Planet Tutorial

Artwork Works in Progress
1

Ok so heres my attempt at following the tutorial for making an Earth-like planet:

The tutorial is found athttp://www.enricovalenza.comand all credit goes to that site for all the pictures that I will include and the steps that I followed to complete the planet.

PLEASE NOTE: the blend file is not attached as I have included everything that I did in great detail here.

I’m using Blender 4.42a Win 32 version dynamic

My Setup

  1. I opened a new file. (File > New > Erase All?)

  2. I erased the default “cube mesh” and the default light (delete key > erase selected objects?)

  3. I split my 3D view into 4 screens by right mouse clicking (RMC) and selecting “Split Area” on the small dividing bar that separates the 3D view and the Tab info buttons near the bottom of the screen. I repeated 2 more times on the vertical bar that was created for a total of 4 3D view screens.

  4. I then set the top left screen to view front (hover mouse over it and press keypad 1 key), repeated with top right set to top view (keypad 7), bottom left to side (keypad 3), and the bottom right as the camera view (keypad 0.)

  5. I then zoomed out on all 4 views using the middle mouse wheel button.
    So this setup step is not in the tutorial but is useful for setting up the lights in the next step. Its pretty basic and I do it in all my projects, but I thought I would include it to make sure that I did not leave anything out that I did.

Then I started with my light setup following the tutorial suggestions:

  1. I first Left - clicked in the Top view (top right 3D view) to set the cursor somewhere in that view.

  2. I pressed the “spacebar” button and added a Hemi light for main lighting. (spacebar > add > Lamp > hemi)

  3. I then used the “R” key in the 4 views to point the Hemi twords the middle of the camera view. I also used the “s” key to resize the Hemi light a little bigger.

  4. I then added a Spot light that I set to a light blue color, as the tutorial calls for this. (spacebar > add > Lamp > spot.)

  5. I Rotated the light using R, and resized it using S so that it will cover our planet. I used the Camera view to see how to line it up. (I also set the color light blue by selecting the light and pressing F5, then clicking the color box, then selecting the eyedropper and clicking on a blue at the bottom)

  6. I then added a Lamp at the center of where our Planet will be. (spacebar > add > lamp > LAMP) then
    move the Lamp by selecting it and press the “G” key. Check your 4 views and the camera view to make sure it lines up in the center of the camera shot. That’s where our planet will be going.

  7. The tutorial calls for the Lamp to be “Quad” and “Sphere” (F5 > click “quad” and click “sphere”)
    So the basic light setup is complete. This includes the lightblue spot light, the hemi light for the main lighting and the small lamp light that will be in the center of the globe as the tutorial calls for it.

continued in 2 more posts (max length exceded when together)

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Then I was done with lights so I started on the tutorial for modeling the Planet.

  1. First I added the UV sphere mesh in the TOP view, that’s the top right 3D view so that later on the continents would be lined up correctly on the mesh. (hover mouse over the top view and Spacebar > add > mesh > UV sphere > ok to 32 segs > ok to 32 rings)

  2. Then I used the “s” key to resize it to a larger size, then moved the camera so that it could see all of the UV sphere in one view. (please note depending how large you make the UV sphere you may need to resize your spot light and your hemi light so that they can cover the entire sphere. You may need to move your camera way back too so that it can fit the entire view in. Do a test render to make sure everything is ok (F12)

  3. Next I made sure the surface of the sphere was aimed “outward” by recalculating normals (while in edit mode with sphere selected, then select all the verticies by pressing the “a” key may need to press it twice, then press CTRL + N > recalculate normals outside)

  4. The tutorial calls for 3 UV spheres. These will be used for different textures later in the tutorial. So first we copy the first sphere we added (Shift + D and click once to drop it in the same spot as the original)

  5. Then we resize it to 1.002 (press “S” key and type 1.002 and hit enter) I did not find an easy way to make sure you have the original sphere selected, I would appreciate if someone would tell me how. I decided the easiest way was to go into edit mode and select the sphere and after adding each new sphere going back into edit mode to make sure it was the right one….

  6. Then we Duplicate the Original UV sphere again (Shift + D and click once to drop it in the same spot as the original)

  7. Then we resize this 3rd Sphere to 1.004 (press “S” key and type 1.004 and hit enter)
    So that’s the basic setup for the 3 spheres, one will have most of the textures, one will contain clouds and one will have the atmosphere. So far I think I have done just as the tutorial calls for please read through the information in the tutorial to make sure I have not missed anything as of yet…

Next is something I do not understand at all. The tutorial calls for a tube to be placed into the sceen around the 3 spheres. It offers a gradiant texture (a Dark to light to dark mixture of grey and black) and tells you to Uv map it to the tube. The picture however is no help to show where exactly the tube goes/ or what shape it should be… so heres what I did after reading and reading that section.

“tube” setup:

  1. First you need to add a tube. Its best to do this in the “top” view so that it is the correct shape and you do not need to rotate it  (spacebar > add > mesh > tube)

  2. Then resize it only on the “height” axis (Y axis if your set up correctly) you do this by pressing the “S” key and before moving the mouse press the “Y” key in the “front” view. This will cause the tube to squish down into a thin ring shape. (you can see what im talking about in the picture in the tutorial on page 1)

  3. Then use the “S” key to resize the width in the “Top” view.

  4. Then in editmode press CTRL + N to recalculate normals outward. I left it in a kind of a “belt” position over the 3 spheres for now as I do not know what I was supposed to do for now.

  5. Then we need to apply that gradient texture that is on the first page of the tutorial to the “ring” tube that we created. The tutorial says that it was uv mapped so we need to map it. Easiest way is to change to the UV Editing mode. In your view where it says Edit mode or Object mode in the bottom toolbar, select the small arrow and chose UV Face Select Mode in the popup window.

  6. Press “A” to select all the faces, they will turn purple/pink when they are selected. Please make sure your doing this on the faces of the Ring/Tube we created.

  7. Then in your top right view, The “Top” view, I changed to the UV Image/Edit view by clicking on the # symbol and selecing the “UV Image/Editor.”

  8. Then I loaded the gradient texture that I saved from the website. (clicked Image > Open > image
    location selected and image selected     name of the texture was alonetext.jpeg)

  9. Now set the the “TexFace” button on by clicking on it.

  10. In the MapInput TAB select “UV” button by clicking on it.

  11. In the MapInput TAB select “TUBE” button by clicking on it.

  12. Then hover your mouse over the “Front” view and press the “U” key. This will bring up a menu. Select “Reset 1 / 1” from that menu.

  13. Now in your “UV Image/Editor” view window you see the gradiant texture image you loaded with a purple box over it now. If you were to render the image now, (go ahead and try it F12) there would be vertical bars all over the ring/tube. So you need to rotate that purple box in the UV image/Editor window so that it is vertical. But see now width wise it is way to small to cover the entire texture image? So you need to resize it down in height (“s” key and the “Y” key to restrict size change to height only) and then make it wider to cover the entire texture (“s” key and the “X” key to restrict size change to width only)

  14. Now if you press F12 you see that the Ring/Tube has the same texture that is in the tutorial picture…

  15. Reset the UV Image Editor Window back to the 3D view by clicking on the small face icon and selecting 3D view from the choices. Then press “numberPad 7” to reset the top right window to the “top” view (make sure your mouse is over the correct window.)
    Ok so that’s what I did for the Tube/ring that the tutorial calls for, I got the texture to be applied to the ring in the correct fashion but im clueless as to the exact posisition of the ring and what it is for. Never-the-less im sure I can continue with the tutorial without major problems until later so I continued…

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Ok so far everything that I did was from the fist page of the tutorial, now on to page 2!

Ok so now that lights, tube/ring, and the spheres are set up we need to start adding our textures to the sphere. Here’s exactly what I did as I followed along the tutorial…

  1. Select the First (smallest) sphere we created. ( In Object mode I zoomed way in on the edge of the 3 spheres and then selected the sphere by clicking on the one I thought was the smallest. Then I pressed tab to go into edit mode and checked that it was infact the smallest UV sphere as its easier to see in Edit mode … I don’t know any easier way to do this… but im sure there is)

  2. Then I went into material edit tab (F5)

  3. Went into material button (red sphere) and clicked “Add New.”

  4. I then follwed the following settings for the material of our planet as shown in the tutorial:

a. Material TAB:

i. Set COL to: R .78 G .538 B .173
ii. Set SPE to: R .878 G .890 B .729
iii. Set MIR to: R .000 G .100 B .200

b. Shaders TAB:

i. Spec to: .250
ii. Hard to: 35
iii. Amb to: 0
iv. Emit to .15

c. PLEASE NOTE! I think the creator of the tutorial was using an earlier version of the program as the buttons he has pressed on in the shaders tab are not the same button choices I have. So here is what he has and what I set mine up as.

i. THE TUTORIAL WANTS:

  1. Halo – OFF
  2. Traceable – ON
  3. Shadow – ON
  4. TraShadow – OFF
  5. Radio – OFF

ii. I HAVE SET UP:

  1. Tangent – OFF
  2. Shadow – ON
  3. TraShadow – OFF
  4. OnlySha – OFF
  5. Bias – ON

d. Then we set up the 8 Textures that are used, press (F6) to open the texture TAB. Then click “Add New” to add a texture. Click on the texture name to rename it.

  1. Texture Named “Colvenus”

a. Set Map Input to UV in the Map Input tab (in the material buttons tab, red sphere)
b. Set Map Input to Flat
c. Size x to 4.0, size y and size z to 4.0
d. Then in the MapTo TAB select COL button
e. In the MapTo TAB Change the color from bright pink to White (R 1 G 1 B 1)
f. Set COL in the MapTo TAB: .369
g. Set Nor in the MapTo TAB to .150
h. PLEASE NOTE in my version I have some extra settings here I just left them at their default values.
e. Then I applied the VenusColor map to the sphere by UV mapping it. To do this I did the following:

i. In Editmode I selected all the verticies by pressing the “A” key until all the verticies were yellow indicating they were selected.
ii. Then I press CTRL + N to recalculate normals outside.
iii. Then I clicked On “set Smooth” to smooth out the sphere
iv. Then in the view select I changed “edit mode” to “UV Face Select Mode.”
v. Then I made sure I had all the faces of the sphere selected by pressing the “A” key until the entire sphere was all purple/pink.
vi. Then in your top Left view, The “Front” view, I changed to the UV Image/Edit view by clicking on the # symbol and selecing the “UV Image/Editor.”
vii. Then I loaded the VenusColorMap texture that I found Online. (clicked Image > Open > image location selected and image selected)
viii. Now set the the “TexFace” button on by clicking on it.
ix. In the MapInput TAB select “UV” button by clicking on it.
x. In the MapInput TAB select “SPHERE” button by clicking on it.
xi. Then hover your mouse over the “Top” view and press the “U” key. This will bring up a menu. Select “Sphere From View” from that menu.
xii. Now in your “UV Image/Editor” view window you see the VenusColor map texture image you loaded with a buncha unwrapped sphere verticies over it now. I moved any that were outside the picture back onto the picture.
xiii. Now if you press F12 you WILL SEE NOTHING!!! This is because there are 2 larger spheres covering up the one that has the image on it… so you will have to trust that you set everything up correctly :stuck_out_tongue: (there may be a way but I have no idea how… )
xiv. Reset the UV Image Editor Window back to the 3D view by clicking on the small face icon and selecting 3D view from the choices. Then press “numberPad 1” to reset the top left window to the “Front” view (make sure your mouse is over the correct window.)

f. It then calls for the same venus color map in a GrayScale format for the next few textures… so repeat the above steps for the color map for the follow textures:

i. Create Specvenus texture (load the grayscale map and UV map it)
ii. Create Diffvenus texture (load the grayscale map and UV map it)
iii. Create Emitvenus texture (load the grayscale map and UV map it)

OK im going to stop there for now, I know theres settings for the Specvenus, Diffvenus and Emitvenus Textures, but the problem is this: Im not really sure if im supposed to UV map those grayscale images to the sphere…. If I am how do I make sure the ColorVenus map stays with the Colvenus texture and that the grayscale ones stay with the the other textures….

Also this is a good spot for anyone to tell me if I have done anything wrong yet 

Thanks for the help in advance let me know what I need to do differently as I am struggling to learn this process. My goal is to make sure I understand it inside out as I plan on making a buncha planets for the StarTrek-Online.net MMORPG game that is in Beta development at this time 

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edit

5

edit

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It’s totally on you if UVmap the textures or apply them in OrCo mode (in the end the result is the same). The only important thing is to map all of them the same way.

7

tips his hat first very nice tutorial you made bro, some of it i dont understand… Im assuming your respose is to the question i asked at the end? What i would like to do is do whatever you did in the tutorial… I assume that you UV mapped the grayscale pictures on the same UV sphere over the Venus color map (colvenus texture?)

so amoung some other problems i need these questions awnsered first:

1. How do I see how things are progressing with the two spheres covering the first one that you start your tutorials with?
UPDATED (fixed this myself :slight_smile: found out if you duplicate the three items in edit mode when you render the two on top stay “invisable”)

2. How do I UV map the grayscale images over an already UV mapped color image on the UVSphere? From what i understand you cant keep stacking UVmapped images over each other/ them seem to be just replaced? can u actually stack them and if so how?
UPDATED*******(fixed this myself took env’s advice and im not UV mapping them just loading the images and using Orco and Sphere in the Map INput tab)

3. If i dont UV map the Grayscale images, do i just apply them as a texture in Orco mode as a “sphere map to setting?” or is there something more then that to get it to work?
UPDATED*******(fixed this myself took env’s advice and im not UV mapping them just loading the images and using Orco and Sphere in the Map INput tab)

  1. Is there an easier way to select the innermost Sphere? I seem to have trouble making sure i have it selected and not the 2 spheres that cover it?

  2. I have no idea what/ where you want that gradient textured tube to go… could u explain what you would do with it once you ahve the spheres and it created? i understand the shap and the texture i think… but where the heck does it go?

  3. NEW I now cant seem to get the settings right for the continents. I mean i used “Use alpha” and “Calc alpha” with a “the rivers” picture of the earth continets just like in the tutorial. But there isnt much differnce between the water and the land. In the tutorial the land is “matt” color with not much reflection/spec… in my renders with the settings that the tutorial has my land is almost as “shiny” as the water…

i really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this… if you could help me iron out the problems im having doing this tutorial i really think it will make me a better Blender user for it :slight_smile:

thanks again,

8

could use some help still, although i did figure out some of the problems i had… could someone help me with the new ones?

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  1. Is there an easier way to select the innermost Sphere? I seem to have trouble making sure i have it selected and not the 2 spheres that cover it?
    Just use the outliner, I’d say. :slight_smile:
  1. I have no idea what/ where you want that gradient textured tube to go… could u explain what you would do with it once you ahve the spheres and it created? i understand the shap and the texture i think… but where the heck does it go?
    The gradient textured tube is useful only if you are doing an “orbit” shot of the planet, and it must be placed exactly as shown in the picture in the tut. For a whole planet you can’t use it (but you won’t see atmosphere halo in a whole planet shot).
  1. NEW I now cant seem to get the settings right for the continents. I mean i used “Use alpha” and “Calc alpha” with a “the rivers” picture of the earth continets just like in the tutorial. But there isnt much differnce between the water and the land. In the tutorial the land is “matt” color with not much reflection/spec… in my renders with the settings that the tutorial has my land is almost as “shiny” as the water…
    Did you set the texture to “stencil”?
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  1. Is there an easier way to select the innermost Sphere? I seem to have trouble making sure i have it selected and not the 2 spheres that cover it?

Just use the outliner, I’d say. :slight_smile:

Im sorry, i do not know what “the outliner” is? is that a tool?

  1. I have no idea what/ where you want that gradient textured tube to go… could u explain what you would do with it once you ahve the spheres and it created? i understand the shap and the texture i think… but where the heck does it go?

The gradient textured tube is useful only if you are doing an “orbit” shot of the planet, and it must be placed exactly as shown in the picture in the tut. For a whole planet you can’t use it (but you won’t see atmosphere halo in a whole planet shot).

Ok that helps alot :slight_smile: thank you for clearing that up. I will skip that part because i will be using an Entire sphere and it will be for a still image render not for annimations.

  1. NEW I now cant seem to get the settings right for the continents. I mean i used “Use alpha” and “Calc alpha” with a “the rivers” picture of the earth continets just like in the tutorial. But there isnt much differnce between the water and the land. In the tutorial the land is “matt” color with not much reflection/spec… in my renders with the settings that the tutorial has my land is almost as “shiny” as the water…

Did you set the texture to “stencil”?

Yes, if by that you mean, did I click the “stencil” option in the Map Tab. But all i changed for settings is what i saw in your tutorial. The thing is, I do see the difference in the “water” and “land” but its not anything like how much difference you have in your tutorial…

also i now have a few more questions:

  1. When I add the “specvenus” “diffvenus” and “emitvenus” textures i know they are to effect the spec, diffuse, and emit of the picture. but what i dont know is what settings i need for these. In the attempt i did all i did was add the grayscale picture of the colormap to all three with no setting changes. then i noticed they just stacked… so i changed the col value to .369 and norm to .15 as in the first texture (colvenus.) that seemed to help but it doesnt look exactly like your pictures in the tutorial… could you explain what settings are for the textures?
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>>> 4. Is there an easier way to select the innermost Sphere? I seem to have trouble making sure i have it selected and not the 2 spheres that cover it?

alt-click in 3d view ?
… outliner if you’re smart and organized.

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The thing is, I do see the difference in the “water” and “land” but its not anything like how much difference you have in your tutorial…
This can be due to the fact that Blender render has slightly changed in time, so maybe the results with same setting can be different.
BTW, can we see an image of the effect?

  1. When I add the “specvenus” “diffvenus” and “emitvenus” textures i know they are to effect the spec, diffuse, and emit of the picture. but what i dont know is what settings i need for these. In the attempt i did all i did was add the grayscale picture of the colormap to all three with no setting changes. then i noticed they just stacked… so i changed the col value to .369 and norm to .15 as in the first texture (colvenus.) that seemed to help but it doesnt look exactly like your pictures in the tutorial… could you explain what settings are for the textures?
    As above. Where not indicated, the setting for textures in the tut are default (I can’t check the file at the moment). In any case, you could play with the setting to look for a pleasent result, nothing in the tute was meant as a rule, just indications.:slight_smile:

EDIT: look in the window type menù for the outliner, it’s very handy.

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ok so heres the pictures, i had hope that i would have this figured out by now but no such luck so:

first I set up my lights:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image1-2.jpg

Then I added the 3 spheres, but i noticed when i tried to render, the 2 top spheres cover up the middlemost sphere so all my renders were just showing the basic surface of the 3rd (largest sphere) so i deleted all the spheres except for 1. Now the rest of these pictures are for that 1 sphere, but i dont even get to the point where i need all 3 so heres what i did so far…

sphere with lights:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image2-1.jpg

sphere with material / color applied:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image4-1.jpg

Colvenus texture i used:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/venusmap.jpg

sphere with Colvenus texture:

This is what your tutorial says it should look like-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/1-3.jpg

and this is what i got…

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image5.jpg

Here is the Grayscale of the Colorvenus that i use with the next 3 textures:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/venusbump.jpg

sphere with Specvenus texture:

This is what your tutorial shows-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/2-3.jpg

and this is what i got-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image6.jpg

sphere with Diffvenus texture:

this is what your tutorial has-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/3-3.jpg

and this is how mine came out-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image7.jpg

sphere with Emitvenus texture:

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image8.jpg

sphere with Mapocieansi texture:

here is the texture i used-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/earthspec1ktransp.jpg

and here is what your tutorial says it should look like-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/5-3.jpg

and heres what i got-

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image10.jpg

if you look carefully in the above picture you can see the North america in the top right…

i turned off the “Nor” in Map to an turned on “Col” and this is what i got …

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j270/HighCommander/Image9.jpg

ok so as i see it theres 2 major problems…

  1. cant seem to figure out how to see whats going on under the 2 spheres that your tutorial calls for that cover the “planet”

  2. I have applyed the color texture and the grayscale textures as the tutorial calls for. in the “Map To” options on ALL!!! the textures i selected “col .369” “Nor .15” (except for the last Maskoceansi texture i set it up with Nor clicked twice like your tutorial says and the “col set to 1.0” with “nor set to .08”

thanks for takeing the time, please help :slight_smile:

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Well, first, your render is very more far than mine, so the effect can be less visible and look like different…
Second, I think you have a different color for the lamp’s light, mine was more yellow-reddish than yours (I think you have to change it from the dark blue you have and increase the energy value too, try 2.00 or 3.00).
Third, my lamp had raytraced shadows and not buffered (longer rendering times but it’s worth it).
Fourth, I’m not sure but it looks like you have the “Col” option checked also for the spec, diff and emit textures. In this case, uncheck them.

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Noted, however It is because of some more major problems that it looks so different (read below)

Your tutorial calls for the spot light to be blue in color for ambient space lighting, and I used a white Hemi lamp for the main lighting of the sceen. However i changed the Hemi to a light yellow and the spot light to a light orange and it seems to be a bit better.

WOW! big difference much better that way! thanks :slight_smile:

THATS IT!! woot hehe. That made a huge difference in the way it is coming out… im going to work on it some more and post any new problems i have but I think that takes care of all the major problems…

off the top of my head i still need these awnsered:

  1. for the Specvenus texture i clicked “spec” in the map to tab. For the Diffvenus texture what do i click?

  2. I dont have Gimp, and im using a black and white “land” map. I am using the “Use Alpha” and “Calc Alpha” buttons and they seem to be working fine. what i need to know is how do you create that slightly textured look to the water when you do it that way?

  3. What is a “blendSphere” and how do u blend 2 textures to one texture spot?

thanks again ENV for all the time your taking to help me understand this :slight_smile:

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  1. for the Specvenus texture i clicked “spec” in the map to tab. For the Diffvenus texture what do i click?

Ref.

  1. I dont have Gimp, and im using a black and white “land” map. I am using the “Use Alpha” and “Calc Alpha” buttons and they seem to be working fine. what i need to know is how do you create that slightly textured look to the water when you do it that way?

What textured effect are you referring to, exactly?

  1. What is a "blendSphere

A procedural “Blend” textures, select “sphere” option (between “Diag” and “halo” in the second horizontal row of options).

and how do u blend 2 textures to one texture spot?"

What?

thanks again ENV for all the time your taking to help me understand this :slight_smile:

You are welcome.

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EDIT: Whoops… wrong reply to the wrong thread :stuck_out_tongue: