Planet Image Creation

[Soylent_Green]

I have a couple of questions and wondered if anyone here can help.

I'd like to create some images of planets for my Mongoose Traveller campaign, and have seen some nice ones made using Terragen. Having downloaded the free version of the software though, it looks like a pretty steep learning curve to get to the point where I can create something convincing myself. Is there:

• 
  Another, simpler program that will do the job just as well, or

• A really easy to follow tutorial that will help me get to grips with Terragen.

I don't mind investing a bit of time in this, since once I've created one planet I will need and use quite a few more, but I don't want it to take all my spare time.

 

[BeRKA]

Lunarcell is very easy to use:
http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html

 

[Otto Harkaman]

Lunarcell is very easy to use:
http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html

Looks interesting haven't messed with photoshop plugins for a long time.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

I don't know how controllable it is though, lots and lots of settings

I just used one of the presets

 

[Otto Harkaman]

too bad you can't use a bitmap for the landmasses

 

[Ruarigh]

I use Fractal Terrains 3 with the Terraformer add-on. It does the job nicely, as long as you don't want specific landmass layouts. I've heard that Bryce will do the job but have only just got a computer that will run it, so I have not experimented with it yet and cannot tell you how easy it is.

This is a basic layout I did with FT3 and Photoshop. The newest version has clouds added but I have not done enough with it to upload it yet.

You can see the full post on my blog with other images HERE.

I'm still learning, as the images show! I find FT3 and Campaign Cartographer 3 really easy to use so I like them, but they do cost money.

 

[whartung]

There's been a history of these floating around the web. I think they seem to get better over time.

This is the first google hit of "gimp planet tutorial". No doubt there are some for photoshop.

I have not tried this one, I have played with others in the past with mixed results.

http://mygimptutorial.com/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial

If nothing else, it's free and cross platform.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

loaded the flaming pear 64bit plugins into photoshop. I was using older versions in fireworks. Yes I was thinking of Bryce, it can use a grayscale bitmap for elevations.

 

[BytePro]

Otto Harkaman,

I really like the surface of the top (planet03) - is that from the flaming pear plugin?

 

[Otto Harkaman]

Otto Harkaman,

I really like the surface of the top (planet03) - is that from the flaming pear plugin?

Yes they are all from the flaming pear plugin. There are some basic controls to change terrain but nothing precise. It looks like you can export the terrains to a bitmap that you can later use in a 3d program from what the manual says.

 

[BytePro]

Thanks - yeah I've used it in the past. You can certainly export out various bitmaps - including height maps and cloud maps.

I particularly like that 'canal' type formation and mountainous convolutions in the center of that view (just below and to right of what you zoomed in on ).

 

[JimMarn]

I use Fractal Terrains 3 with the Terraformer add-on. It does the job nicely, as long as you don't want specific landmass layouts. I've heard that Bryce will do the job but have only just got a computer that will run it, so I have not experimented with it yet and cannot tell you how easy it is.

(snip)

You can see the full post on my blog with other images HERE.

I'm still learning, as the images show! I find FT3 and Campaign Cartographer 3 really easy to use so I like them, but they do cost money.

I use those as well. FT3 makes worlds, and CC3 edits them. You can do some editing in FT 3, but I find it much easier to use CC3 on the export fcw (map) files.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

Well that Flaming Pear plugin is pretty interesting. Not having done any 3d I was able to export files and then load them into Swift 3d. fun

 

[Soylent_Green]

Thanks guys. That flaming pear plugin looks especially good, although I note it uses Photoshop which isn't the most intuitive program.

Time to do some google searches for suitable tutorials

 

[Scarecrow]

There's this:

http://mygimptutorial.com/the-ultimate-gimp-planet-tutorial

Which is a nifty 2D tutorial for Gimp. I use Photoshop but my process is almost identical.

In fact the tutorial I first learned from is here:

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html

And another simple but effective Photoshop one:

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs8/f/2006/350/7/1/Planet_Tutorial_by_MCchaz.png

I know you say you want to avoid Photoshop, I guess the process is the same regardless of art package, but you will need a fairly decent one.

Crow

 

[Otto Harkaman]

Thanks guys. That flaming pear plugin looks especially good, although I note it uses Photoshop which isn't the most intuitive program.

Time to do some google searches for suitable tutorials

If you can get a hold of the lynda.com videos on photoshop, that is what I would do. I think you would want to know how to use Photoshop if you are going to be doing this kind of stuff. You could paint a spaceport on the above color terrain pic above and then go further and create the elevation on the grayscale pic for the port.

I had used fairly low rez to map on the 3d ball for example. I am sure you could use larger more detailed ones.

photoshop, lynda.com

 

[Icosahedron]

I wrote a Gimp planets tutorial over on Cartographers Guild a few years ago (is it really that long ago??). Not sure exactly where in the tutorials section it is, but I'm sure a site search would find it. I use 'icosahedron' there, too, if it helps.
I've not been there for a while, though.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

Been fiddling around some more.

I think you can output the atmosphere and clouds separate. The bitmap on the globe needs some adjusting. I can see the seam from where it is wrapped around. I don't know why the plugin creates the wide warping areas. I don't know if that is controllable.

 

[navanod]

The warping areas at the top and bottom are put in automatically by lunarcell to adjust for the fact you're wrapping a square texture around a sphere, so it compresses everything at the poles. If it doesn't, you get things like this -

That said, the lunar cell plugin does a good job of taking care of a lot of that issue for you. There is another plugin they have called flexify that will take your rectangular map and convert it to an iso map ala traveller style. It will also output bump maps, cloud and transparency maps, all kinds of stuff.

I sat down and generated an entire subsector worth of planets (20+ planets) - textures, bump maps, cloud textures, maps with grids, etc in a couple of afternoons. You can save the presets for each planet, then bring it up again later, for detail maps or whatever. Load up the preset, make your document much bigger, then rerender the preset. Crop out the area you want to detail, save it as another map.

 

[Otto Harkaman]

Oh cool navanod! Thanks for the tips.

Really can flexity make traveller maps? cool!