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alyn — Advanced planet creation

Published: 2004-10-31 16:17:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 153655; Favourites: 1495; Downloads: 67728
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Description My next big project unveiled, and something for the watchers.

I get about at least a note a day asking me how I create planets, that mostly brought on by Icarus's Wish. There's only so many times you can redirect people to Greg Martin's and Dinyctis's tutorials before thinking, "can't I show them my own way?". Greg Martin's Capturing Heaven tutorial gave me the kick up the arse I needed. His profound words relating to the complexity of planets, and how they're simply not given enough love in their creation for the majority of artists stirred me, and hence I've written this.

Every page comes with a snippet of science theory behind it, from my on meagre understanding of the subject (I've tried to ensure that I know at least a bit about what I'm preaching, please inform me of any mistakes and if you are correcting me, make sure you're correct too). Knowing the subject definitely helps you on the way to bettering your techniques.
Every page also comes with some related links to other tutorials on the subject, and some general tips to help you and give you ideas.

Contents -

Index -> Texture construction and introduction
Application -> Texture application
Lighting -> Planet lighting techniques and styles
Clouds -> Cloud creation and ideas.
Rings -> Planet rings
City lights -> City light ideas
Conclusion -> integration of your planet and conclusion.

7 Pages packed with info, spread over 3 weeks of drafting, writing, refining.

Even if you're pretty confident with your abilities in space art, I urge you to at least give it a runthrough. Why? you might learn something, little tricks and tips that you hadn't thought of.

Advanced critique encouraged, why? - if you think something could be improved in its wording or anything in any way... incorrect info or whatever, then go for it. Don't try and rewrite the techniques, but feel free to offer helpful suggestions, I'm all ears.

this will be available on the web sometime in the very near future, just sorting out with some very kind volunteers some hosting arrangements.

---- edit

Tutorial now online, but please read the notice above the links.
Related content
Comments: 234

NickelEdge [2004-10-31 21:42:18 +0000 UTC]

cool can't wait to read it.

very nice cover

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Timetwister [2004-10-31 21:41:57 +0000 UTC]

oh my....think a lot of people have been waiting for something like this........in the very near future, I'm sure I'll be using this thnx m8 for your outstanding work for the community, and offcourse your mind-blowing art

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Hawke89 [2004-10-31 21:41:38 +0000 UTC]

ty man

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m0rte [2004-10-31 21:40:01 +0000 UTC]

Alyn I want your babies

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EmaRyan [2004-10-31 21:32:31 +0000 UTC]

you've made me cry happy tears and it hasn't even finished downloading yet!

thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!

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Eclipse-CJ3 [2004-10-31 21:17:12 +0000 UTC]

Finally Perfect, I love it.

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ph0enix [2004-10-31 21:00:27 +0000 UTC]

me.

you.

babies.

lets go.

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kkuffnerphotos [2004-10-31 20:58:41 +0000 UTC]

oo sweet cant wait to see it..im gonna download this puppy later when i got some more time. thanks

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xEOD [2004-10-31 20:49:33 +0000 UTC]

Thx !

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SgtTMan [2004-10-31 20:43:14 +0000 UTC]

gonna test this bad boy out later tonight thx alyn

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pcmacman [2004-10-31 20:42:56 +0000 UTC]

I gotta take a look at this,

Downloading now

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Morbid-sAINT [2004-10-31 20:08:19 +0000 UTC]

Ive just fallen in love with you lol. Thanks man this is so great.

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Dibi In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 20:02:57 +0000 UTC]

and btw can you give me a link to 'capturing heave', because I have lost the pdf file somewhere

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Dibi In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 20:00:53 +0000 UTC]

oh, man, this is so useful. I have been always wandering how you guys are creating such amazing pieces of art. defenitely will download and read

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Doll-maker [2004-10-31 19:47:50 +0000 UTC]

Awesome! Thank you for this!

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Dean-Irvine In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 19:43:02 +0000 UTC]

superb work

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uhre In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 19:36:59 +0000 UTC]

awesome tutorial I really like Greg Martin's work in my opinion he is the best artist when it comes to digital art...

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Schwig In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 19:33:21 +0000 UTC]

cool beans! I'll have to take a look at this when i gots more time...or when i get a better computor and nuke this damn thing....either way.

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ChrisysDark [2004-10-31 19:21:24 +0000 UTC]

cool,, good job men,,

rate:

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SnipWolf [2004-10-31 19:19:01 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for your hard work, this will help many of us

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Electro-Pank In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 19:16:36 +0000 UTC]

thanks dude

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gnowoga In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 19:13:52 +0000 UTC]

Great man! I've read everything greg martin has to offer too, and I'm glad to see this one. I am really facinated by space art. As Greg says; "If you try to draw space you'll fail. Most people overlook: It isn't drawn at all, it evolves."

Great piece alyn!

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Jumperr In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 19:00:30 +0000 UTC]

<3 pwned dude , great job !!

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pixie0fd00m [2004-10-31 19:00:28 +0000 UTC]

yay!!!! your soooo awesome!! love you!!

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dxd [2004-10-31 18:54:29 +0000 UTC]

I'll host it for you, just jump on me in #Whores and we'll sort it out

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mehthemonkey [2004-10-31 18:49:33 +0000 UTC]

nvm its working now

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hellsing-nosferatu [2004-10-31 18:44:18 +0000 UTC]

great but it wont allow me to open it or extract it?? :S

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eXcelx101x In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 18:44:13 +0000 UTC]

OH EM GE its finally here

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mehthemonkey [2004-10-31 18:43:55 +0000 UTC]

Hey bro the download ends about 40% in and everything errors...

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AngeloVentura [2004-10-31 18:42:05 +0000 UTC]

Thank you,pal, I'll give it a look!

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SilkAssassin [2004-10-31 18:31:27 +0000 UTC]

nice tut, but the webpages have no pictures (they are all red x's)

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Matix411 [2004-10-31 18:14:41 +0000 UTC]

ahhh yes! it's finnaly here! haha i love you for making this!
right on man
this will help me out tons and now i can finally finish my first terra-space piece!! weee

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earzy88 [2004-10-31 18:12:10 +0000 UTC]

FINALLY! Its landed! Woooop this is FANTASTIC. THANK YOU !!!

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somk [2004-10-31 18:11:34 +0000 UTC]

One word for you : BRILLIANT !!!

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Fusion-light [2004-10-31 18:08:21 +0000 UTC]

wonderful alyn alot a things i have learned texture part was most interesting and bump mapping there was many things tht i thought would be consided "cheating" but thanks to you thoose fears have been eliminated and now i can improve with a good bit of theroy behind space art its time to use tht theroy and create my own space art thank you alyn

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Terminater [2004-10-31 18:07:54 +0000 UTC]

thats my boy

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nasht-01 [2004-10-31 17:54:53 +0000 UTC]

great job! very complete!

You're making me wanna play with space scenes again!

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handsinpantsdance [2004-10-31 17:54:32 +0000 UTC]

nvm nvm im a dumbass

didnt extract the files first... sorry

but thanks for this tutorial you da man

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tremorwave [2004-10-31 17:53:40 +0000 UTC]

Well my first comment was shit so i thought after actually downloading it i would add a few extra words.

This is without doubt the best tutorial available on dA and in-fact the entire web.

As a tutorial writer myself I understand the difficulty of writing decent tutorials which provide a good level of detail without being presenting too much to the user in one go. The combination of pragmatic solutions and theory are superb and leaves plenty of room for guided experimentation.

One tricky thing with tutorials is not giving away too much, and so allow others to breeze in and nick ur styles and techniques. Alyn as achieved the perfect balance here and so provided all the details of how to make your own style, and keep little secrets hidden so he can still amaze us in the future.

I only hope people learn from this both in art and tutorial writing, more like this would make dA a better place.

Cheers

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alyn In reply to tremorwave [2004-10-31 23:00:08 +0000 UTC]

thanks a lot for those words bro

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handsinpantsdance [2004-10-31 17:52:43 +0000 UTC]

ehhmmm....i dont know if its just me but when i click on 'clouds' or 'city lights" (or anything) nothing shows up


ill try to download it again i guess...?

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Egomednog [2004-10-31 17:50:54 +0000 UTC]

Sweet, it's great to see the talented people give something to the community. Especially when that something is as useful as this tut.

+fav

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tremorwave [2004-10-31 17:32:59 +0000 UTC]

Cheers

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exceptionallybad [2004-10-31 17:28:04 +0000 UTC]

awesome awesome AWESOME

thank you alyn

now to try out some spaceart

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alexiuss In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 17:27:31 +0000 UTC]

ohh that's nice. Now me gonna attempt drawing a planet, wheeeee.

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zulamun In reply to ??? [2004-10-31 17:25:07 +0000 UTC]

Now thats something we've been waiting for, as soon as i've read it i'll try and give a more useful comment

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bennywai [2004-10-31 17:18:40 +0000 UTC]

you are so kind to tell us your secret in creating this kind of Sci-Fi graphic ~~
I must read this tutorial~
thank you very much~

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Syntik [2004-10-31 17:15:38 +0000 UTC]

great!

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Jojitsu [2004-10-31 17:10:49 +0000 UTC]

Alyn, thank you so much for this piece, I especially need help with my lighting in ym beginning planets, and after I implement some of this stuff, I think it'll turn out great. Bravo.

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I11ustrate [2004-10-31 17:10:39 +0000 UTC]

like omg this is awsome.

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