This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create planets over an alien landscape.
I provided two images, so you can follow along.
One is this alien landscape and the other is this texture.
Their links are in the video's description or project files.
Before we begin, if you're not already a subscriber to Blue Lightning TV, click the small "Subscribe"
button at the lower, right to let you know as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials.
First, we'll create a sphere of the texture, which will become our planet.
Feel free to use another texture if you'd like.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to make a copy of it, so we always have the original texture intact.
Go to Filter, Distort and "Spherize".
The Amount is 100%.
We'll spherize it again by pressing Alt + Ctrl + F on Windows or Cmd + Ctrl + F on a Mac.
Open the Elliptical Marquee Tool and go to a corner.
Press and hold the Shift key as you drag a circular selection to the opposite corner.
We'll cut the image within the selection and copy it to its own layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
We'll place it onto the alien landscape by pressing "v" to open our Move Tool
and dragging it onto the tab of the landscape.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To resize it, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
Go to a corner and drag it in approximately this much.
To reposition it, go inside the Transform's bounding box and drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Next, we'll isolate the landscape from the sky in order to hide our planet behind the
rocks of the landscape.
Click the eyeball icon next to the planet to hide the layer and make the landscape active.
Open your Quick Selection Tool and make its size anywhere between 4 to 10 pixels.
Drag it inside the landscape to select it.
We'll refine its edges by going to Select.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2015.5, click "Refine Edge".
If you're using 2015.5 or later, click Select and Mask.
If you prefer to use Refine Edge, Shift-click Select and Mask.
Smooth it 10, feather it 1.5 pixels, make its contrast is 10% and shift the edge to minus 15%.
Output it to a New Layer with Layer Mask.
Make the planet visible and active.
We'll place it into a folder by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + G.
Go to the layer mask and drag it up next to the folder.
Presently, most of the planet is hidden because the layer mask is masking it out.
So, we need to invert the layer mask.
Make the layer mask active and press Ctrl or Cmd + I.
Make the planet active and change its Blend Mode to Screen.
Next, we'll hide most of our planet in shadow.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the planet to make a selection of it.
Go to Select, Modify and Feather.
Feather it 20 pixels.
We want to make an inverse layer mask of the selection next to the planet.
To do this, Alt-click or Option-click the Layer Mask icon.
We'll move the shadow over, but before we do, unlink the layer with the layer mask.
This allows us to reposition and resize either of them independently of the other.
With the Layer mask active, open your Transform Tool and go to a corner.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2019, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift
as you drag it down approximately this much.
If you're using a later version, just press Alt or Option as you drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Drag it over to approximately here.
We'll brighten its edge by making a copy of the layer.
Make the layer mask of the copy active.
Drag it over to approximately here.
Collapse the folder.
Let's name it, "Large planet".
Make a copy of it and name this folder, "Small planet".
Open it and link both of the layers again.
Make the top planet active and Shift-click the bottom planet to make it active, as well.
Open your Transform Tool and drag them over to approximately here.
Go to a corner and drag it in approximately this much.
Since the top of the shadow is cut off, we'll reposition and resize it, but first, unlink
the layers and make the bottom planet's layer mask active.
Hide the top planet layer and open your Transform Tool.
Drag it out and move it up.
Make the top planet layer visible and make its layer mask active.
Drag it up enough to hide the top of the planet.
If you want to show different area of the planet, we can rotate it . To do this, first,
let's collapse the 'Small Planet" folder and open the folder of the large planet.
Make the bottom planet active and open your Transform Tool.
Rotate it until you see the texture you like.
Next, we'll create rings around our large planet.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + N to create a new document.
In the Width and Height, type in 1000 pixels each and for its resolution, type in 150 for its pixels per inch.
The background is black.
We'll find its exact center by going to View and "New Guide Layout".
If you're using a version earlier than CC, click New Guide and enter 50% in the Horizontal and Vertical fields.
Make the number of columns and rows: 2 and make sure "Margin" is unchecked.
Open your "Ellipse Tool" and click the gear icon at the top.
Tick "Proportional and check "From Center".
Pick "Shape" and open "Fill".
Make sure the "No Fill" icon is picked.
Open "Stroke" and pick white.
Make the Radius: 50 pixels.
Go to the center and drag out a circle.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Make a copy of it and drag it in until we have a space between the two rings.
Press Enter or Return.
Shift-click the bottom ring to make IT active, as well and convert the two rings into one Smart Object.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 7 pixels.
Then, convert it again into a Smart Object, in case we want to adjust the blur later.
Next, we'll surround our planet with the rings at an angled perspective.
There are a few ways to do this.
We could use the 3-D filter, Vanishing Point or the Transform Tool.
In this particular case, let's use the Transform Tool.
Hide the black background and drag the rings onto the tab of the landscape.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, press and hold the Shift key as you drag it down and release.
To see the entire rings, drag the layer to the top of the Layers panel.
Open your Transform Tool and go to a corner.
Reduce its size approximately this much.
Go to a bottom corner and press and hold Alt + Ctrl +Shift on Windows
or Option + Cmd + Shift on a Mac as you drag it out approximately this much.
Go to the top, middle anchor point and press and hold the Shift key as you drag it down this much.
Go inside the bounding box and drag the rings over your large planet.
Go to a corner and rotate it clockwise to an angle you like.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Change its Blend Mode to Overlay and reduce its opacity to 50%.
Lastly, we'll hide the rings behind the planet, as well as the areas in shadow.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the planet to make a selection of its shape.
We'll create an inverse layer mask next to the rings by Alt-clicking or Option-clicking the Layer Mask icon.
Next, we'll hide the rings on the left, since they're in shadow.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush picker.
Pick a soft round brush.
Make its size approximately 100 pixels and its Hardness: 0%.
Its Opacity and Flow are 100% each.
Brush over the rings on the left to mask them out.
Next, we'll partially reveal the area of rings that are in front of the planet.
Press "x" on your keyboard to invert your foreground and background colors, so white is your foreground color.
Reduce the brush's opacity to 50%.
Increase your Brush s size by pressing the right bracket key and brush over the right
side of the planet in sweeping motions to gradually reveal the rings.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching.