Tama's Techniques: #2

Cats on Mars: Making a Planet

Posted: September 5th, 2004

I wanted to create a planet for my Stellvia: Star Crossed Lovers wallpaper because it was a celestial wall. Last time I made a planet, I just took some images freely available from NOAO and ran some minor color corrections and filters on it.

I felt this time I should actually try and make my own.

Now, I know Greg Martin has tutorials for making a planet. The last time I'd been to his site was probably half a year ago. I remembered some of the ideas, but I had my own methods for making spherical objects from my own developed techniques (such as the moon from my elements moon wallpaper or my Wolf's Rain wallpapers) so I decided to just mess around and see what I could do.

Here I present to you a layer-by-layer view of my planet PSD file. Each screenshot has two views of the PSD file; the left has the layer, at normal, 100% while the right has the layer as part of the final composited image. This way you can get an idea of what I did to make each layer (left) and integrate it into the planet image as a whole (right). I didn't make these layers in the order you see now; that was done after a lot of experimenting with layer order and layer blending modes. But you can at least see how the final product is built from its respective parts.

Remember - don't use this as a tutorial. Rather, use it as an idea, of how one person makes a planet, and develop your own methods using some of the ideas you like best from this and discarding the ones you think are superfluous. Develop your own style. That's what makes graphics art cool

Layer 1

This the base layer. It contains a black and white radial gradient. This begins to define the shape of the sphere. Because I planned for the light source to be above the planet, the brightest section is around the top.

Layer 2

This was a rocky texture layer with a spherize filter applied as well as a little bit of gaussian blur. Levels were adjusted so you could see just little parts of the layer, rather like clouds. It was set to exclusion/50% so that it would contrast with the layer below.

Layer 3

Another radial gradient layer, this time from white to a mid-gray. Again this is to define the shape of the sphere. When set to multiply it gives more depth to the planet.

Layer 4

A texture layer with the spherize filter applied at least twice. This layer was done using the water paper filter. It's a subtle texture when set to soft light.

Layer 5

A light blue layer; one of several. Set to soft light to give the planet a more blue hue, since that was the ultimate color of the planet I was aiming for.

Layer 6

A texture layer. This was made by using a paintbrush with a rough texture brush with a fair amount of scattering, painted in a circular pattern across the planet. This used to be 4 layers; one of black, one of dark grey and one of light grey; all over a white background. The layers were blended with soft light mode and merged. This is one of the few layers without the spherize filter.

Layer 7

This is a copy of the previous layer with the spherize filter. As you can see, this filter really gives the planet shape and depth and is the most used filter in this file. Again, set to soft light it gives texture to the otherwise flat planet, with bits of light and dark.

Layer 8

A color layer. The difference cloud filter was used multiple times with different shades of blue to get this effect. Again, spherize filter. When set to soft light it adds the color subtly without changing the colors of the darkest texture spots.

Layer 9

A texture layer. The layer was filled in with one of Photoshop's preloaded rocky patterns, spherized and blurred. It was set to soft light to allow for a subtle difference in height on the planet's surface.

Layer 10

Texture layer. A rocky texture with spherize filter and gaussian blur set to color dodge, so only the lightest points get highlighted in the planet.

Layer 11

Color layer. At some point I decided to make the entire planet blue and recolor it in the actual wallpaper PSD. This is the same blue as before, but set to hue.

Layer 12

Second color layer, using a darker and slightly different shade of blue set to color.

Layer 13

Highlight layer. Using the same blue as seen before, I filled in the layer, then feathered a circular selection to create a mask. Since the light is from the top, the highlight is also at the top. This also adds to the shape and depth of the sphere.

Layer 14

Highlight layer. This was the opposite of the previous layer; a dark layer on the bottom to make the edge of the planet fade off, hence the multiply blending mode.

Layer 15

Highlight layer. Unlike the previous bright highlight layer, which was mean to define the top of the planet, this highlight layer was meant to highlight the edges of the planet. Hence it is much thinner and goes around more of the planet than layer 13, although it is the same color.

This was the final planet used in the Stellvia: Star Crossed Lovers wallpaper, with some more minor edits and changes in the wallpaper PSD itself.

A little while later, I needed to make another planet for my celestial wall, Phoenix: Atomic Bird (Cosmic Voices). Being lazy and content with the planet I'd already made, I pulled out the planet PSD and decided to pull off a few changes and just use that.

As I mentioned before, I hadn't been to Greg Martin's website for a while, but while I was finishing off the Stellvia wallpaper, Ranawen asked if anyone had problems downloading Martin's recent article, "Capturing Heaven." I decided to see if I could download it and possibly send it to him, so I went to his site. While there, I decided to look at his planet-making tutorial again to see if there were any good techniques I could incorporate into my own planet, and noticed his use of the emboss filter to give his planets even more texture. So, I added a few layers to my planet PSD.

Layer 16

Emboss layer. I copied the planet as a single layer and used the emboss filter on it. After changing the levels so you could see just the highlights of the layer, I set it to soft light. The effect is quite dramatic!

Layer 17

Texture layer. I decided to add one more rocky texture layer, this time with most of the layer black with just some highlights as the emboss layer. Again, set to soft light the white areas almost look like clouds on the planet's surface.

This is the final planet I used in the Phoenix wallpaper. Of course I used some blurs and color corrections to make the final wallpaper, especially as the Phoenix wallpaper was red, not blue.

So there you go. One person's take on making planets.

Back to Tama's Techniques.