Planet Tutorial

In this tutorial, I will guide you step-by-step on how to render a realistic planet.  Read more to see the tutorial.

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1) Open Photoshop.  Create a new document, and make it whatever size you want.  I made mine 2500 px by 3000 px.  Try to make it more portrait than landscape.  We want to set it up so that there is a starry scene behind a planet with a lens flare.

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2) With your new document open, fill your layer black. Once you have done that, create a new layer.  Download a starry texture.  I got mine from here - click here.  Make the opacity around 50%.  We do this to make the texture darker.

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3) Create yet another new layer.  Make the blending mode of this layer Overlay.  Paint some dabs of white with a large soft brush so that some of the stars will come out brighter.  If you click on the image to the right, you can see that some parts are brighter.

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4) Create another new layer, but this time, we are working on the planet. Download a rusty texture.  I got mine here - click here. Paste it. Then use the elliptical marquee tool.  Create a circle by holding the shift key and then dragging.  Once you make a circle, press Ctrl, Shift, I.  Then press delete.

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5) I don't know about you, but that circle looks extremely unrealistic.  So let's improve its image!  Go to Filter, Distort, Spherize.  Do that a couple of times.  Go to Filter, Sharpen, Sharpen.  Do this a few times.  Hide the starry layer.

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6) Open a new layer.  Grab a large brush, and paint large dabs of black onto the planet.  Paint enough dabs to hide the edge of the planet near the bottom. Download a set of lens flare brushes and paint one on. I downloaded this set of brushes - click here. Unhide the starry layer.  Now your done!
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Download full PSD layered file here - click here.