alot of people have asked me to write a tutorial on how to make a complete terraspace sig. And I've said it alot.. it's too complex to cover everything in just one tutorial. So I figure a planet tutorial for those who don't know where to find one will be the next best thing. ;)

This tutorial will cover how to create a simple planet. You can experiment with making your own texture in PS if you want.

Let's get started then...

1. - Creating a Circle

Make a new document in Photoshop about 500x500 pixels in size. You can make it bigger/smaller if you'd like. But this is the size I'll be using. It's perfect because there is no need for zooming in/out to see the entire image. And it is big enough to use for a large piece aswell.

Now select the "Elliptical Marquee Tool" (right click on the top right icon in the tool panel if you're having trouble finding it).

Hold shift and drag the tool from the top left to the bottom right to make a perfect circle selection like the one below.

Right click inside the selection and click "Fill" Make the color black, and the opacity 100%. Name this layer "Lighting" (right click on the layer and select "Layer Properties").

2. - Adding a texture

Now hit Ctrl + J to duplicate that layer. Name this layer "Texture". Find a texture on deviantArt/resource site or just use the one I used. (click). Textures are easy to make, it's basically a highly manipulated image, such as a rock/real planet etc. Anyway, open the texture. and go to Edit>Define Pattern, name this whatever you want. Click Ok. Close the texture image now, and go back to your planet. Right click on the "Texture" layer and select "Blending options". Select "Pattern Overlay" Click the drop down arrow and select your texture that you saved earlier. Click Ok.

3. - Spherizing

Now hit Ctrl+Shift+N and click "Ok", then click Image>Apply Image... click "Ok". Then click Filter>Distort>Spherize... use 100% and click "Ok".

Now it looks alot more like a planet, eh? :)

4. - Lighting

There are many different methods of adding lighting. I personally don't use this method. But it's the easiest to explain. Now, remember that lighting layer we made first (called "Lighting")? (that should still be at the bottom of the layer list) Bring it to the top and go to Filter>Distort>Spherize, and keep it at 100% opacity, click "Ok".

Now, change the "Fill" to 0% for the "Lighting" Layer. (Fill is right under "Opacity").

Now, right click on the "Lighting" layer and select blending options. Tick "Inner Shadow", "Outer Glow", and "Inner Glow".

Use these settings for "Inner Shadow":

Use these settings for "Outer Glow":

Use these settings for "Inner Glow":

5. - Shading

Doesn't look quite finished eh? Well this is the last step. :)

Make a selection like this with the lasso tool on whatever side the darker side is on:

Don't worry if the selection is sloppy, it doesn't matter much. Right click inside the selection and click "Feather". Make the feather 60 pixels if your image is 500x500. Or always make the feather the same as the size of the image, except take one zero away, and add ten. (e.g: if the image is 900x900 the feather would be 100 pixels).

Right click inside the selection after feathering and click "Fill". Make it 100% opacity, and black (#000000) as the color. Tone the opacity of the layer down to about 70% or whatever suits you. And you're done!

6. - Skewing

The edges are probably sharp, I know. So if you want to get rid of this, hit Ctrl+Shift+N, name the layer "Planet" and click "Ok". Go to Image>Apply Image... And click "Ok". Delete ALL of your other layers (remember to save your progress before doing this of course!) and select the "Planet" layer. Go to Edit>Transform>Skew and change the W: to 30% and the H: to 30% at the top toolbar. Or more/less to your liking.

My end result:

Hope you learned something from this tutorial. :)

Lol, try "shading" instead of the word "shadowing." Sounds better.

This is a pretty cool tutorial, amazing what Photoshop can do..

oops.. that was bad. :oops:

Thanks for pointing that out. Fixing it now. ;)

Haha awesome, thx for posting, i've been wanting to try this for a while now. I'll knock up something when i get home, not up to your standard though i doubt :P

hehe.. don't think that way. ;)

Haha it was meant to be a compliment, i don't exactly have low self esteem lol. Anyway, here it is, i added some stuff, gradients, contrast, some star brushes etc, now i've just gotta get my head around terragen and i'll be pumping out some awesome sigs lol.... terragen..... #-o

RM

I never thought that heh. ;)

Nice outcome! :) Going to rate your sig in a second...

edit: And the texture is awesome in that planet. Did you use any other tutorials to make the planet? Because I think I saw that texture on dA before in a tutorial, alyn's I think.

great tutorial : i realy gonna try this1 when i can get on my pc again

Seems like a good tut. i will give it a whirl when i get home and have access to photoshop from this century :)

Thanks for the comments. :)

Not a bad job :).

I would recomend anyone making a planet to go to http://alyn.deviantart.com as well. Not only does he have some great tutorials but he has some great "guidelines" on how to make a planet more realistic.

Also this is just my personal preference but I always work with my planets on a scale upwards of like 2000x2000 or 2500x2500. The pro's of working that large is you can really downscale your planet for quality but the con's are that its hard to find free textures that big. :(

edit: for the purpose of this thread I'll post a planet I've done [albit quite a while ago] using this same kind of tutorial:

:)

 

 

 

This is a pretty cool tutorial, amazing what Photoshop can do..

:-w Photoshop is a pretty nice tool

Nice nad. I used alyn's tutorials when I learned how to make a good planet. Anyone into space scenes should definetly visit his page. His guidelines/tutorials help alot.

Nice tutorial, added to Gallery FAQ :)

Thank you. :)

I never thought that heh. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice outcome! :) Going to rate your sig in a second...

 

 

 

edit: And the texture is awesome in that planet. Did you use any other tutorials to make the planet? Because I think I saw that texture on dA before in a tutorial, alyn's I think.

Nope, no other tuts, i just went in to miscellanious textures on DA and picked one that i liked. All the other stuff i just knew and added. Some of his stuff is amazing :shock: =P~

bump. - I'd like for more people to see this tutorial. Alot of people asked me for this, and only a few people replied.