PART II: The Space Scene
Step 13: Planet One

For our first planet, we will cheat a little and create our fictitious world from an existing satellite photo. I have a selection of photos for you to choose from so you don't have to worry about finding your own image.

Before we get started, keep the following in mind:

YOUR PLANET SHOULD REMAIN SELECTED FROM DIRECTION 13 THRU DIRECTION 64. IF YOU HAPPEN TO DESELECT YOUR PLANET, YOU CAN RESELECT IT BY PRESSING AND HOLDING THE Ctrl KEY AND CLICKING ON THE PLANET LAYER'S THUMBNAIL

The first thing to do is select the image you want to use.

1. Open your Space file in Photoshop
2. Click File then click Open...
   
3. Go to the folder on the server that contains the planet images - your teacher will tell you where this is located
4. Click the More Options drop-down arrow...
   
   and choose Extra large icons...
   
   This will give you a good look at all of your image choices

There are 125 satellite images for you to choose from and each will create a different, unique planet, so choose wisely.

Take a few minutes and look through the images and find something that you really like. Let me warn you that many students will simply use the first (or last) image for no other reason than the fact that it is the first (or last) on the list. I would advise against this. You want to create a unique space scene, and if your planet looks identical to 20 other student's planets then your scene will not look very unique. If you want to use the first (or last) image, make sure you are using it because you really like it and not because you are too lazy to look through the images.

5. Click the Elliptical Marquee Tool
6. Press and hold the Shift key so you get a perfect circle, then click and drag to create a circular selection on an area of the image that you like and want to turn into your planet - keep in mind that the larger the selection the better your resulting planet will be as this will give your planet more detail in the end; the example we will use in this tutorial is shown below...
   
   Note that the elliptical marquee selection is indicated by the red arrow above
7. Press Ctrl+C to copy the selection
8. Click Window on the Menu Bar and at the very bottom of the pop-up menu, select Space.psd...
   
   to return to your Space file
9. Press Ctrl+V to paste the planet - notice that Photoshop places the image on a new layer...
   
10. Return to the satellite image and close the file - when it asks if you would like to save the changes click No
11. Return to your space scene image and rename the new layer Planet
12. You should now have something like this...
    
13. Once again we want to turn our flat image into an image that looks round - press and hold the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on the layer's thumbnail image - this will select all of the non-transparent pixels on the layer (in this case, it will select the planet)...
    
14. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Spherize
15. Set the Amount to 100% and click OK

If your planet just suddenly doubled in size or changed into some strange oval or other non-round shape then you did not have the planet selected when you applied the Spherize filter. Undo the Spherize and go back to direction 13 and do it right.

16. Take a look at your planet and determine if you are happy with how spherical it looks; if not, repeat the Spherize, but turn down the Amount (most of you will want to the second Spherize to be applied with the Amount set to 50%)...
    
    When you are happy with how spherical your planet looks, move on to the next direction
17. Duplicate the Planet layer and rename the duplicate layer Emboss...
    
18. Lock the Planet layer
19. Select the new Emboss layer (it should be highlighted in gray as in the image above) and click Filter then point at Stylize and click Emboss (this filter makes your image seem as though it has texture [or raised areas], or in this case that your planet has mountains and valleys)...
    
20. Adjust the setting so they resemble those below...
    
    You do not have to use the exact same settings - adjust them to whatever you like, but be careful that the degree of emboss you have resembles the degree in the above image, any more or less and your image will not turn out correctly (Angle can be pretty much anything you like, but Height should be kept from 3-5 and Amount should range from 50-120)
21. Click OK
22. Change the blending mode (remember that the blending mode is on the Layers panel just to the left of Opacity) of the Emboss layer to one of the following...
    
    Which you choose is up to you, so test each and choose one that causes your land to appear as though it actually has height and texture; I'm going to use Vivid Light...
    
    Notice that the mountains now have dimension to them and the coast has more contour - the effect is subtle, but this is what we are going for here so that when we can add some clouds in the next direction our image will have some depth to it
23. Lock the Emboss layer
24. Insert a new layer and name it Clouds1...
    
25. Make sure the Clouds1 layer is selected
26. Press D on the keyboard
27. Fill the CIRCULAR selection with black (you should still have the round shape of the planet selected)
28. Click Filter then point at Render and click Clouds
29. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Spherize
30. Make the Amount 100%
31. Click OK
32. Change the blending mode of the Clouds1 layer to Hard Light - you should now have a gentle covering of clouds...
    
33. Lock the Clouds1 layer
34. Insert a new layer at the top of the layer stack and name it Clouds2
35. Press D then Fill the CIRCULAR selection with black
36. Click Filter then point at Render and click Clouds
37. Click Filter then point at Render and click Difference Clouds
38. Press Ctrl+Alt+F several times until you have a cloud pattern you like - it should have large amounts of dark areas in it
39. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Spherize
40. Make the Amount 100%
41. Click OK
42. Change the blending mode of the Clouds2 layer to Screen (also give Linear Dodge (Add) and Hard Light a try and see which of the three you like best) - you should now have a covering of both light and dark clouds...
    
43. Lock the Clouds2 layer

44. Insert a new layer at the top of the layer stack and name it Shadow (leave it selected!)
45. Fill the round selection with black
46. Select the Eraser Tool
47. Set the Brush to Soft Round and adjust the Size to 500...
    
    You can use a larger or smaller brush if you wish depending on the size of your planet
48. Position your cursor over your planet similar to the image below...
    
    Remember that you want to erase the black from the side of your planet closest to your sun and leave the other side in shadow
49. Click the mouse button several times to Erase the portion of the Shadow layer so that the planet shows through on the side toward the sun (be careful not to erase too much of the shadow) - you should now have something similar to the image below...
    
    Not a bad looking planet if you ask me :-)
50. Lock the Shadow layer

To add a little more realism to our planet, let's put a soft glow around the edge to simulate the glow seen when sunlight reflects off the atmosphere.

51. Insert a new layer at the top of the layer stack and rename it Atmosphere
52. Fill the round selection with black
53. Change the blending mode of the Atmosphere layer to Screen...
    
54. Double-click the Atmosphere layer to open the Layer Style window
55. Click the Outer Glow checkbox and set all of the options to match the following image...
    
56. Click the Inner Glow checkbox and set all of the options to match the following image...
    
57. Click OK - you should now have an image and layers similar to the image below...
    

We now need to get rid of the glow on the shadow side of the planet. Unfortunately, we can't just grab the Eraser Tool and erase the glow because it is not actually on the Atmosphere (remember that it is actually an effect being applied to the black circle that is actually on the Atmosphere layer). We need to convert the Atmosphere layer from a layer with an effect applied to it to a regular layer. To do this, we will merge the Atmosphere layer with a regular blank layer.

58. Insert a new layer (just leave it named whatever Photoshop names it) and make sure it is at the top of the layer stack
59. Select both the new layer you just created and the Atmosphere layer (select the new layer then press and hold Shift as you click the Atmosphere layer)
60. Press Ctrl+E to have Photoshop merge the two layers - don't freak out that it is no longer named Atmosphere, remember that when you merge layers that Photoshop gives the newly merged layer the name of whatever layer was on top when you merged them.
61. Rename the newly merged layers back to Atmosphere - your planet should now look similar to the image below...
    
    The selection is filled with black again because the blending mode of the new Atmosphere layer is no longer Screen
62. Change the blending mode of the Atmosphere layer to Screen
63. Deselect your circle by pressing Ctrl+D
64. Move the Shadow layer above the Atmosphere layer (in other words, put Shadow at the top of the layer stack) - your planet should now look similar to this...
    

Our Atmosphere layer is now just a regular, every day layer. Let's erase the glow from the shadow side.

65. Click the Eraser Tool
66. Make the Atmosphere layer the active layer (Atmosphere and NOT Shadow)
67. Use the same settings for the Eraser that you used for the Brush Tool in direction 47 and erase the glowing atmosphere from the shaded side of the planet - you should now have a planet similar to the one below...
    

Our planet now has a nice atmospheric glow, but there is a problem. Notice the thin, white border around the shadow side of my planet in the above image. The border of your planet may be as visible as the border around my planet above, or it may be harder to see, but it is there (this border exists because all of the layers we have added above our initial Planet layer are just a tiny bit smaller than our planet). To fix this little issue we will simply increase the size of our clouds, atmosphere, and shadow layers a small amount.

68. Make the Shadow layer the active layer (this should be the top layer in your layer stack) and press and hold the Shift key then click the Clouds1 layer - this should select the top four layers of your layer stack...
    
69. Click the Lock all icon to unlock all of the selected layers...
    
70. Click Edit on the Menu Bar and point at Transform then click Scale...
    
    to activate the scale resize handles around the image...
    
71. On the Scale options bar, click the Maintain Aspect Ratio button...
    
    this will cause Photoshop to change the height of our selection by the same amount that we are about to change the width
72. Double-click in the Set Horizontal Scale box...
    
73. Type 101...
    
74. Press Enter twice to apply the rescale - the thin, white border should now be gone...
    

At this point, let's take a quick second and make sure that we are happy with our planet. Depending on how the cloud filter applied clouds to your planet, your cloud cover is either perfect or a little too thick. Let's run a quick test to see if we need to adjust our cloud layers.

75. Turn the Opacity of your Cloud1 and Cloud2 layers down to 50%

Take a look at the image below...

Notice that the difference between 100% Opacity and 50% Opacity on my planet is not huge (note that in the 50% planet you can see additional mountains near the top of the planet and the cloud cover over the ocean is diminished). The lower the Opacity on the cloud layers the more visible your surface features will be. I'm not going to tell you what Opacity setting to use on your planet - you get to decide that for yourself.

76. Determine what level of cloud Opacity you want for your planet and set your Opacity - note that you can set any level of Opacity you wish (you could even set the two layers to different Opacity, so if you think Cloud1 should be set to 60% and Cloud2 should be set to 80%, then go for it), just DO NOT fall below 50% Opacity for each level

Now that our planet is complete, let's move all of our planet layers into a layer group so we can adjust its size and reposition it in our scene.

77. Make sure all 6 layers that make up your planet are unlocked
78. Select all six of the layers that make up your planet...
    
79. Click the Create a new group icon - this should place all of your layers into a layer group
80. Rename the new layer group Planet1...
    
81. Turn on the visibility of all of your layer groups
82. Click Edit then point at Transform and click Scale and resize your planet to something more in scale with your sun (remember to hold the Shift key and use one of the planet's corner resize handles to resize your planet so it does not turn out egg shaped)
83. Lock the Planet1 layer group

The really great part about this process for building a planet is that you do not have to start with a satellite photo. You can use a hand-drawn image, a photograph of any unique object, or even a unique pattern or brush stroke to make a planet with a distinct surface.

For our second planet, we are going to start from scratch and create a Saturn-like world complete with rings.

84. Save your Space file