Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: themodman101 on February 07, 2009, 12:26:01 pm
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I heard about this site on the total war forums, and heard that somone might need my particular talent..
(http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/5214/planetmelodiusblooddiamdh2.jpg)
(http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/6301/planetbloodmoonfarawayaj0.jpg)
(http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3126/planetforlornhoperx7.jpg)
(http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3638/planetforlornhopecloselry9.jpg)
(http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6043/planetsclosebygd8.jpg)
Keep in mind this required a little photoshoping as well.
(http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7572/soclosetohomecj7.th.jpg) (http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=soclosetohomecj7.jpg)
(http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7442/planetspl2.jpg)
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appriciated ;)
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Those are perfect! Would you like to join Earth Defense mod? - linkey :) (http://www.game-warden.com/earthdefence/)
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These look EPIC! :yes:
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Wow. Just... :eek2: The only little issue I can think of is the hard edge on your atmospheres; personally, I prefer them to be slightly more blurry. What programs do you use?
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Lemme make this really simple:
:jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw:
You, sir, are awesome.
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Haha, thanks for the kind words.
@Shiv
Looking at the link now.. :D
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Lemme make this really simple:
:jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw:
You, sir, are awesome.
Damn, those are nice!
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themodman101, you're on the team :) Welcome! :D
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Thanks tin foil :D
The programs i used are
TTG
3DSMAX 9
Photoshop CS3
I thin that's it.
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I heard about this site on the total war forums, and heard that somone might need my particular talent..
(http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/5214/planetmelodiusblooddiamdh2.jpg)
(http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/6301/planetbloodmoonfarawayaj0.jpg)
(http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3126/planetforlornhoperx7.jpg)
(http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3638/planetforlornhopecloselry9.jpg)
(http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6043/planetsclosebygd8.jpg)
Keep in mind this required a little photoshoping as well.
(http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7572/soclosetohomecj7.jpg)
(http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7442/planetspl2.jpg)
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appriciated ;)
The planets and suns look great, awesome even, but the background starfields seem to be of lower resolution and thus a bit blurry compared to the planets - don't know if it's an intentional "depth of field" effect or just limitations of background source imagery. Also, theres's a bit too much stars on the background for my personal tastes but that's just me.
Protip:
[lvlshot]http://image.url[/lvlshot]
...is a lot easier to use than the tags you used (and creates linkable images even). ;)
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Thanks for the tip :D
Yeah i have very limited source imagery, do you guys have any suggestions??
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You didn't make those planets. Unless of course you're this guy: http://hoevelkamp.deviantart.com/ :doubt:
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->Hellstryker: Innocent until proven guilty I say... :nervous: Though that is kinda suspicious, I'm gonna ignore it for now and concentrate on sharing the knowledge.
Basic starfields aren't difficult to make... nebulas and details like milky way (denser but weaker stars basically) take some time to get looking real...
Grayscale noise level 0.20 -> Brightness/Contrast ~ 60/110 creates a pretty good, very basic starfield. However it's important to have your monitor correctly calibrated because otherwise there's going to be contrast/brightness issues and people are going to say that there's too many or too little stars and yadda yadda. The contrast and brightness can be adjusted to change the density of the starfield and the strength of it.
Then you can do things to it with layer modes and gaussian blur [values 1.5 - 2 gaussian blur tend to look good IMO] and colouration to put in some weakly red, blue, yellow and orange hue to the brightest stars.
This is a good sample of this technique, however it is optimized for use as FS2 skybox background, not an art background especially. Click to enlarge to epic proportions (2048^2).
(http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/1231/starfieldmj6.png)
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Thanks for the tips herra tohtori.
@Hellstryker:
I don't see anythin in his gallery that looks like my stuff. I'll admit, he's WAY better then I am. Practice makes perfect i guess.
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http://hoevelkamp.deviantart.com/art/DA-Birthday-Stock-Planets-93986061 The middle one reminded me of the third and fourth images you posted, although looking at it now I don't think it's the same planet.
The first picture reminded me of this one: http://hoevelkamp.deviantart.com/art/an-alien-planet-free-source-62504836
That's really, really weird. They aren't the same planets, but they're amazingly similar :eek2:
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Yeah, they are pretty similer. Kinda wierd actually :eek:
I guess i'll have to practice more, so i can get that good... :D
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wow those are great! my planets look like kids work compared to this :O
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wow those are great! my planets look like kids work compared to this :O
Thanks for your kind words, and i wish you the best of luck with your work. if you want any help i'm availible :yes:
(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1308/planetvulcanvb4.jpg)
Direct link: http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1308/planetvulcanvb4.jpg
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Total Awesomeness, however I concur, tone the number of stars down a bit, but either way it looks awesome
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I'd love it if you gave us a "here's how I do my planets" type of thread :) I do pretty good, but I'd love to do better and knowing how others do theirs really helps! :)
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I guess i could, if you guys wanna learn! lol
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By the way there's a long thread about planets et al, right here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41939.0.html).
Topic merge?
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Nah, that seems to be primarily about planets made only in GIMP or PS. This is different.
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Its not that different, actually - both have pretty looking planets and backgrounds. I do believe some in the Celestial Objects thread are made by mapping stuff to spheres in 3d programs and the like.
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One of the guys in there kinda sorta uses the same techniques as i do. I like to have a perfect balence in programs and source imagery that i use. Only my textures and explosions are done in photoshop. The rest is extreme tweaking in 3dsmx and a TG program.
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Thanks for your kind words, and i wish you the best of luck with your work. if you want any help i'm availible :yes:
well now that you mention it.. I would really like to know how you get the cloud effect so real.. you use a real earth cloud map? and how do you get the shadow to project over the surface of the planet correctly? particulary this last one seems to be way out of my league..and would add a incredibly realistic touch to my work.
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Haha, okay sure.. I use these:
http://www.shadedrelief.com/natural3/pages/clouds.html
I edit them in photoshop to sharpen them up, add and delete cloud formations using the heal brush.
Maybe i should write a tutorial style thing, but ive never done that sort of thing before. I guess there is a first time for everything... ;)
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I recognized those cloud formations... I used those maps too in the past and they are great.
If you want to write a tut that's nice, lot of people here will get involved about it and the more the better, I currently use GIMP but I can find the equilvalent for the processes you do on photoshop (or most of them) if I look for it.
tnks for the tip!
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Cool stuff, bro. I'll have to get back to try and GIMPing planets sometime. I remember I made a pretty kickass gas giant a while back, but I think I lost it...
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Okay, i'll start working on it soon. and thanks :D
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Ive been trying to perfect my techneque before i make a tutorial type thing...
The detail i'm going into is insane now. Please welcome a planet with a 16,000 X 8,000 Texture and a cloud map made from almost completly scratch..
(http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3094/planetparuzaria2.jpg)
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that's really cool. the way you used the sunspots to give it that depth works out perfectly :yes: :D
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AWESOME :D
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ohh now I see... so you get the shadow effect with 3ds or some other modeling tool right?
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That's truly AWESOME!
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16 000 x 8000 ?!? :eek2: Nice one!
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@Rodo:
Yeah, i use the IES sun in 3dsmax to project a shadow map onto the planet. It's a ray traced shadow map, so the details could go on forever. The only limit for me right now is my PC.
@ FreeSpaceFreak:
Haha, yeah well technicly. I split the texture in mozaic tiles, so technicly it's 32,000 X 16,000. I can zoom WAY into the planet and you can see cities and streets.
Out of curiosity, do you think it would be worth packaging a planet+Textures into a Zip file? That way you could look and see exactly what you want to do as far as layers go and stuff??
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...
Out of curiosity, do you think it would be worth packaging a planet+Textures into a Zip file? That way you could look and see exactly what you want to do as far as layers go and stuff??
me thinks, yes!
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Okay, will do. You know what??.. I had no idea how complicated the process is that i use to make these :shaking:
It's incredible..... :eek2:
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Well, the results are definitely worth it.
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I envy that shadows projecting on the planet's surface... no clue how to achieve that without a modeling tool right?
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I don't think so, I use 3dsmax to cast the shadows.
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Okay, i have a question. How do i make a PDF??? I know i have to have adobe reader right?? That seams like the best course of action, that way i can include images and stuff. As there are a lot of steps to cover.
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Well, try PDFconverter. It's freeware AFAIK.
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Okay, ive been trying to deside on a layout. And i think i may have a good one..
How I Make My Planets:
Programs I use:
PhotoShop CS3
3dsmax 9
Creation of the textures:
This is done only in photoshop, because I don't have Gimp anymore.
IMAGE SIZE:
This is a defining point of how good your planet will look, and many people will have fewer options here due to PC limitations.
I personaly use 16,000 X 8,000 pixels, this makes an image that is at least 400 MB without any editing, so make sure you have Plenty of RAM and a good CPU.
For this tutorial i will use a 10,000 X 5,000 pixel template as it is quite balenced..
CREAT YOUR CANVAS:
In photo shop. Click File/New and create a image at the size of 10,000 X 5,000 pixels:
{IMAGE1}
Now depending on the type of the planet that your aiming for you will use the bucket tool to fill the canvas with the color that you want the planet to be(In this case "Red")
{IMAGE2}
Choose a brush that has a good and random spread
{IMAGE3}
Ajust the brush size to somewhere close too 1000 pixels..
{IMAGE4}
Change the color your going to paint to a slightly darker color, in theis case a darker red.. then start painting random spots onto the canvas till it looks like this:
{IMAGE5}
Now you'll need some Reference imagery so you can paint the details. Or in some cases just copy and paste and change the layers..
The best refernence imagry i have been able to find so far is to use the google image search, type in "Satalite Image"
The Application off reference imagery:
This is the part that makes or breaks how good your planet will look.. And will require a good amount of time to perfect your skills.
Well what do you guys think?? Good enough to continue?
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Definitely :):yes:
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I have neither of the programs you are using, but I'll come arround with what I have, go on it's going ok so far.
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@ RODO:
That's okay, the process that i use should be very easy to transfer to other programs, as there is nothin in particularly unique... just alot of tweaking.. lol
I'll keep going, and thanks for your support guys... :D