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Planet Tutorial
Published: 2003-09-21 22:46:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 665324; Favourites: 8977; Downloads: 64882
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Description
Ok, so over the ages, i noticed that if there is one thing that space artists (especially newcomers) struggle with, then it has to be planet textures. Lots of them just cant get their planets to look good, cant find good textures, or simply dont have 3d studio maxSo i decided to throw everyone a bone, and i made a tutorial on how to make a somewhat realistic-looking planet using only photoshop. Be adviced that you need to have some basic photoshop knowledge to follow this, and if not, i suggest you spend 50 dollars on the adobe photoshop book, or read the help files that photoshop came with)
I made a JPEG tutorial because:
1) I'ts annoying when you have to change from photoshop to your browser, and vice-versa. With Jpegs you have everything neat in photoshop
2) I didnt feel like writing HTML
If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to drop me a line.
In addition, here's a tutorial on making rings. I see many rings and tutorials produced with the spiral tool and that's just terrible! Thanks for the effort... but that's just wrong.
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Comments: 1571
Thanks for the tutorial dinyctis - very useful for sure.
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Something tells me that the developers of quake 3 used your atmosphere to develop the sprite for the plasma.
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Ahh those clever time travelers they are!
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Your Planet tutorial is simply amazing! 
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I'm having a slight problem when following your tutorial. I get to the part where you're supposed to resize the shadow layer and then copy + paste but I can't seem to get that to work:
[link]
That is where I am stuck. Ignoring the fact that mine doesn't look like what you say it's supposed to look like at this step, it says to next control + click the base layer while the shadow layer is active (not selected) and to copy + paste but for some reason mine (after copying and pasting) looks like:
[link]
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Ok, lets see:
First: When you apply the blur to the shadow layer, make sure it's not selected (dotted line around it). This is why you end up with sharp edges on it.
Second: That step describes that you gotta do to get rid of the extra shadow. You're supposed to ctrl+click the base layer (to get the dotted line) but you gotta copy and paste the shadow layer. All you're doing at this point is copying the shadow layer but with the shape of the base layer. I realize how this can get confusing, so lets try to be more comprehensive:
After you position the shadow, you gotta get rid of the extra stuff (the shadow that goes beyond the shape of the planet). To do this, we need to get rid of everything that's outside of the planet. For this, we select the shape of the planet (ctrl+click the base layer), select the shadow layer, copy it, and paste it. Then you delete the old shadow layer (with the extra stuff). It may not paste exactly centered with the planet, so just move it around until it matches.
Let me know if you need any more help
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it seems like your tutorial is awesome, but i have troubles to download it or simply to watch the full view, please help me i have a mac and the f11 is the volume control, how can i see it full size or download it in another way?? your tutorial is exactly what i need.
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f11 is volume control? If i hit f11, it takes me to the desktop
Anyway, you can just right click (err, ctrl+click on your mac) and save the image. Let me know if you need further assistance
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many thanks for this tutorial. it really helped me. ^ ^ i really envy your talent
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i think i will take this way for a moment
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Awesome pal 
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POSITIVELY FANTASTIC!!! your really good man, i applaud you
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Thanks for this! I needed a good celestial tutorial!
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great tutorial mate, one of the best planet one's i've seen
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yeh im well pleased with the result. Any chance of a nother tutorial from you? I'd love something on just putting together a space scene, rather than seperate ones for all the individual elements which is about all i can find. I can make the planets, i can just about nebulas etc. its just when i put them together im never happy with the result.
Still, love your work and that, keep it coming
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I dont write many tutorials because most of the stuff has been covered already. I only made the planet one as a simple alternative to using brush work which doesn't work that well in larger resolutions. I was thinking about making a tutorial on planet rings for a while because every one kept making them with the spiral filter which is plain wrong (since rings arent a spiral). But now it looks like people have grown out of that.
As for the big picture, see if this helps: [link]
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I will have to try your method of making a planet... I've got some good programs that can make instant 3d planets, but .. I rather try my talents and do it myself... and this tutorial of yours I think can help me do that..
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Nothing like making them yourself!
What's the name of a planet-generating program, though? There used to be one but I forgot its name.
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hmm the program I used to make planet scapes was bryce ... haven't really tried to in any other 3d programs ... heard of doing it in photoshop lol but always thought it was impossible til I read this .. played around with it too ... and came out with a pretty cool planet
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Bryce! I remember that program. I could neve figure out how to work it
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it's a lot simpler then poser LOL
though, I'm in love with photoshop 
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In honesty I can't really say much apart from great tutorial, although to add some detail. Good explanations with a nice mix of humour, always makes for a excellent read. This certainly has helped a lot.
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Fantastically helpful-thank you for sharing!
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LOL! Man - I had to hunt the last page to find my comment. Is there no "last page" button?
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Excellent tutorial. If someone could just help me with one small detail: when we first fill the circle with our pattern, is it normal to have the pattern criss cross the circle? I mean, my circle isn't really "filled" with the pattern. Instead, it is filled, but with several smaller versions of the same pattern. Looks like a bunch of squares. I'm asking this because his version doesn't appear to be full of "pattern squares" but more continuous.
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I see what you're doing. Try increasing the scale of the pattern to make the squares less pronounced, or start adding variety to it (with the clone tool, highlighting, etc, etc)
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Brilliant, exept when i make my Gaussian Blur it makes it like a sollid circle so i had to use a brush, which screwed my shadow layer and atmostphere layer which made it where i cant put texture :[
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Make sure you apply gaussian blur without the layer being selected (dotted line around the layer).
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oh that would probably help haha, thanks, and sorry i commented you again, i didnt think the other one worked for some reason haha
and ive always wondered, how do you make those tutorial things, i mean how do u make that kinda of template if you get what im saying
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The tutorial had no template, just put together in photoshop in a very crude way
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oh so u just make an extremely small box and fill it with text and pictures? and no it wasnt, it wasnt, i liked your sense of humor on it haha
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Nope, i made it just the size at which you see it. I made it so that people can open it in photoshop and follow it right next to the artwork on the screen without having to look at a printed piece of paper or changing applications
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oh yeah i remember that in your thing about the jpg thanks
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you have saved my skin with this tut. thank you! its added as a fav - keep an eye on my gallery soon and you'll be able to see what i've done!
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Wow...
Cannot thank you enough mate. ^-^
I'm writing a story and it needs some good planets for a cover art.
This helped me big time!
You're a helpful teacher, the tut's clean. XD
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Hey! Just wanted to say thank you for the awesome tutorial; it's amazing. I've made a dev with it here, if you'd like to see: [link] . I credited you, too, just in case.
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YOU ROX!!
thanx! now I have the ability of making planets AND I have the ability to make supernova's, what shall I learn next?
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do you have some tips for me where I can get em?
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[link] has a lot of nice space tutorials. But the one tip that's best: Experiment on your own. Playing around will help you define a bit of a style and i find it to be the most fun. Tutorials are good for pointing in the right direction, but following them religiously and not exploring is a horrible mistake to make
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