Post by Goonfella on Jul 22, 2011 21:21:41 GMT
This is what we will be making -
This tutorial was inspired the excellent Blender Earth tut by Andrew Price - www.blenderguru.com/create-a-realistic-earth/
The textures I used are from his tut , although they are freely available from NASA`s website. I did reduce them further in size to 4000x2000 to make them more manageable in PDN.
As the textures are so large , if you have a less powerful PC you might want to reduce them in size even further to ease the strain . Just make sure you have the `Maintain Aspect Ratio' button checked.
Before you start this tutorial please remember that each planet turns out differently, as I found out when testing this tut to make sure it was ready to post. I made two more Earth`s using the settings here but each one still required some adjustments to the settings to get the finished image. Therefore please consider my settings as a guide only and work from there.
It has come to my attention that some people might struggle with the original textures so here are some smaller ones that I used. ImageShack would not take the clouds at 4000x2000 because the file was still too big but 3900x1950 should still be fine.-
Plug ins needed -
Shape3D - HERE
Alphaspace - HERE
Grim Color Reaper - HERE
Heightmap 1.3 - HERE
(I just realised that the version I used here is 1.2 I need to update! Settings should be similar though)
OK lets get started.
1. Load up colour map image of the Earth.Name it Earth day.
2. Go to Layers>Import From File and load Bump Map .
3. Effects>Stylise>Heightmap. Leave settings at default.
4. Change Blending Mode to Overlay and reduce opacity to how you like it. I set it to 200. Allow for the fact that some of the bump will be smoothed out by S3D. You should have this -
5.Layer>Import From File and load the Clouds Map
6.Now we need to remove the black areas. I used two methods. First - Effects>Alphaspace to remove the bulk of it. Settings- black , adjust Tolerance to 175, click OK. Then go to Effects>Color>Grim Color Reaper - tolerance 0.80, alpha 170, color black. Using the alpha adjustment you can choose how many, or how few, clouds are showing.
7.Merge bump map with Earth Day layer. Hide cloud layer if preferred and add a black background. This will come in handy to check how the planet looks in space.
8.Effects>render>Shape3D Full Sphere Map (this setting is needed so you can rotate the planet as you wish)- Angles I used x- 10 , y- 6 , z- 18, turn on Anti aliasing - 1 or 2 should be fine. You can use the lighting in S3D if you want but I turn it off because I add my own lighting later. Everthing else at Default.
IMPORTANT! - save your S3D settings using the XML button at the bottom as all layers will need to be at the same angle/rotation ( apart from the clouds which you can do separately)-
9.Layer>Import from file and load Earth Night Lights above the colour map.
10. Effects>Shape3D . Now you can see why keeping the same settings was necessary.
11.Now make sure colours are a default black/white. Click on the Gradient button. Change to transparency mode, Linear or radial gradient whichever you prefer. Right click and draw a transparent gradient. This should reveal the daytime Earth underneath while still showing night lights where you want them to be. You will probably need several gradients to properly clear the night . Also you might want to duplicate this layer a couple of times to strenghten the effect.-
12.Now unhide the cloud layer and use S3D again . Use the Object Rotation settings to get your preferred view of them.Try to keep dry areas cloud free as they would be in real life to get as accurate an image as possible. At this point you MUST ensure that the lighting is unchecked or the clouds at the back will show through as black.
Optional - now that all the images have been loaded and S3D`d you can reduce the width of the image if you want to.
13.Move Earth Night Lights layer above the Earth Day layer and reduce the opacity slightly , I chose a setting of 240. I found this to be a nice balance , but you can always choose your own settings.
14.For this step it`s best to hide the cloud layer(I forgot as you can see!).On Earth Day layer, using the Magic Wand select anywhere outside the planet, then press Ctrl-I to invert the selection. Next create a new layer,called Earth Night, move above the Night Lights layer and fill with black. Then use the Move Selection tool to move it up and to the right. Then delete the selection.
15.Still on the Night layer go to Effects>Blurs>Gaussian Blur. Set to approx 70. Reduce opacity to approx 175.This layer is used to adjust the darkness . You want it to be dark but still be able to see the city lights. Play with the settings until you are satisfied.
16.Do a few transparent gradients on the clouds layer to match the dark areas.
17.If you want to you can add an Inner and Outer glow. If you do I recommend this excellent tutorial by Commander Sozo - forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/15801-inner-glow/
18.Once it is done , on each layer use transparent gradients and/or the eraser to remove any unwanted glow from around the dark edge of the planet . Keep playing with settings, opacities etc until you are happy with the result.-
19. Add starry background /planets/moons etc..
20.Sit back and admire your work - this part is compulsory! ;D
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial , I look forward to seeing some of your results.
This tutorial was inspired the excellent Blender Earth tut by Andrew Price - www.blenderguru.com/create-a-realistic-earth/
The textures I used are from his tut , although they are freely available from NASA`s website. I did reduce them further in size to 4000x2000 to make them more manageable in PDN.
As the textures are so large , if you have a less powerful PC you might want to reduce them in size even further to ease the strain . Just make sure you have the `Maintain Aspect Ratio' button checked.
Before you start this tutorial please remember that each planet turns out differently, as I found out when testing this tut to make sure it was ready to post. I made two more Earth`s using the settings here but each one still required some adjustments to the settings to get the finished image. Therefore please consider my settings as a guide only and work from there.
It has come to my attention that some people might struggle with the original textures so here are some smaller ones that I used. ImageShack would not take the clouds at 4000x2000 because the file was still too big but 3900x1950 should still be fine.-
Plug ins needed -
Shape3D - HERE
Alphaspace - HERE
Grim Color Reaper - HERE
Heightmap 1.3 - HERE
(I just realised that the version I used here is 1.2 I need to update! Settings should be similar though)
OK lets get started.
1. Load up colour map image of the Earth.Name it Earth day.
2. Go to Layers>Import From File and load Bump Map .
3. Effects>Stylise>Heightmap. Leave settings at default.
4. Change Blending Mode to Overlay and reduce opacity to how you like it. I set it to 200. Allow for the fact that some of the bump will be smoothed out by S3D. You should have this -
5.Layer>Import From File and load the Clouds Map
6.Now we need to remove the black areas. I used two methods. First - Effects>Alphaspace to remove the bulk of it. Settings- black , adjust Tolerance to 175, click OK. Then go to Effects>Color>Grim Color Reaper - tolerance 0.80, alpha 170, color black. Using the alpha adjustment you can choose how many, or how few, clouds are showing.
7.Merge bump map with Earth Day layer. Hide cloud layer if preferred and add a black background. This will come in handy to check how the planet looks in space.
8.Effects>render>Shape3D Full Sphere Map (this setting is needed so you can rotate the planet as you wish)- Angles I used x- 10 , y- 6 , z- 18, turn on Anti aliasing - 1 or 2 should be fine. You can use the lighting in S3D if you want but I turn it off because I add my own lighting later. Everthing else at Default.
IMPORTANT! - save your S3D settings using the XML button at the bottom as all layers will need to be at the same angle/rotation ( apart from the clouds which you can do separately)-
9.Layer>Import from file and load Earth Night Lights above the colour map.
10. Effects>Shape3D . Now you can see why keeping the same settings was necessary.
11.Now make sure colours are a default black/white. Click on the Gradient button. Change to transparency mode, Linear or radial gradient whichever you prefer. Right click and draw a transparent gradient. This should reveal the daytime Earth underneath while still showing night lights where you want them to be. You will probably need several gradients to properly clear the night . Also you might want to duplicate this layer a couple of times to strenghten the effect.-
12.Now unhide the cloud layer and use S3D again . Use the Object Rotation settings to get your preferred view of them.Try to keep dry areas cloud free as they would be in real life to get as accurate an image as possible. At this point you MUST ensure that the lighting is unchecked or the clouds at the back will show through as black.
Optional - now that all the images have been loaded and S3D`d you can reduce the width of the image if you want to.
13.Move Earth Night Lights layer above the Earth Day layer and reduce the opacity slightly , I chose a setting of 240. I found this to be a nice balance , but you can always choose your own settings.
14.For this step it`s best to hide the cloud layer(I forgot as you can see!).On Earth Day layer, using the Magic Wand select anywhere outside the planet, then press Ctrl-I to invert the selection. Next create a new layer,called Earth Night, move above the Night Lights layer and fill with black. Then use the Move Selection tool to move it up and to the right. Then delete the selection.
15.Still on the Night layer go to Effects>Blurs>Gaussian Blur. Set to approx 70. Reduce opacity to approx 175.This layer is used to adjust the darkness . You want it to be dark but still be able to see the city lights. Play with the settings until you are satisfied.
16.Do a few transparent gradients on the clouds layer to match the dark areas.
17.If you want to you can add an Inner and Outer glow. If you do I recommend this excellent tutorial by Commander Sozo - forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/15801-inner-glow/
18.Once it is done , on each layer use transparent gradients and/or the eraser to remove any unwanted glow from around the dark edge of the planet . Keep playing with settings, opacities etc until you are happy with the result.-
19. Add starry background /planets/moons etc..
20.Sit back and admire your work - this part is compulsory! ;D
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial , I look forward to seeing some of your results.