How to create a planet image in Photoshop CC (Notes from Ben Shelley at NESCOT College)

1. Creating a Planet in Photoshop
1. New Scene 1900 x 1900
2. Fill with black
3. New layer (name base masks)
4. Elliptical marquee tool (hold down shift) move to the middle
5. Fill with Black
6. Import 'Continents' (turning off background and lowering transparency of texture to
place it )
7. Rasterize layer
8. Control click on base mask layer, click on the continents layer ctrl + Shift + i, delete ,
crop image to current size to trim off extras
9. Sponge tool to make tiny cities (flow 100)
10. ctrl + click on continents layer, filter distort spherize 75% twice
11. Dodge tool, brighten top left part of the planet
12. Select continents layer, select, colour range, click on an ocean, shift click on another,
press ok
13. create new layer (name water mask) and fill selection pure white
14. ctrl click on base mast layer, ctrl + shift + i, delete and turn off layer
15. create another new layer (name water highlight) ctrl click on water mask and paint
in soft highlight
16. Import clouds and name layer, change to screen blending mode, position and
rasterize layer
17. ctrl click on base mask, trim off extras, crop and spherize twice then rotate to suit
18. new layer (name shadow) control click on base mask, paint in shadow with soft
brush and resize for edges
19. Import city lights and name layer, set to screen, trim, spherize and ctrl + click on
water mask and delete
20. Lower opacity, ctrl + u, make yellow/ orange, go to curves (ctrl +m) and change to
suit
21. Crop Background to size, uncrop image quite a lot and fill with black if needs be

2. 22. Import rings and name layer, perspective, rasterize layer, ctrl + click on base mask,
using marquee tool hold alt and deselect bottom portion of rings, press delete. Ctrl
click on rings and press delete once
23. Ctrl + U to colour rings, ctrl + click on rings and paint a black shadow and include
dodge on left
24. On rings layer go to filter noise add noise (10%) to give grainy effect
25. Duplicate base mask layer, move to below rings name atmosphere. right click,
blending options.
- General blending mode = linear dodge
- outer glow. mode = linear dodge, opacity = 70% colour 6283a7, spread = 0, size =
70
- inner glow: mode = linear dodge, opacity = 70%, colour 6283a7, choke size = 0,
size= 250
26. using a large eraser, erase atmosphere from shadows
27. import star field image and name layer
28. Uncrop image, repeat above process for planets volcanic moon. Use existing shadow
and atmosphere layers, resize and position. Use linear dodge to overlay lava over rock
and shadow