PDN Fanatics

Hey all, I made an image lately, and a tutorial was requested for the Planet that was in the pic. So, here goes:

Required Plugins:
Dents,
Shape3D,
SinWaves,
Alpha Mask,
Soften Portrait.

This tutorial will be broken up into 3 main parts: The Planet itself, the Rings, and the Final Product. So, let's begin.

Part 1: The Planet

1. Open PDN, and create a new project @ 500x500px. Select all with Ctrl+A, and delete it. Now to create the basic texture:
2. Set your primary color to a good sandy color (I used #FFE89E), and set your secondary color to the same color, but slightly darker (I used #E5CF8E).
3. Now run clouds (Effects>Render>Clouds) with these settings: Scale = 22, Roughness = 0.9. Leave the rest at the defaults. Press OK.
4. Add a new layer, and name it "Stripe". Duplicate this empty layer a few times. Set your primary color to a dark red (or any dark planet-stripe-like color. I used #4C0000), and your secondary color to fully transparent (Alpha = 0). Now, using the linear reflected gradient tool, draw a horizontal stripe. Do the same on the other layers, until you have one stripe on each layer. (You can add more stripes by adding more layers. Try to keep one stripe per layer). Don't worry about how dark they are, for now.
   
5. If you want, you can apply a gentle dents to these stripes. I didn't. Now, using the SinWaves plugin (Effects>Distort>SinWaves), apply a wave to the stripes. Leave all the settings at default, but change the "Angle of start" for each layer, to add variety. Now merge all the Stripe layers together, and name the merged layer "Stripes".
   
6. Now adjust the opacity of "Stripes" to about 170. Add a new Layer named "Dot". Set the primary color to a dark Red, but slightly lighter than the stripe color. (I used #680000). Using the Filled Ellipse tool, draw an oval, like so. (Also, note how the stripes seem to bend around the spot? Look for an area like that, if you have one).
   
7. Open the Dents (Effects>Distort>Dents) dialog, and use these settings: Amount = 50, Quality = 5, Detail = 58, Roughness = 41, Turbulence = 7, Stretch Amount = 2. Press OK. Apply a Gaussian Blur (Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur) of about 10. Set the "Dot" layer's Opacity to about 216. (I also used Adjustments> Hue/Saturation and brought the saturation down a little, to about 71)
8. Now press Ctrl+Shift+F to flatten the image into one layer.
   
9. Now for the fun part! Open Effects>Render>Shape3D. Set the texture map to Half Sphere Map (Repeat). Set the Scaling to 1.35 (or so that the sphere is just inside the bounds of the image). Set Axis-1 to 17.7 and Axis-2 to 85. Set Anti-Alias to 5, but don't check it on yet. Scroll down to lighting. Set Ambient Lighting to 0.05, Diffuse Reflection Rate to 1.2, and Specular Reflection Rate to 0.1. (Also, if you want, switch the specular to the Cook-Torrance tab. I prefer that over Phong.) Set the Light Direction to x = 1, y = 0.2, and z = 0.2. Now, check the Anti-Alias on, and press OK, assuming the preview is to your liking.
10. Now go to Image>Canvas Size, and set the size to about 1200x700. If an ugly white border appears, select it with the Magic Wand tool, and delete it.
    

Part 2: The Rings

1. Create a new PDN project, sized 1000x1000 px. Set your primary color to a medium tan (I reused #FFE89E).
2. Using the Paintbrush tool, with a width of about 5, draw a lot of short streaks in a rough ring, like so (shown against black so you can see).
   
3. Open Effects>Blur>Radial Blur. Set the angle to 359, and the quality to maximum. Press OK, and let it render (It may take a while).
4. Now duplicate the layer until it is easily seen against black. I duplicated it three times. Now merge these into each other. Using the ellipse select tool, select a region starting at 0x0, and going to 1000x1000. Press Ctrl+I to invert, then delete. You'll see this leaves a jagged edge, so re-open radial blur, and set the angle to about 5. Press OK and let it render again. This should remove the jagged edges.
5. Duplicate the ring layer, and uncheck the original. If you already haven't done so, create a new layer, move it to the bottom, and fill it with black. select the new Ring layer, and open Adjustments>Curves. Change the transfer map to RGB, and drag the dot in the top-right corner of the map to the bottom-right. This should change the entire ring to black. Press OK, then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the ring. You should now have a white ring on a black background.
   
6. Press File>Save and save a PNG of it to your desktop. It will promt you to flatten; Press OK. Now press Undo, to undo the flatten. Delete the white ring layer, and recheck the original color one. Add a layer above the ring layer. Set your primary color to black, and your secondary color to white. Using the Linear Gradient tool, draw a left-to-right gradient on the new layer.
   
7. If you set the Gradient layer's transfer mode to Multiply and it's Opacity to 230, you will see a very nice shaded ring. The only problem is, is that if we add another layer of, say, stars behind everything, you'll notice that the stars on the left get dimmed out. How do we fix this, do you ask? Well, here's how:
8. Open Effects>Alpha Mask. Click Browse, and open the mask we saver earlier. Press OK. Duplicate the gradient twice, and then merge them together. Open Alpha Mask again, and this time don't browse to the image. Check both Mix Alpha and Invert Mask. Press OK. Uncheck the black background layer, and press Ctrl+Shift+F to flatten the image.
9. Open Layer>Rotate-Zoom. Set the Angle to -10.2, the Twist Angle to 82.15, the Twist Radius to 75.95, and the Zoom to about 0.93 (or so that the ring fits inside the image.) Press OK.
10. Delete the black layer, use the wand tool (with a tolerance of 0) to select the area outside of the ring, press Ctrl+I to invert the selection, and press Ctrl+Shift+X to crop to the selected area. Now save the ring as a PNG wherever you want.

Part 3: The Final Product

1. Back in the planet project, add a new layer and paste the ring into it. Add another layer on the bottom and fill it with black. Add another layer above the ring layer.
2. Copy the top of the planet from it's layer and paste it into the top layer.
3. Merge the top three layers together. Select the bottom layer and open Effects>Noise>Add Noise. Set the Intensity to 100, the Color Saturation to 0, and the Coverage to about 0.35. Press OK. Select the top (planet w. rings) layer, and open Effects>Photo>Soften Portrait. Set the softness to 10, leave the Lighting at 0, and set the Warmth to 20.
4. If you want a truly epic finish, set the planet's blend mode to Glow, and flatten, save and publish!

That's it! Thanks for following it through. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!



Credit me,
Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

Excellent tutorial, sid'! Great addition that's about to get sticky'd...

The first new tutorial for ages! I had to have a go. I really like the way you got the gaseous planet effect using the various plugins. Here is what I made -

Nice job! How'd you do those stars, especially the closer ones? (It's probably something insanely simple that I just never noticed )

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

my guess on the stars is a judicious use of gaussian blur (I thought they were cool too).

Took an initial stab at it. I *love* your ring method...very quick and consistent.

The stars were done using the noise plug in and adjusting with levels over several layers. I think .It`s been quite a while since I made a starfield. I keep a couple of ready made ones as stock for use in spacescapes and this was one of them. This tutorial was a big help making them -

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts ... field.html