[Topgun]

It was going to be used for star wars, but I don't think Chief will mind. ask him anyway just encase.

anyway, lets say I want to make a planet that looks exactly like a planet from a movie or something, how? I can make good planets but can't make good copies of planets.

And how do you make a skybox?

[ShadowGorrath]

Your planet needs to have an alpha channel. And then you just use a skybox model like in Earth Defence Demo ( Earth ) or Blue Planet ( the Delta Serpentis planet ).

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I'm done with it. I've tried to take all your comments into account and I must say I like the outcome. Here it is, in full size:



If anyone wants to use it, just ask me and I'll upload the version with alpha channel. Below, the other pic:

[ShadowGorrath]

I want. It's full size though, right ? It'd be good if it was 2048x2048, but oh well.

[Snail]

You still have it's instead of its.

[ShadowGorrath]

Um... It's supposed to be like so ? 'It's' is correct. 'Its' is NOT correct.

[Snail]

Um... It's supposed to be like so ? 'It's' is correct. 'Its' is NOT correct.

WRONG.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

@SG: Here it is. It's about 2200x2200, so you can rescale it if you like. Do I get a place in the credits now?

[Snail]

I am right, you are wrong.

[ShadowGorrath]

@Snail: You get a 2/F in grammar now.

FreeSpaceFreak, you already have a place in the credits for the green planet. Just that now the place in the credits is larger. 

[Snail]

Check it, I am right.

It's = It is
Its = Possessive

[Herra Tohtori]

Snail, you should elaborate that you meant the planet description on the screenshot and not ShadowGorrath's message, to which you seemed to respond...

...SD Lucifer bombarded the planet with it's flux beam cannons...

...which should indeed be "its".


However, you wrote your message immediately after this:

I want. It's full size though, right ? It'd be good if it was 2048x2048, but oh well.

...which confused at least me for a while until I figured out what was going on, because in that quoted message, things are how they should be.


The planet looks pretty horrible. As in, not a place to be. Technically and aesthetically it looks good.

[Snail]

I'm a complete idiot, you know.

Anyhow, nice planet.

[haloboy100]

I'm a complete idiot, you know.

Anyhow, nice planet.

Oh. Now you are the idiot

And yeah, the new planet looks quite nice

[Snail]

Oh. Now you are the idiot

I've been an idiot all my life

(granted, when I was born I was probably 5 times more intelligent than I am now, but that's beside the point)

[M87]

You all have been producing outstanding pieces of artwork. Just a quick thanks from me for everyone's contribution. FreeSpaceFreak, your Vasuda Prime looks great. What program did you use to construct the planet's parent star in your image?

I have been working on a new planet for about 20 hours now, so I'll see if I can post a preview later on tonight.

EDIT:



This planet is actually a render from 3ds Max. It has a radius of 6228.71 km, as scaled in the program (for those who are interested in knowing the dimensions). The planet found in the FS2 intro was a primary inspiration for this render. Compared to the other planets I have done, I would have to say this one is far more subtle in terms of color, even more so than the planet seen in the intro. I am content with the planet as it is, but if you all believe I should increase the saturation in order to make it look more like the planet in the cutscene, I'll make the changes and provide an update over the weekend.

[Herra Tohtori]

Actually saturation looks nice, not all rock planets' atmospheres scatter blue like Earth's. But is it possible to move the cloud layer to an invisible sphere a bit higher than the ground texture, then make that cast a shadow to the surface? What about normal/bump maps, especially for cloud layer? In a 3D renderer it would be a lot easier to make lighting accurate for terrain elevations, so I would definitely be using that... AS it is, it looks a bit "flat".

On GIMP, I usually duplicate the cloud layer(s), then invert colours on the lower one, increase the size one or two per cent on the higher, and the reduce the opacity of the lower one with suitable layer mode so that it looks like a shadow from the clouds cast onto the surface. Then I might move the shadowing layer to some direction a few pixels if the lighting comes from sides or up or down... And I also usually bump the cloud layer at least once based on itself, which makes it gain some pseudo-depth in itself.

It looks good anyway.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

O.o That planet looks AWESOME. It really looks like the desert dust is colouring the oceans. It's a 3D model, right?
My planets are entirely done in the GIMP. I'll post some more when I get out of my exams.

[Retsof]

I'm having some trouble with the sphere designer (that is how you get the terminator, right?).  I cant get it to be completely dark on one side while still being light on the other.

[Herra Tohtori]

I'm having some trouble with the sphere designer (that is how you get the terminator, right?).  I cant get it to be completely dark on one side while still being light on the other.

No sphere designer... Make a square planet texture and map it to sphere (Map to object). Lighting takes care of terminator automatically that way.

Better yet, make two separate textures for ground and water... then set reflections to zero for ground and suitable amount for water. You're gonna need to play around with transparency stuff in layers to get it work right though.