Inspiration: Stars, Planets, and Galaxies

Apr 16th in Inspiration by Sean Hodge

We've gathered some resources that will inspire you to look to the sky and beyond. This article will have you grabbing a telescope or heading over to NASA. Learn about the recent rage in space-style effects in design. Take a look at artists that have been working in this field long before Apple branded Leopard with such cool space imagery and lighting effects.

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Author: Sean Hodge

Hi All! I recently moved to the outskirts of Orlando, Florida. I'm the editor of Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+. Also, visit my blog AiBURN where I feature some of my creative work and ideas. Or follow me on Twitter: @seanHodge.

Digital Art

  • Greg Martin

    This artist is from the West Coast of the U.S. He is an accomplished photographer. As an illustrator, his work is focused on space scenes. He has a range of interplanetary work on display that shows a mastery of Photoshop. Check out his elegant Flash-based portfolio. Don't miss the PDF–downloadable article Capturing Heaven located on his Bio/Writings page.

    Visit Artwork

  • Hameed Nawaz

    He has a strong and popular presence on Deviantart. He has some beautiful planetary and galaxy illustrations. He also allows other members of the deviant community to use the professional stock space illustrations he has created.

    Visit Artwork

  • Mark Garlick

    This artist has professional scientific training in astrophysics and astronomy. He did three years of research on close binary stars called cataclysmic binaries. He switched careers and is now a professional illustrator and writer. Photoshop is one of his tools, and he creates both realistic and imaginary astral scenes.

    Visit Artwork

  • Gary Tonge

    This artist is fascinated with space. In his bio, he states "for as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with space and my own recurring thoughts on what is out 'there.' And the older I become the more vivid my thoughts are." This artist's portfolio is available via an HTML and a Flash gallery. He has plenty of hand-drawn Photoshop images. He also mixes in 3D art in some works.

    Visit Artwork

  • Adam Burn

    This artist creates really cool fractured planets. Some of them are emitting light beams like the planet is about to explode. Others have glowing ice shooting through them. He's also got fiery planets erupting as well. This artist creates dramatic imaginary space imagery.

    Visit Artwork

Tutorials

  • Leopard Starburst effect in Photoshop

    Fabio writes this tutorial on creating a Mac space style design with stardust and twirly galaxy flares. The PSD file is available for download as well.

    Visit Tutorial

  • Photoshop Space and Planet Tutorial

    This tutorial starts begins by showing a finalized image with a lot of detailed work. The tutorial itself is not as detailed, but is still a good review on stars and planet-building techniques.

    Visit Tutorial

  • How to Create Your Own Planet

    This tutorial uses Filters > Distort > Spherize to good effect. It applies this filter to aerial photographs. The result is a Sci-Fi style effect that makes planets look heavily populated.

    Visit Tutorial

  • Urban Planet Tutorial

    This tutorial covers applying textures to planetary land masses and then posing the planet in space. There is a second follow-up tutorial on making Shadowed Planetary Clouds. Visit the first tutorial below.

    Visit Tutorial

Other Cool Stuff

  • New "Out of This World" Trend in Web Design

    You the Designer showcases a handful of Web sites that are using a space theme—sites that have planets, stars, or nebula-style effects.

    Visit Article

  • New Design, Lost in Space!

    Fabio has created a new theme for Abduzeedo. It looks great. "Black, full of stars and lighting effects. We chose to follow the space theme, due to the relation the name has with it and that the subject gives us a lot of freedom to create crazy things."

    Visit Article

  • Nasa Space Images

    NASA has an enormous collection of space imagery. If you're considering working with a space theme for your next design, head over to the source.

    Visit Site

  • Mac OSX Leopard

    Apple, of course, is a trendsetter. They make something cool and the Web follows. Leopard uses space-style lighting effects in its branding that have some "wow" feel. Check out this wallpaper link or visit OSX site via the link below for some inspiration.

    Visit Site

  • Ilham Hafizovic's Photostream on Flickr

    This photostream is tagged as PSP Wallpapers. It's an inspirational collection of stars, nebulas, planets, and space-themed designs.

    Visit Site

  • GVRDS.O1—First Strike

    I saw this link a few days ago and wanted to share it with the PSDTUTS community. I could only find one space photo in this Flash-based magazine, but hey, that's good enough to fit it into this article. There is some great work featured here that has some high energy Photoshop mastery on display. The online mag is put together with Issuu, which is a really smooth way to view photos or mags online.

    Visit Site


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User Comments

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  1. PG

    Ray April 16th

    Nice :) Cheerz for sharing these inspiring images. I really like the inspiration posts! Keep up the great work.

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    Mark April 16th

    Very nice. Your best post Sean .

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    filipe April 16th

    Awesoooome, i liked so much, this is the best site ever.

    ( Reply )
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    Snorri3D April 16th

    just three simple words LOVE THIS SITE!

    ( Reply )
  5. PG

    Brent Nelson April 16th

    Great stuff. Would be cool to do a fruit thing, with fruit floating in the middle of a kitchen like planets.

    ( Reply )
  6. PG

    Sage April 16th

    I absolutely love this! Very inspirational.

    Thanks.

    ( Reply )
  7. PG

    Harry April 16th

    Nice post , good links to tuts too , best $21 i spent joining here !

    ( Reply )
  8. PG

    Andrew D April 16th

    Awesome list, thanks!

    ( Reply )
  9. PG

    godonholiday April 16th

    great links!

    ( Reply )
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    Ben Griffiths April 16th

    I really got into this a while back after looking at Greg Martins work – some amazing stuff there

    ( Reply )
  11. PG

    Marian April 16th

    PSDTUTS for President!

    I love you all (in a non gay way, that is…) :D

    ( Reply )
  12. PG

    giackop April 16th

    another great article sean.. thanx

    ( Reply )
  13. PG

    b00m April 16th

    Yeah. Nice article :)

    ( Reply )
  14. PG

    Danny April 16th

    Very good article. :P

    ( Reply )
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    Daniel April 16th

    Thx a lot ;-)

    Daniel

    ( Reply )
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    Sean Hodge April 16th

    Here is a cool site design I just came across http://www.kavoon.com/

    ( Reply )
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    Lamin Barrow April 16th

    I have been thinking about designing a new theme for my website and it looks like i have just found a place to start from. This is a very inspirational and a valuable contribution Sean. Thank you. :)

    ( Reply )
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    Fabio Sasso April 16th

    Great article Sean, thanks for listing my blog, i love this space inspiration….

    ( Reply )
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    HamBoneZ April 16th

    I should give a new try on “planet Making”. I already tried but result was cheap and now, you posted some nice articles about this!

    Thx

    ( Reply )
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      Syd Mason April 9th

      I think that you should!!!

      ( Reply )
  20. PG

    Greg William April 16th

    Sweet list..

    ( Reply )
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    D. Carreira April 16th

    What a tutorial! I’ve found this site a few days ago, and for me, this is the best tutorials site that I’ve ever seen!

    (Sorry for my bad english)

    David Carreira

    ( Reply )
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    Marian April 16th

    Another thing,

    we dont have a Aurora Borealis (Fabio has two great tuts on his page (www.abduzeedo.com) but only for GIMP and Pixelmator).

    specifically @ fabio:

    You don’t have an extra tut for photoshop, do you? Would you mind creating one if the results are the same (or even better looking) than the GIMP and Pixelmator version?

    Greetings from Germany!

    ( Reply )
  23. PG

    goldenthunder April 16th

    great list – thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    DONeill April 16th

    This site rocks most definitely, I just have to say that they whole space art scene has been going for a long long time and I have been following for years. I have seen a lot of these tutorials and stuff before but I think there are some amazing artists that are up there and on a level with the likes of Greg Martin and Hameed.

    For example have a look at http://www.alyn.deviantart.com

    It was this guy that initally gave me the tutorials and knowledge to join the ranks of space artists and express my love of the heavens.

    Thanks a million for this though. As usual a great post :P

    ( Reply )
  25. yes, some good inspiration for design soul.

    ( Reply )
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    Seim Effects April 16th

    Wow that’s some killer stuff. Sometimes I wish a had a bit more time to do digital art, but photography keeps me hopping. Keep up the great work over here… Gavin

    ( Reply )
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    Slizzie April 16th

    Gotta love it. I appreciate this!!!!

    ( Reply )
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    Joefrey Mahusay April 16th

    Nice Inspiration. Bookmarked!

    ( Reply )
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    Daniel April 16th

    great resource, thanks a lot sean.

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  30. PG

    Shane April 16th

    Amazing selection of links with some real inspiring use of colour and effects. Thanks for posting.

    ( Reply )
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    aGS April 16th

    This site is AWESOME!

    I found “GVRDS.O1 – First Strike” very cool.
    Thanks!

    ( Reply )
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    Designlabel April 16th

    Nice list of tutorials. Here is one tutorial about creating craters on planet. http://designlabel.blogspot.com/2008/04/6-handy-photoshop-tutorials.html

    ( Reply )
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    arnaud April 16th

    Thx for all !

    ( Reply )
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    arnaud April 16th

    It can be bought “GVRDS.O1 – First Strike” printed version?

    ps: sorry for my english i’m french

    ( Reply )
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    Nikki April 16th

    Hi PSDTUTS,

    Thought you might like to check out my version of Leopards Aurora Borealis desktop and maybe add it to your list here.

    You can see it here: http://designnerd.net/my-version-of-the-leopard-aurora-desktop

    Cheers!

    ( Reply )
  36. PG

    Braintrove.com April 17th

    Great collection!

    ( Reply )
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    Will April 17th

    I’ve always thought websites with any kind of starry effect background were really cheesy, but I can’t help but like them.
    Perhaps when I’m 50 with fake organs and a hover board (If back to the future taught me one thing, it’s that I want a hover board) I’ll be taking a holiday on Mars rather than France and on the way I’ll get views like this.

    Anyway, I digress.

    Good bit of inspiration! Thanks :D

    Engage InteractiveWeb Design Harrogate

    ( Reply )
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    Colin April 19th

    It always makes me chuckle when I see Greg Martin’s stuff online. I knew him in highschool, so it’s just kinda weird to see his name here and there.

    ( Reply )
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    Katalog Stron April 19th

    Awsome! I love this. Thank you for sharing.

    ( Reply )
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    Geoserv April 22nd

    STUMBLED!

    Always amazes me how talented some people are with PS.

    VOTED for this post at:
    http://www.newsdots.com/tutorials/stars-planets-and-galaxies/

    ( Reply )
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    Qbrushes April 24th

    amazing stuff.. specialy youts abuzeedo

    ( Reply )
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    Rybaxs April 26th

    yehey! there’s no place like tuts

    ( Reply )
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    Nastya Manno April 29th

    This is a remarkable and very useful tutorials. Thank you great!

    ( Reply )
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    BMD-Media.com May 3rd

    Great Images!

    ( Reply )
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    Qbrushes May 4th

    nice

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    TH May 14th

    A lot of beautiful work!!

    ( Reply )
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    Ruman July 2nd

    wow! what a great work .I m so Impressed.

    ( Reply )
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    sascha/hdrs July 22nd

    I had to do comment advertising but here’s a tutorial I’ve wrote on how to create a galaxy in Photoshop. Maybe somebody is interested in it … http://blog.hexagonstar.com/galaxy-tutorial/

    ( Reply )
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    Syd Mason April 9th

    I think that this is cool.

    ( Reply )
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    Syd Mason April 9th

    I am strange for liking this!!!

    ( Reply )
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