Interactive planet-creation tutorial

[aszazeroth]

Allright, first render of the planet map. Using default scanline in max here, but the results should be approximately the same at this point.
Now we observe that my really cool looking crater idea actually is quite too large and has to be tweaked a bit. Always useful to check out the maps for consistency before one starts to color and detail them.


Fig 2.1 (tut_post2, figure 1 ) Scanline "cowplanet" render for checking out geological consistency.

So back to some tweaking ... or cheating ... I have not decided route yet. Gonna dig up a nice planet reference from my personal universe to attach to the planet too, so we can get some nice backstory and to show you some pathways of mind that I use later on.


Fig 2.2 Terminus polar shot to check out the curvature of the sphere. Looks OK.


Fig 2.2 Close up and personal

Cheers for now
//Dr. Asz

[aszazeroth]

Now... decided to just use the upper left quadrant of the huge crater as an actual impact zone. Tested out some funky underwater crater texture to judge size.


Fig 3.1 Submerged Yucatan x 3 size crater-texture test.

And for the fun of it. Some backstory to make the planet slightly more alive. Following text is an excerpt from one of my multitude of text files that build up my personal universe created for writing (no finished stories yet) ages ago. Ah, back in those days I had time dreaming... The format of the text file is sort of a guide of the major trade routes

_________
Even longer stretch with 10 jumps and you are at the rim, entering the HR209 system. Another system with not only one, but two terrestrial planets. The innermost terrestrial planet has a almost primordial atmosphere with very high partial pressure O2 (94.6%) so no smoking here. There are a few outposts here and some underground mining camps. The other is a colder, dryer version of Earth, maybye like ancient Mars. Here is the main colony located with a couple of cities and outback outposts. NAV beacons provides safe route to the HR209 worlds.
_________

Now to add to the story I have decided that the impact crater have made huge deposits of precious metals, gold, iridium and such easily accessible and thus a thriving mining colony will be located here (and night lights painted)

Time to enjoy the weekend with my family, get back to you when opportunity arises

Cheers

//Dr. Asz

[Ozylot]

Facinating!

[Lt. Cannonfodder]

Nice!

Can we post our own WIP shots following your tut when we get a bit further on?

[aszazeroth]

^^ I guess so, but maybe just create a special Multi-user-WIP thread in the regular WIP area. That way we will not clutter up the tutorial thread ?!

Sounds fair !?

[Lt. Cannonfodder]

Sure thing.

Now get back to enjoying the weekend

[Jedilaw]

What's this "weekend" thing you refer to? Is that a span of time in which you don't work? I have those, too...they're called "sick days."

Here's hoping the mysteries of planet creation are explained here. I've tried following Pete Draper's tut using 4k maps from Blue Marble, and it looks like ass. So maybe whatever obvious thing I'm missing will be in this tut.

[aszazeroth]

@Jedilaw, weekend is defined as the time between Friday evening and perhaps Sunday afternoon, when my wife and three kids leech every possible penny from my credit card and force me to go into stores devoid of computer games or technical accessories.

So, folks... one often overseen factor of planet making (unless you are going for a pelagic world) is the oceans. Therefore I like to spend some time on that for this one. So after touching up the submerged crater impact some it was time for some more sunken features.

Now is a good time to make sure that the black and white of your continents and ice are transferred into some stored selection or alpha-channel. That step will make life easier. Select the alpha and (in my case, invert selection to get the oceans). I then painted huge blobs of pseudo continents semi-randomly over the map. If ocean selected one can be rather sloppy and use huge brushes >300px with perhaps some funky .abr loaded.

Now we got a nice blotchy pattern on a transparent BG. New layer, and do some filter->render->cloud. Blend them together using, perhaps soft light and you eventually get something like this


Fig 4.1 : Ocean colors and variation + huge crater.

Fun, right... next we do something about the land perhaps

Cheers
//Dr. Asz

[SandmanNinja]

awesome tutorial! Thanks dude.

That planet tho...

The main concern with oxygen concentrations above 23% is the possibility that materials which would normally not ignite at normal oxygen levels, would be prone to combustion.

An Oxygen-rich atmosphere is also somewhat corrosive. Rust is the oxidation of metals. Fire is fast or rapid oxidation. (So, I guess techncially fire is real fast rust!)

I dont think there will be much industry on a planet with that much O2. I dont think a planet would form with that much oxygen.

...

But awesome tutorial!

[Ozylot]

This is already really informative... Ive been wondering how one would go about something this awsome.