How to make a planet from scratch!!

(click me for high-res sample)

This is my own work, if you wish to republish this please contact me here

In this tutorial, we will be creating a realistic planet from scratch. Our end result willlook like something similar to the image above!

Download the sample .psd here
Please note: the psd file has been compressed into a .7z to save download space, please visit 7-zip.org for windows users for the free software. For our MAC users, please visit the following link here to get to the mac updates version of 7-zip.

Step 1

Start by creating a new document by going to File > New or by pressing Control+N/Command+N on Mac. Hit "D" on the keyboard to make sure the colors are at their default settings and fill this new document with black by grabbing the paint bucket tool (G) or by pressing Alt+Delete/Option+Delete on Mac

Step 2

Create a new layer and go to the Marquee tool (M), if the circle is not selected, select it now. Go to the center of the document and hold down

Alt + Shift (Option + Shift on Mac) where you will "draw" a perfect circle from the center of the document.

Step 3

Click on the foreground color (which is still black) and change it to any dark color you'd like. (This is so because if the color is light then texture layer will not show through as well as we would like it to). Hit "D" again to change the colors back to their default and name these three -- in my case -- purple circles. Layer 1 as Base, Layer 1 copy as Shadow, Layer 1 copy copy as Atmosphere. You can name layers by simply clicking on the title of the layer e.g. Layer 1, layer 10, etc And be sure to SAVE YOUR WORK RELIGIOUSLY. Control/Command + S saves your work

Step 4

Make the Atmosphere and Shadow layers black (if by chance your circles do not have the dotted line around them, hold control/command and click on the layer that you want to alter) Go to the Atmosphere layer and change its blending mode to Screen. Now double click on the atmosphere layer to bring up the layer style panel.

Notice the white dots around the circle

Step 5

Go to the "inner shadow" icon within the layer style panel, set the opacity to 100%, set the blending mode to Screen, click once on the color icon and choose a color that somewhat matches your base color but brighter. Hit OK and you return to the menu where we set the distance to 100 (Give or take) and the Size to 250 (give or take). Feel free to play around with these numbers and sliders! That's what they're there for!! (Global light is checked)

Step 6

Go to the next tab down labeled "Outer Glow", opacity is at 100%, blending mode is screen, click on the solid square of that horrible shade and choose a color that is bright! Change the size to 30 (for best results, add or subtract 5) (Global light is checked)

Step 7

Go to the next tab down labeled "Inner Glow", set opacity to 100%, choose a color in between your outer glow and inner shadow, hit OK. Go to the size slider and move it about 100-130 pix, look for a nice transition between the tapering colors. (Global light is checked)

Step 8

This is a little tricky... Hit control/command + D to deselect anything that you have selected. Click on the atmosphere layer and create a new layer that should be above the atmosphere layer. (This requires and image for ease!) In between two layers (Layer 1 and Atmosphere) there is a line, hover over the line with your mouse hold down Alt/Option and you'll notice that you get a black, white, and intersection circles. If you get it, click and layer 1 will have an arrow pointing down like so:

Control/Command click on these two layers to highlight them both and then press control/command + E which will merge the two layers into one. Set the result to screen, name is atmosphere again and it should look like this:

Step 9

Whew! *Wipes sweat off brow* I think I need a glass of water after that! mm! Now that we survived that cataclysm we can continue with ease! We need to move the shadow layer above the Atmosphere layer. Once done, we need to go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian with a 100px blur. Press control/command + T to transform the shadow layer and you want to grab -- freedom!! -- any side you want!!! Just keep in mind, which ever tab you're pulling, the opposite side is where your sun will be. Hold SHIFT to constrain the box as you drag outward in the direction of that point. (I used the bottom right point)

Step 10

This is another tricky step but, like our last road block, we shall prevail! FIRST!!!! Hit enter to finalize our transformation... Click on the Shadow layer to have it selected like so:

Now we need to control/command click on the Base layer picture (you'll notice the hand with a little marquee box in the lower right hand corner) click on it to highlight the atmosphere layer (out shadow layer is still active, as in it has the blue) Single, Double, Triple checking to make sure it looks like so:

You now want to press control/command + C to copy that highlight (little dots around the planet) and press control/command + V to paste that highlight onto the shadow selection in which a new layer will show up like so:

Trash the old shadow layer and rename Layer 1 as Shadow and you'll notice something that might displease you. So the reason why we did all this stuff is because you eventually want to add a starfield and the old shadow layer would have gotten on our way. So instead of erasing the layer, we did something way more complicated but will look way better! It should look like so:

 

Step 11

Since we have that obnoxious ring still plaguing us like a leech, we're going to eliminate it! How might we do this? Well... Sit back and I'll tell you! Grab the Eraser tool, set the opacity to 75% and click on the Atmosphere layer and start brushing away that ring on the dark side of the moon -- uhh, planet! It should look like so:

Note: If you don't like destructive editing i.e. eraser, burn, dodge, blur tools and you're more than welcome to create a layer mask and paint over it.

Step 12

Now that we have triumphed over another obstacle we can continue with ease. For this step, we need to create a new document by pressing control/command + N with it being 2000 X 2000 px and 300 dpi. But we need a high-res rock texture. You can get rock textures by clicking Burnt Soil

Smooth Rock, Beefy Rock, Blue Rock for one of my favorite textures

Or here for more, Asphalt texture, Tree Bark, or here for leaves

This is how the planet receives a personality, in addition to the color that you chose for the Base and Atmosphere layers. You don't necessarily need to stay with the color theme, but it does make sense to stay within the ballpark e.g. Light blue v. Dark blue, Lime Green v. Yellow Green, Pink v. Purple etc... Pick a texture via these links or another high-res texture you found (it must be big) and we'll get started.

Step 13

We need to define our pattern so here's how we do it! First, open the texture(s) of your choice in photoshop go to -- assuming it is a high-res image -- Edit > Define Pattern. Name your pattern something shrewd like leaves, blue rock, or burnt soil! So you can know what it is in the thumbnail readily.

Step 14

Now that we have a texture and a half started new document, hit enter if you didn't already do so and go to a split screen there you can see both documents at one. Note: You can do this by pressing F on the keyboard.

We should have both documents in separate windows -- I know this is a problem in CS4 -- and if they are not, drag one tab out onto the blank space and it'll come up as a different window.

Go to your saved .psd that named planet.psd (how cleaver!) and go to the base layer. Click once to highlight hold down Shift, click it n' drag it to the blank document for it to be perfectly centered in the new document. (If it is not, then it's no biggie) Control/Command click on the "base" layer in the new document to select it and go to Image > Image Size and change it to 4000 X 4000px at 300 dpi. Grab the paint bucket tool (G, if you have the gradient tool, click on the icon and hold and you'll see a side menu with the paint bucket tool) and go to the top left corner where is says foreground. Click on the drop down menu and change it to Pattern and choose your pattern from the thumbnail next to it.

Step 15

Click in the circle while it is selected (with the white dotted lines) and now we want to use a very useful tool called sphearize!! A power so great mere mortals cannot fathom, but we are not mere mortals are we? (Sorry, I try too hard) So! With our new, fancy ball that is completely 2D, we must go to Filter > Distort > Sphearize... You want the mode to be normal and the amount to be 100%. Do this twice (or hit Control/Command + F to replicate) IF, my friends, you get something completely different than a 3D-looking orb it is because our 2D image was not selected. Control/Command click on the picture to select and follow the steps again.

Now that our texture layer is done, we can rename it "Land"!

Step 16

We need to move this "land" layer in between our Base and Atmosphere layers. So we want to grab our texture layer, hold down shift, click n drag it onto our saved .psd without letting go of shift! (This centers is for us so we don't have to) You should have something like so:

We're not done yet ladies and gents!! This is way too banal for out liking so we want to add some flare to this here planet!

Step 17

This second half, if you will, is completely devoted to making this planet more personal and much better looking. We don't settle for second best do we? No, I thought so.

Start by duplicating our land layer and either going to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees CW or we can hit control/command + T (if you use this, hold shift to rotate in confined increments) to bring about free transform and can simply move it 90 degrees to the right (CW). Either way, we achieve the same result... Copy our Land copy layer again and rotate it again but this time 90 degrees to the left (CWW). Highlight all three like so:

and press control/command + E to merge these layers onto one. Rename that merged layer, "land" again...

copy that layer again and rotate it 90 CW once more but, set the blending mode to overlay and leave the opacity at 100% (I generally copy the overlay layer to increase the effect and adjust the opacity as I like it. Then I merge the two overlay layers into one. But don't forget to set the blending mode back to overlay!!)

Now, copy the land layer again and rotate it however many degrees you want... This is like our cloud layer of the atmosphere so it will give it a little but of character to our planet. Press Control/Command + T and rotate without holding shift and then set the blending mode to soft light. We should have something like so:

\

Step 18

So this is basically our "complete" planet but we're not dull people and we like to make things unique and imaginative so let us tread on forward!

Start by clicking on the uppermost layer (Shadow) and while holding down shift click on the Base layer so all layers are selected and dragging onto the create new folder icon to put all these layers into a folder.

So we'll have a folder and the background layer for the sake of being clean while we work. Rename the folder "Planet" and let us get moving with those effects!

Step 19

First, click on the background layer and drag n drop it onto the new layer icon (duplicate the background layer in other words) so we get another black layer. Rename that layer "starfield"

Next! Go to Filters > Noise > Add Noise and you want it to be 20% noise, Gaussian, and Monochromatic checked. Too many stars, so we go to create a new Fill/Adjustment layer half black, half white circle and go to Brightness and Contrast. Brightness os at -30 and contrast at 50. Lastly, go to the Fill/Adjustment layer again but click on curves and select either Increase Contrast or Strong Contrast, which ever you prefer...

Click me for higher res

Hefty load of images, you they're worth it in the long run eh?

Step 20

Now, we need to add the granddaddy of all effects... *Drum roll please* a sun and stars!!!

First!! We need to do something that will disable our ability to alter our original image without having to recreate the sun... So any final adjustments you want do, they must be done before proceeding.

First, click on the Planet group and click on the new layer icon. This should put the new layer 1 above the planet group. If it is not, you can manually move it above the group. With the layer 1 selected we need to press control + alt + shift + E or command + option + shift + E for Mac to merge every single visible layer (which means all of the little eyes next to our layers must be "open" or it will not show in our merge. It should look like so:

Rename the layer to "Sun" and then proceed to the filter menu > render > lens flare. Be sure to position your "sun" where ever you have your light side of the planet. You can be an individual here but stay away from the movie prime for the sake of it looking good. (Really, it is a terrible effect). We can use the 50-300mm zoom at 120% and then the 105mm prime at 80% to achieve a really nice effect without those irksome "arms" that would taint our planet. Here's my planet so far:

 

Step 21

So let us give this so-called "sun" a pulse now shall we? Go to create a new fill/adjustment layer and click on curves and use increase contract or strong contrast. Or, if you're rebellious, you can create your own state of contrast on the RGB curve only... Breaking it down into Red, Green, and Blue becomes crazy but it's always nice to explore -- hint, hint. For this tutorial though, we're using Increase contrast.

 

Step 22

We want to create a new layer above the curves layer and title it "stars". Since this is an independent layer with no fancy effects -- they're just stars -- we can literally paint with white on a blank layer with a fuzzy brush (hardness of 0%) and be sure to vary the brush size... It isn't necessarily the number of stars just how you place them. Here's an example:

so that's about it for the sun and stars. If you want, you can press control/command + L to bring about the levels panel and we can do some manual tweaking to our image to our hearts content. Be sure to make an level adjustments on "sun" layer because that's the one we merged. And to increase our work space, you can click and hold down shift on the stars layer and then click on the sun layer like so:

and dump it onto the group icon like we did in step 18, name it "Sun and Stars"

Step 23

So this can be it if you want it to be. At this point we are literally done with our planet; wouldn't it be cool if we had a ring or two? Or ten?? (not really ten, you can put 10 if you want though).

So! We're going to create multicolored rings. Start by saving your .psd (if you haven't already) and then press control/command + N to bring about a new document... 2000 X 2000 at 300 dpi like always...

First thing we need to do is to copy the background layer, hit "D" on the keyboard to reset the colors to their default settings, and then go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Note: It does NOT matter if white is in front of the black, it all turns out the same.

So we end up with these nice clouds that are interesting at first, then quickly become boring... Next, go to Filter > Distort > Twirl but we must restrain ourselves from getting carried away with this... 900 is too much and 300 is not enough. The best range for our rings is 400 - 700. So pick a good number, something that looks good in the preview, and hit enter. For this tutorial, we'll use 550 Degrees.

Ok so we have this... thing. Nothing special at all... We need to hit control/command + F about a dozen or so times for get a nice effect so have at it! I did 15 times at 550 degrees if you're following along word for word. So what gives? Why do we need to hit control/command + F like a million times? Well, you can twirl at 900 degrees and hit control/command + F and see how it turns out. The layers (as in folds) between our rings are too anemic and when it is below 400 degrees its sludge.

So now we want to begin by either erasing our "ring" (which is still named background copy, you can rename it now if you'd like) around the edges where there isn't a twirl and in the center within reason. See the picture below:

Note: If you're using the eraser tool, move to opacity back to 100%. We want to erase (big fuzzy brush, hardness of 0%) the areas with the "shaded" blue lines so the corners and eventually the center. As I said before, if you do not like destructive editing you can simply add a layer mask to our "ring" layer (if it still named background copy rename it "ring") and simple paint over the mask with a big fuzzy brush (hardness of 0%) For this tutorial we'll be erasing the ring layer because we can always control/command + Z to step back and control + alt + Z to take multiple steps back on PC and command + option + Z on Mac. So start erasing or painting already!

(I made the background layer black to it would easier to see what was going on) Probably the first thing you'll notice is that it is not perfect. The shape is completely wrong, this is not a circle, the inner circle has all these weird ridges in it -- gee, this sure looks terrible. Rings are never perfect so if you used to circular marquee tool you'll get a very linear result, one dimensional if you will. So this "ring" should be no where near perfect because rings themselves are not perfect either.

Step 24

Now we want to Free transform our "ring" layer and we can do this by pressing control/command + T or by going to Edit > Free Transform and then we get our box. Hold down shift, click on the uppermost (in fact the only) middle square and drag it down while still holding shift into something like the image below.

Once our ring takes shape we want to set it's blending mode to "Screen" which "takes" out all black on that particular layer. Next we want to move our ring layer (only the ring) to our planet.psd Hold down shift, click n drag onto our planet.psd and move it above our Sun and Stars Group like so:

Step 25

You also notice that our ring is a tad too small for our planet but that's fine! Since this somewhat behaves like a vector image instead of a raster image, we can simply press control/command + T to free transform, hold shift, and elongate our rings to a desired size. But we have a problem... We have the back side of the ring showing which is not good so we need to either erase that back side of the ring or paint over our layer mask. See images below:

Much better!! Note: If you find that you need to erase or paint part the curve of the ring, that's fine because it's normal so don't worry. Make look as natural as you can.

Step 26

Drum roll please *Drum roll* It's time to add the COLOR ring!! BUT if you want to create multiple rings like we will be in this tutorial must finish editing and copy this ring layer now. Let us tread on to the finish line...

First, we need color so how? Well, you can press control/command + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation panel or we can click on create a new fill/adjustment layer and select Hue/Saturation from the drop down menu. Make sure the colorize box is checked (you'll notice that it gets a gray ring -- boring!) and start playing with the sliders until you find a color that suits you! It's your planet so make the rings what ever color you'd like!

So you want two or more colors in one ring eh? Well twist my arm why don't you? There are two ways you can do this... If you did not duplicate your original ring layer -- tsk tsk! -- then you can simply copy your colored ring layer and go through the same procedure mentioned above [1] (make sure colorize IS checked!!) However, if you did copy your original ring layer then copy the original ring layer again and follow the same steps mentioned above [2].

[1] [2]

For both circumstances, here what we might do to add another color!! See images below:

[3] [4] [5]

[6]

Legend: 1 & 2 are based on whether not whether not you duplicated your original ring layer, 1 if you did not and 2 if you did.

3. Is the second color of the ring we created (if you're following this tutorial step by step)

4 & 5 are how blending modes can really make a big difference in any image

6. Is a clickable icon that will show you a high-res picture of the planet and ring.

Step 27

If you would like to create another ring but in a different place you can easily do so by duplicating (refer back to 1 & 2 if unsure) our original ring layer and pressing control/command + T or by going to Edit > Free Transform. Hold down shift and rotate it until you reach a spot were it looks good to you. If you need to stretch the ring then stretch it out and you can move if once the transformation is complete. Example:

 

I didn't provide what I did with the rings or how I transformed them because your imagination should have taken over at the very first step with choosing the color and especially the texture. For the second ring, just follow the steps provided in Step 26, choose your color(s) and play with the blending modes until you find something that make you stop and stare because you're amazed at your creation. Someone once told me to always be on the look out for sources of inspiration and now I tell you. Be on the look out for sources of inspiration because you never know what you'll think of next and you never know where something might take you...

 

Step 28

 

Here are a few effects that we can do to add some flare to our finished planet! Go back to the stars layer, click on it to activate it and go to Filters > Blur > Radial Blur. From there, choose For the Method choose Zoom, Quality is always Best, and make the amount between 5-10 is nice. It's also how you places your stars and the like. Remember! You can always erase and paint in new stars!!! And that's all she wrote!

(click me)