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Planet Tutorial
Published: 2003-09-21 22:46:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 665334; 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
awesome, i made [link] this with help of this tutorial.
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Wow, that's actually pretty helpful. Hah, I should see about using this the next time I draw a moon.
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i loved this tut it is one of the best i found in DA thank you man
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I really wish to thank you for this tutorial, it allowed me to make this [link] . Thanks so much!!
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It s very useful 
A part from this, I think it is absolutely fantastic!
Would you please suggest some good stocks in which I can get nice textures like the one you used?
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It could be that you're working on a smaller resolution. If you apply, say, a 50px inner glow, it'll look a lot bigger on small resolutions.
Are you able to work around this problem, though?
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I have been, thanks anyway! I'm getting pretty good result with the help of this useful tutorial, I will let you know! Thanks again!
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I love this tutorial but one thing makes me crazy. CTRL+ click to the BASE layer in the layer palette. Now CTRL+C and CTRL+V to paste. This doesnt work for me. I hold CTRL down and click to the BASE and then i press CTRL+C but its not working. It doesnt copy.
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Are you using CS2?
If so, you gotta do the clicking on the little thumbnail. In fact, if you hover your mouse over it and then hold down ctrl, you're gonna see the little selection icon next to the cursor.
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CS2 yeah. Oh i already got it lol.
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I wrote the tutorial in the days of PS7, so some things are different
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Gr8 tutorial, i really needed this one!
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great tutorial i hope to add some myself for those who want to do planet scapes
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anyone know a tutorial for the stars in the background...
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just type: Star tutorial in the search bar
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I got it! yeha. and yes you're right, i'am smiling
really nice explanation if even somebody likes me is able to understand it. nice work!
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I use this method to make my planets too, though I do mine in a slightly different style.
A similar tutorial is also found in an issue of the 'Advanced Photoshop' magazine, no?
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Got a link? I'd like to see that one as well
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[link] Back issues > Issue 20
I have the magazine on me, I can scan the tutorial if you want
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Nah, it's okay. I was just curious and wanted to compare it to see in which ways its similar and different.
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one off the best tut i ever saw here in dev art
very complete
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wow.........dude thats so simple....................only took 20 mins to complete.....
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Oh my God....this...is...cool. And so simple...
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okay i tries it and i know its just me because i got so confuced on the last part and i didnt give up triying to fing out how until 3 hours laters (i have been sitting here for 3 HOURS TRYING TO GET THIS!!!!!!!!!! but its not your fault)
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Whatcha having problems with?
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Thanks alot this awesome tutorial. I'm using this in a project for my design class. I'm sure I'll use if for other things.
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Nice to see it branching out into other things
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Hi I used your tutorial and came up with this [link]
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yaya this is god i have 3ds max tho so v good indeed (random but stupif im a idoit blahragzipidoidift
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awesome tutorial have to keep it close to do again and again
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This was extremely useful!
I love it!
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Cool this is great already tried the tut. see the results at my page ^^
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I guess this tutorial assumes all of us know how to make textures? The instructions in the beginning are kinda vague. I "grab a texture"? And then it goes right into the clone tool, which I've never been terribly clear on. Oh well. It looks like it would be really pretty if I could figure it out. :/
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The tutorial assumes that the user has an intermediate level of knowledge on how to use photoshop. And as for texture, you can get them from stock galleries and/or from pictures that you take.
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I have found a few get arounds for some things. Maybe it works for me, but perhaps it will work for others (I did the 4000x4000 and 2000x2000 like you, so it might not work if you're working with smaller resolutions?):
After you moved the shadow where you want, you see this line that the shadow shows across the atmosphere. That is one ugly line. So what I do, and this helps for giving off more of the atmosphere is I select the shadow using magic wand. I then inverse the selection and delete the selection.
Another thing I have done with my last piece is that I will ctrl+click the base image, having shadow layer selected, inverse selection and apply the filter I used to the black parts that stick out (I used water paper on the last one!) for the stars!
Just my two cents!
I love your tutorial!
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The thing with photoshop is that there are tons of ways of get the exact same look. Some take longer, some shorter, some more efficient.
I am a bit lost with the "line athat the shadow shows across the atmosphere." Are you talking about the solid border of the shadow? If so, you can delete it with your technique or with a fuzzy brush (might work better, but just as you set feather settings for magic wand, you can set brush size).
As for the stars.....wouldnt it be better to have the planet on a different layer? That way, if you want to move the planet, you dont end up with a hole in the stars layer. Unless, of course, i misunderstood what you said
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Yeah, there tends to be a line across the atmosphere or even the planet if you happen to move the shadow layer a little too much over anything that's not black.
Well, I really hate messing with the shadow layer too much, and if I don't need to move it, it won't be a problem. I think if you're going to move the planet, you should move it before adding stars anyways. That's what I like to keep in mind. Stars should be added last, that's why the shadow layer doesn't need to be cut off, in my opinion. 
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I guess it just depends on the process that you use. I find myself changing positions a lot, and stars are pretty much the first things I lay down. Not having "holes" in the star layers makes it really handy for moving planets and other things around without having to recut, fill, etc. But hey, it's good all the same
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I must add that the second one makes it easier for us inaccurate people, so we don't have to try to erase the atmosphere that surrounds the dark part of the planet. The reason I do this is because also when you cut the shadow, it makes a sloppy cut, and makes even more ugly spots in the atmospheres closer to the part of the planet that will not show! And I had troubles with that and finally figured out that cutting out the shadow the way you explained made a mess.
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Everytime I do this when I use distort>spherize my texture that I worked hard on just looks like blurry garbage. No matter how much sharpening I do it still stays all blury! Am I doing something wrong? Please help!
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