Maps of the planets

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hi Guys,
I’d like to work on some animations of the Solar System and I found some great tutorials on how to create a nice view of the Earth. I’d like to work on other planets and also less known dwarf planets [Pluto, Ceres, etc.].
I know that NASA released to the public the maps of those planets and dwarf planets as much as some models of asteroids.
I tried to take a look at the NASA website but no trace of HD maps there.
Does someone know where can I find that material? Of course it doesn’t necessarily be NASA “branded”… I’m just looking for nice albedos in order to create my own Solar System.

Thank you for your help :slight_smile:

2

You can try this, thougth some textures are not free:
http://planetpixelemporium.com/

3

Hi Secrop,
This is my very first and only resource for this kind of assets. It’s a great website and the owner did a wonderful work with this maps… But recently new maps have been released to the public [i.e. the one of Pluto extremely detailed] and I was asking myself where to find those NASA assets…

4

You can find nasa textures in these websites:
http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/
http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/

For Earth textures you can go to the bluemarble website:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_cat.php?categoryID=1484

Another good resource is the celestia motherlode:
http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/solarsystem.php

But afaik, most new imagery from nasa is not ready for being used in texturing for not being complete.

5

Thank you a lot!!!

6

only thing be careful to size of file
NASA is beginning to have maps in the 8 K 16 K and even 32 K

I mean these are getting in the GB in size
and not certain if bl can handle that much or if you have enough memory on your system

happy cl

7

Not sure how these will work, or if they are even in a usable file format. I never downloaded them as I use Space Engine for other things than the Solar System. But check out these:
http://en.spaceengine.org/load/

http://bjj.mmedia.is/data/s_rings/index.html
Quite old stuff, but still a must read (and download) if you plan to do Saturn and ringed planets. I never tried in Blender, but I suspect forward and backscatter to be rather trivial, but variations due to phase angle may need a hack (plausible since it’s a single light source).

My own attempt waaaaaaay back in time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPwNrop6KN8
My attempt of an evolving procedural gas planet map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wros1fEFauY
Closeup/flyby of the same thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wros1fEFauY
Jerky movement is blamed on youtube (or possibly stone age old codec not compatible with youtube).
Sadly Blender lacks some features to make this possible (4D noise).

Word of advice; don’t attempt to create everything at once using proper relative scales. If big, may get out of bounds. And if small, floats may get too inaccurate. I learned this the hard way way back when :smiley:

8

Hi,
Checking online I found different maps on smaller websites.
The map of Jupiter was found on http://planetpixelemporium.com/planets.html while the maps of the satellites appeared when I searched them on google on several sites.

I made a first small rendering. What you think so far? No stars or maps for Ganymede and Callisto. A friend made me notice that it still seems too “huge ball” and not planet. Do you have any advices? I added a little atmosphere around the planet. Jupiter, being a gas planet is actually “all atmosphere”, but I’d like to make this work really realistic, modelling also the other planets…

All the advices are welcome!
Thank you guys

prova_giove.jpg1536×864 51.1 KB