Step 21: Adding to Your Scene

Bonus Section!
Step 21: Adding to Your Scene

If you have completed all of your work and find yourself with some free time, this step will give you some ideas for adding to and improving your space scene.

Have a look at each section below and decide what you would like to add. Keep in mind that any additional work you do will earn you extra credit and make your space scene stand out!

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you choose to complete any of the items that follow:

Save your new file as STEP21 - do not save these changes to your Space, step20, or Final file
Don't try to do everything on this page - your scene will be WAY too crowded and will just look bad
Completing any of the work in this step will get you extra credit, and each section is worth a different amount of credit - as you move down the page the sections are worth more and more extra credit (exactly how much extra credit you get depends on how well you do the work)
All images below are just examples - find and use your own pictures!!!!!

2D MOON

Repeat Step 13, but instead of using one of the satellite photos, find and use a picture of the moon...

Keep the following in mind:

Place the moon in orbit around one of your planets - it should not be floating in space by itself
The moon should be much smaller than the planet it orbits
Shade and highlight the moon so that it looks natural (shade and highlight must match the parent planet's shade and highlight)
Do not place the moon on the dark side of the planet - it would be in shadow and you wouldn't be able to see it
Get more extra credit by placing the moon between the planet and the sun and have the moon cast a shadow on the planet

ADDITIONAL PLANETS

Repeat Step 13, but instead of using one of the satellite photos, use a unique image such as one of the following:

Extremely close-up pictures of everyday objects such as...


	Yarn	Marbles	Water	Sunflower	Duh...
Or how about animals...

	Zebra neck	Bat skin	Eagle wing	Elephant head	Goldfish body
Or things with cool patterns already in them like rocks or wood...

	Pine	Marble	Geode	Oak bark	Granite
Or what about food...

	Strawberry	Waffle	Fried stuff	Cabbage	Hamburger
Or anything else you would like to use, just as long as you can't tell what the object is. For example, take a look at the following image of a Lamborghini Murcielago... If we use this to create our planet, this is what we get... Obviously, there are no planets that look like this (though how awesome would it be if there were), so avoid doing this as it will actually hurt your grade instead of help it.

A pattern created in Photoshop, such as the one I created below...


Fill with color	Stain glass filter	Draw shading	Motion blur	Spray strokes	Sharpen	Gradient map
It took several steps, and I actually just played around and selected stuff at random, but I ended up with a pretty cool pattern that makes an awesome planet...

A drawing you create freestyle in Photoshop - let your imagination go free and just draw whatever you like...

Then turn it into a planet...

Keep the following in mind:

You can use pretty much anything you can think of as the basis of your planet, but you must FIND YOUR OWN IMAGES - DO NOT use my example images
You do NOT have to go through all of the planet steps to create additional planets - simply duplicate the Planet1 layer group and replace the Planet layer with the new planet image and apply the Emboss to this new layer and then replace the old Emboss layer with the new one; you can keep the same clouds (if you want the clouds to look different as well, you can always select the cloud layers and rotate them so that different areas are visible), or you can simply make the cloud layers invisible (the eagle wing planet above has both cloud layers turned off, while others have just one turned on)

YOUR HOME PLANET

This involves putting an image of the ground at the bottom of your space scene so that it looks like you are standing on the planet looking up at the sky...

Keep the following in mind:

It doesn't really matter what kind of ground you use, just be sure that it is in proportion to your scene - in other words, it should look natural
It is best to avoid images with anything manmade (like buildings or statues or stuff) in them - it is difficult to find images like this that look realistic when you insert them into your scene
You can use Edit > Transform > Warp to give your horizon a slight curve to it so that it looks like the surface of a planet - be careful though that the image you use was taken from far away or it will not look natural
If you don't want to cover up the bottom of your space scene, you can add room to the bottom by doing the following:
1. Click Image and then click Canvas Size...
2. In the Canvas Size window, change the Height setting (red arrow in the image below) to whatever size you need - my example adds 100 pixels, but use whatever size you need to be able to add in the ground image you wish to use
3. Click the upward pointing Anchor arrow (blue arrow below)...
  
  to set the Anchor option to this...
  
  Which lets Photoshop know that you wish to add the additional pixels to the bottom of the image
4. Click OK - you should see the additional area at the bottom of your image
5. When you insert your ground, make sure it is tall enough to fill the area you added

SPACE SHUTTLE

Find a picture of the space shuttle on the Internet and place it in orbit around one of your planets...

Keep the following in mind:

Be sure it is large enough to be seen but not so large that it doesn't look natural
Remove everything else in the original shuttle image but the shuttle
Avoid nose-on pictures (pictures taken from directly in front of the shuttle) as they are too small and too difficult to tell what is in the image when you get it in orbit around the planet

SATELLITES

Find a picture of a satellite on the Internet and place it in orbit around one of your planets...

Keep the following in mind:

Be sure the satellite is large enough to be seen but not so large that it looks unnatural - large satellites such as the Hubble Space Telescope can be left fairly large, but any other satellite should be made small
Delete everything else in the original satellite image but the satellite
Feel free to add in more than one satellite, but don't go crazy

ALIEN INVADERS

This one has your solar system being invaded. Go online and find images showing spaceships and place them in your scene...

Keep the following in mind:

You can have multiple ships - even multiple versions of the same ship - but if you do, make them different sizes so that they appear to be different distances from your planets
If you have time, you can add in two sets of ships and have them fight (you can make the laser blasts between the ships very easily using the Neon Glow filter - the quickest way to find out how to do this is to search the Internet for tutorials on creating a lightsaber)
You don't have to have a bunch of aliens, if you want just one alien ship in orbit around your planet that is fine

DISTANT GALAXIES

There are 6 different types of galaxies...

Each can give your space scene a little extra flair, but it is difficult to make them look realistic. To help you out, I have put together a separate tutorial that covers in depth how to create 3 different spiral galaxies and gives you pointers on how to create the other 5 types.

Head over to the Adding a Galaxy to Your Space Scene tutorial to find out how add a galaxy to your space scene (hence the name).

Here is what a spiral galaxy looks like in the space scene...

Keep the following in mind:

The one I created above had a soft color tint added to it, you can do this as well or leave yours white - both look great in the space scene
Since these are supposed to be distant objects, keep them small
Do not place your galaxy in a prominent position in your scene - it is supposed to be an additional item so place it in an out of the way spot
You can add in more than one galaxy, but do not reuse the same galaxy over and over - it will not look natural; it is most effective if your multiple galaxies are of different types

ASTEROID BELT

You could create tons of asteroids the same way you did in Step 16 and shrink them down so that you have a nice asteroid belt...

but a better way is to take one of the asteroids from Step 16 and use it to create a custom brush. We don't have time in this lesson to cover how to do this, so if you are interested in this you will need to find instructions for doing this online - there are tons of places that will show you how.

Keep the following in mind:

Keep the size of the asteroids small - if you make them too large they will not look natural
Do not place your asteroid belt in a prominent position in your scene - it is supposed to be an additional item so place it in an out of the way spot
Remember the pull of the sun, so if you want an asteroid belt around the sun make sure to make it curve

3D Moon

This one involves using Photoshop's 3D tools and can be a little complicated, so don't start it unless you have time to finish it. The 3D moon is different from the 2D moon above in that the 3D moon is actually a 3D object and can be rotated and manipulated in 3D space, unlike all of the other images we have created up to this point.

To complete this, you will need the moon map located here: Moon planetary map. Simply click the link to open the moon map in the browser, then right-click on the moon map and save it to your Photoshop folder and then read and follow the directions linked below.

The directions to create the 3D moon are located here: 3D Moon.

Keep the following in mind:

Resize your moon to keep it in proportion with the planet that it orbits
Make sure your moon's shadow matches the shadow of the planet that it orbits
Do not place the moon on the dark side of the planet - it would be in shadow and you wouldn't be able to see it
Get more extra credit by placing the moon between the planet and the sun and have the moon cast a shadow on the planet

PLANETS IN MOTION

This one is complicated, so if you choose to do it be sure you have enough time to complete it. For this you will need to take your planets and animate them so that they orbit your star (yes, it is possible for your planet to move around the star even while the star is in the corner of your scene). You can make your planets move the same way you made your spaceship fly across the screen.

Keep the following in mind:

Make sure things don't crash into each other
Planets orbit in an ellipse and move in a straight line - in other words, they don't wiggle up and down like a snake; they move in nice, smooth arcs
Get even more extra credit by having your planet spin as it orbits
The more things you have moving at once the more extra credit you get

Remember, save any work you do on this step as STEP21 - do not save your work to your Space, step20, or Final file.

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