Step 1:
Creat a new (500×500px) image.
Step 2:
Select the brush tool and select a decent size. Go to the brushes palette and add a texture. I’m using a rocky texture, but it won’t make a difference. Make sure the blending mode is set to ‘Multiply.’
Now brush all over your canvas.
Once you cover all your canvas, change the brush’s texture to something different, then brush it over the canvas again. Do this a third time if you wish. You should have something similiar to this:
Step 3:
Now your done with that, create a new 500×500px canvas (or the same size as the last one).
Step 4:
Make sure you have the defualt black and white colors selected. Then on the background layer, hit alt+backspace to fill it with black.
Now create a new layer and use the elliptical marquee tool while holding shift to click and drag a perfect circle. Leave about 40px on the edge for the atmosphere of the planet.
Hit alt+backspace to fill this selection with whatever color you want (I used magenta).
Step 5:
Select the texture image you made in steps 1-2. Press ‘V’ or select the move tool to click and drag it onto the new image you made in step 3. Make sure it’s covering the whole canvas.
Step 6:
This is a little bit tricky if your a newbie, it’s hard to explain so i’ll try my best. With layer 2 (the texture layer) selected, hold ctrl then click on layer 1’s THUMBNAIL (the little image next to its name) this will create an elliptical selection.
Hit ctrl+shift+i then hit delete. Now hit ctrl+shift+i again. Don’t deselect it yet.
Step 7:
Now go to filters>distort>spherize. Then use the defualt. Now hit ok, the ctrl+d to deselect the image.
Step 8:
Now Move layer 2 BELOW layer 1. Now we are going to make our atmosphere.
On Layer 1 double click it and apply these settings (make the glows whatever color you want your planet to be):
Step 9:
Now on LAYER 2 (the texture layer) go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation.
In the bottom right of the dialog box is a check box that says ‘colorize.’ Make sure it is checked.
Now mess around with the settings until you get a color you like. Like this:
Step 10:
Now you could be done with it and call this a planet. But it would look more realistic if you added a shadow to it. So create a NEW layer. Then use a black to transparent gradient. And click and drag it to where you want your light to come from. Then hit ‘ctrl+t’, right click, then select ‘warp’.
Step 11:
Move the gradient around a little and presto! Your done!
I hope you learned something from this tutorial and incorperate it into your own ideas!
