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I tried to search for a very long time how to make a planet I didn't want a very detailed planet just some simple ones for use in 2D game. I tried all sort of thing untill I got to the technique Im about to show you. For the tutorial you need to use MuRa's Cloud Filter After you download it and install it we will begin. We will create the 3 planets you see at the left + Earth-like planet + Desert-like planet + Moon Note: In this tutorial we will use the ball and bubble filter so I suggest you should read the ball and bubble offical tutorial by corel before reading this tutorial. |
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---- Earth-like planet ---- Open an image 512x512 with white background then go to Effects > Plugins > MuRa's Meister > Cloud... Choose Land, makeing sure you choose an image that has a large amount of land in the middel becuase that what you will see on the planet. Note: you can't control where the land appear exactly, so you need to press left click on the preview window untill there will be a large amount of the land in the middel. Note: Click on the image to see a larger picture. |
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we can play with this image for a long time and add a lot of stuff. The exact nature of the image of land that you see on the planet is up to you and depends on what you want to do with it. We will now create a cloud layer, all you need to do is to create a new raster layer and call it cloud, then choose screen style and 80% opacity. |
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Open the cloud filter again and choose Monochrome 1 and apply it, The resulting image should work for now. Save the image as *.pspimage and *.jpg in the Environment Maps folder [...\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 8\Environment Maps]. Note: Click on the image to see a larger size picture. |
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We will create the planet using the ball and bubbles effect so open a new image in whatever size you want for the preview image I used 1000x500 with transparent background and open a new raster layer name "Planet 1", then make a circle selection for your planet, mensuring that the circle is not too close to the image border. With the selection made click on Effects > Artistic effects > Balls and Bubbles. |
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In the ball and bubble effects there are 4 tags, I show you my settings but feel free to change them as your wish. In the shape tag choose Singel ball or bubble and check the maximum possible size In the surfce tag choose the white color (R-255, G-255, B-255) opacity 100, shininess 0, gloss 0 In the map tag check Environment Map and uncheck Bump Map, opacity 100, in the environment map choose the image you just saved in the Environment Map folder In the Illusion tag Ambience maximum 62 minimum 0, one white light, Highlight size 0. Press OK and now you have the first planet Note: Click on the image to see a larger picture. |
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As you all know or should know :) our planet and other planets have atmosphere so we are going to create this atmosphere now, for that we need to create a new raster layer, which we'll name "Planet 1 Atmosphere". We need to expand the circle selection so go to Selection > Modify > Expand and use 1 or 2 pixels Now as we all know atmospheres fade to space around the periphery so to create the fade effect go to Selection > Modify > Feather [Ctrl+H] and choose a number you want I use 7 or 10 depend on the atmosphere size I want, then use the Flood Fill Tool to paint the atmosphere light green color of course, you can use any color you prefer. |
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now move the atmosphere layer behind the "Planet 1" layer, change the layer opacity to 70% and you have finish creating the first planet :D |
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---- Desert-like planet ---- Create a new surface texture, but this time use diffrent colors and make sure the colors are close for example the red, orange and yellow on my texture. and go though the same process we did to create the earth like planet only this time use this new texture, make sure you create this on a new layer called "Planet 2". |
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Select only the "Planet 2" layer so all your changes affect only the second planet and not the first one or the atmospheres. Then go to Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Hue/Saturation/Lightness [Shift+H] check colorize, and choose the color you like, I prefer brown so I use these settings, Hue - 34, Saturation - 54, Lightness - -19. but this time call the atmosphere "Planet 2 Atmosphere". and if you want choose a diffrent color for the atmosphere like yellow. Here is my final result |
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---- Moon planet ---- For this planet we will use the texture effect that come with PSP. First open a new image 512x512 pixels and select the cloud plugin again. Choose Monochrome 1, but change the contrast to 75, as in this image Note: this image is 300x300 but you should make a 512x512 image. |
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Save this image as *.bmp in the texture folder [...\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 8\Texture] so we can access it though the Texture effect. open a new 512x512 image and use the Flood Fill Tool [F] to paint it in a gray color (R-128, G-128, B-128). Now go to Effects > Texture Effects > Texture... and use the settings shown at the left. Note: Click on the image to see a larger picture. |
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We now have a moon surface texture, so save the image as *.pspimage and *.jpg in the Environment Maps folder [...\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 8\Environment Maps]. and go though the same process we did to create the earth like planet only this time use this new texture, make sure you create this on a new layer called "Moon". Here is the final result Moons have no atmosphere, or at least the one I'm building has none, so we don't need to create an atmosphere for the moon :) |
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The Space Environment The space environment is very simple. All you need to do is to create a new raster layer in the name "Space", use the Flood Fill Tool [F] to paint the layer in black then add some noise, go to Adjust > Add/Remove Noise > Add noise. Use random, monochrome checked and 20%, At left is the final result for space. Don't forget to move the layer to the bottom of the layers list so it will be behind the planets. |
| Here is the final file of this tutorial, if you got some trouble with the tutorial check the final file and if you still have some problems contact us via the forum Here is the PSD file for all of you photoshop users :) | |

























