In this tutorial I'll show you how to create a shiny planet icon using the 3D features of Photoshop CS4 Extended. This will cover basic information about 3D layers and texture maps. Let's get started!
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Video Tutorial
Our video editor Gavin Steele has created this video tutorial to compliment this text + image tutorial.
Step 1
Create a new document which is 1000 pixels wide and 500 pixels high at a resolution of 300 pixels/inch, with a name of "Home."
Step 2
We'll be using some texture for our planet. You can get the diffuse texture from planetpixelemporium.com. Download the "color map" image from the site and place it as a new layer into your document. Rename this layer as "Earth."
Step 3
Now go to 3D > New Shape From Layer > Sphere. This will wrap the layer around a sphere and this is going to be the base layer of our planet illustration.
Step 4
The "Earth" layer is now a 3D layer and a cube icon is displayed in the Layers Palette. You can interact with a 3D model in a 3D layer in Photoshop. You can rotate and move the model or change the position of the camera in 3D space using the 3D tools in the Toolbox.
Step 5
Grab the 3D Rotation Tool, click on the canvas, hold and drag to rotate the sphere and adjust it as you wish. Holding down the Alt or Shift keys will restrict the rotation axis.
Step 6
The edges of the sphere look aliased at the moment. First we're going to fix it. Go to the Layers palette and double-click the little cube icon in the "Earth" layer to bring up the 3D Palette. Here you can make several adjustments to the 3D layer. Make sure the "Scene" is selected in the upper list and set Anti-Alias to Best. This will fix the edges.
Step 7
Now click on the Global Ambient Color box and set the color to R:100, G:100, B:100 and hit OK. This will change the ambient color to a brighter one.
Step 8
We'll now add a bump map to our planet. First download the "bump map" from planetpixelemporium.com and save the image to your desktop. Now go to the 3D Palette. Go to Sphere_Material and click the Edit the Bump Texture button and chose Load Texture. Select the file you have just downloaded. The "earthbump1k.jpg" file is a grayscale file and the lighter areas in this image will be bumped in our 3D sphere. We also want our planet to be glossy, so set the Glossiness to 100%.
Step 9
In the 3D Palette you'll see that there are three lights. These are the default Photoshop scene lights. Now we'll change their types, colors and positions. First select the "Infinite Light 1" and change it's Color to R:150, G:150, and B:150. Now select the "Infinite Light 2" and set it's type to Point so that we can change it's position. Change it's Color to r:180, G:180, and B:180.
You can change the position of the light in the 3D scene using the Slide the Light and Drag the Light Tools in the 3D Palette. Position the gloss effect on the sphere using these tools. Now select "Infinite Light 3," set it's type to Point as well and set it's Color to R:130, G:130, and B:130.
Step 10
"Infinite Light 3" is placed somewhere under the sphere. Since we're going to put the sphere on a surface and add some drop shadow later on, we just don't want any lights below it. So place the light above the sphere using the Slide and Drag Tools.
Step 11
Now we'll make the clouds around the planet. Go to the Layers Palette, duplicate the "Earth" layer and name it "Clouds." Open the 3D properties panel for the "Clouds" layer. Select Sphere_Material in the upper list. Click the Edit the Diffuse Texture button and select Remove Texture. This will unload the existing texture map, and the Diffuse Color will determine how it is going to look. Set the Diffuse Color to white.
Click the Edit the Bump Texture button and choose Remove Texture to unload the bump map. Now we have a white sphere. We'll use another texture map for the clouds. Actually we'll use the white color of the Diffuse for the clouds and this texture map for the opacity. You can download the "clouds transparency" image from planetpixelemporium.com. Click the Edit the Opacity Texture button and choose Load Texture. Locate the "earthcloudmaptrans.jpg" file you have just downloaded.
The opacity texture made some parts of the sphere invisible, but obviously the wrong parts. Click the Edit the Opacity Texture button again and this time choose Open Texture. This will open the texture in a new document window. Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert. Save and close the document. Go back to the "Home.PSD" document, you'll see the opacity map is updated.
The weather seems to be too cloudy, because we can see the clouds that are on the other side through the transparent areas. Making the material one sided will fix that problem. Uncheck Two Sided. To make the clouds a little bit whiter, set Ambient and Specular colors to white. You can get the 3D Rotate Tool from the Toolbox and adjust the orientation of the clouds if you want.
Step 12
To make the clouds pop out a little more set the Color of the three light to white.
Step 13
Apply a Drop Shadow Layer Style to the "Clouds" layer and use these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Color set to black, Opacity set at 75%, Distance set to 1px and Size set to 3px.
Step 14
Now we have our planet done. Since we're going to merge our two 3D layers before we move on, this might be your last chance to change the rotation of the earth and the clouds. Drag one horizontal and one vertical Guide and snap them to the center of the earth. Go to the Layers Palette, select both the "Earth" and "Clouds" layers, merge them by going to Layer > Merge Layers. Name the merged layer "Earth".
Now grab the Elliptical Marque Tool, Hold Alt + Shift and make a circular selection starting from the center of the earth where the two guides intersect. Make a selection as shown below, which is about one pixel smaller than the earth. Go to Select > Inverse and hit Delete to clear. This will clear the drop shadow of the clouds and make the edges smoother. Hit Command + D to deselect.
Step 15
Use the Move Tool to move the earth up to make room for the shadow and the reflection. Apply an Inner Shadow layer style using these settings: Blend Mode set to Multiply, Color set to black, Opacity set at 100%, Angle set to -90 degrees, Distance set to 25px and Size set to 46px. This will make the bottom part darker.
Step 16
Create a new layer named "Shadow" above the "Background" layer. Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool and make a selection as shown in the image below. Fill the selection with black and deselect. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 7px. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur, set the Angle to 0 and Distance to 150 px and apply.
Step 17
Duplicate the "Shadow" layer. Hit Command + T, set both the Vertical and Horizontal Scale to 60% and apply. This will make a darker shadow where the sphere touches the ground.
Step 18
Go to the "Earth" layer in the Layers Palette, duplicate it and name it "Reflection." Delete the Inner Shadow layer style by dragging the Effects to the Trash. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical to mirror the image. Grab the "Reflection" layer below the "Shadow" layer and position it as shown below.
Step 19
Go to the Layers Palette and add a Layer Mask to the "Reflection" layer. Get the Gradient Tool, open the Gradient picker and select Black, White. Draw a gradient on the layer mask as shown below. This will make the reflection fade.
Conclusion
In the Layers Palette click on the "Reflection" Layer Thumbnail to select the layer itself. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply with a Radius of 2 pixels. Set the Layer Opacity at 75%. Grab the Gradient Tool and fill the "Background" layer with a light blue to white gradient.
Well that's it! I hope you enjoyed and learn something new about the 3D possibilities of Photoshop!
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )SirTyp October 5th
Cool
( )seantpl October 5th
more than just great.
( )Alvaro October 5th
Just perfect! congrats Eren!
( )Alvaro October 5th
good to see southamerica in the focal point btw
( )RobertWHurst October 5th
Very cool, This is the first time I think I’ve read about the 3D bit in Ps. I’ve never even thought about using them, but this is so cool! Guess I’m gonna have to try this out after work.
( )Thanks!
bodhi October 5th
WOW!!!
( )Thanks Eren
36Minutes October 5th
That’s actually really cool. For some reason, the 3D applications of Photoshop aren’t often explored, but it’s amazing what you find when they are.
( )Ricardo October 5th
Kudos to you!
( )Amazing tutorial
Sascho de Beer October 5th
Amazing!
( )Just tried it with a giant world map (10000×5000px)
looks awesome
Oliver Banasiak October 5th
Could you please send us a link or something to that specific texture? Would be sweet to use in AE?
Ty in advance!
Also, great tutorial!
( )Theo Hodkin October 5th
Brilliant once again, Eren – you’re tutorials are incredibely helpful, and are simple enough for beginners to follow.
Thankyou!
( )e-One Sacrefixx October 5th
bring more tuts master Eren!!!! luv it all…..
( )Miguel Tavares October 5th
Damn, that looks amazing!
( )Rob October 5th
I had a go opening the psd in After Effects CS4, slowed AE right down, but all the 3D data and lights are there. Would be a cool tutorial for someone to show a ps model animated in AE…
Nice tute
( )Isis October 5th
I agree!!! l’ll be waiting this in Aetuts!
( )And thanks for the tutorial, it seems pretty simple, but with a great efect!
Aevion October 5th
Great work! Glad to see 3D again.
( )Ben Schulz October 5th
Awesome tutorial. The outcome is better than i thought.
( )OktayOe. October 5th
Güzel olmus, sagol
.
( )Roger dodger October 5th
im a little confused im running CS3 Extended but I dont have the 3D menu or any of that.
( )Mikey October 5th
Same here, but I tried the map wrap in illustrator with the 3d revolve tool, came out pretty neat. But you can’t do the textures/clouds as easy as this one but oh well, a bit of experimenting and you get the results.
Nice tut, your steps for creating the shadow are good, exactly how I make mine in ps for all things that need a shadow, just vary up the motion blur a bit for other objects.
( )Gustav Johansen October 13th
Go into Windows > Workspace > and set it to Essentials. I don’t if this will help but it’s free to try.
Custopootimus October 6th
Same issue. But I really wish I did have the menu.
( )Sean Hodge October 19th
We’ve changed this tutorial to indicate that Photoshop CS4 Extended is needed. Thx.
( )Gene October 5th
You continue to impress me!
( )BestPSTutorials-TR October 5th
Great tutorial, thanks
( )Teşekkürler yani
Symon October 5th
Really nice. Thanks for this tut.
( )Shaun October 5th
Don’t see very many tuts showing a little bit of Photoshop’s 3D capabilities. Great tutorial and overall quality is pretty good. I do have one thing to nitpick about though.. our planet is slightly elongated, not perfectly round.
( )me October 5th
Get a life
( )Alex October 5th
LOL, yeah cause he’s the one that needs to get a life
Shaun October 5th
*Done*
victor manuel October 5th
i agree, he need a life
Amino Acid October 6th
Great tut! I’m definitly going to try this one out!
( )emmanuel Umukoro October 5th
awsome tut buth there is something screwy with the reflection in the end,
( )and befire people start telling me that it’s not the end result that maters i’m only saying this so the creator of the tut knows.
Nikhil October 5th
Thats really brilliant tut
( )Tonamel October 5th
Well that’s LOADS better than spherize!
( )Joe October 5th
great and everything, but the description says CS3 extended OR CS4…
( )i’m running CS3 ext., and you can’t do this tut on it.
am i missing something?
Mark Sinkinson October 5th
Yeah, I have CS3 Extended too and its definitely not possible
( )Shaun October 5th
I was wondering the same thing myself.
You can create a New Layer from 3d File in CS3, but I’m not sure if Adobe gives you a sphere object or not.
Even then, I haven’t messed with CS3’s 3d features, so they may or may not match the tutorial.
( )Steve October 5th
I’m guessing that this doesn’t really apply to the 3D capabilities of CS3 Extended. All you can do is import 3D models, move them and rotate them as far as I can tell. Might want to rewrite the intro here. Or explain how to do his tut in CS3 Extended if possible.
( )lyndon October 5th
Thats awesome looking. im going to try and intigrate this effect in ps w/ ae and that one earth zoom tut u always see. thx man!
( )Brett October 5th
That looks fantastic. So simple too! Nice techniques.
( )Bine October 5th
wow it looks so realistic
( )thank you for this tutorial =)
Chris Martin October 5th
Great tutorial…looks awesome!
( )flora October 5th
really WaWoo
( )Phil Mount October 5th
Brilliant tutorial, though I am having an issue with step 11. Unchecking the ‘Two sided’ box on my clouds layer is having no effect whatsoever and leaves it two sided still. Consequently, the concentration of clouds is way too high. Exactly the same settings and whatnot though, any suggestions?
( )Eren Goksel October 6th
Hi Phil,
you can try to rotete or roll the clouds sphere around just to see the less dense area.
if it’s still looking two sided, may be render mode is set to ray traced.
thanks.
( )Phil Mount October 6th
Ahh you genius. On the render settings it was indeed on ray traced without with ‘remove backfaces’ unchecked. Thanks very much!
Richie October 9th
Yep… the render mode was set to ray traced… No doubt, a genius.. Thanx a gazillion for this tutorial. My computer took ages to render every step. Maybe its too hard on low end comps. Thanx again for the tut.. \m/
Tony November 14th
Hola, estoy siguiendo tu tutorial y el paso 11 no me sale bien, quitando la función dos caras sigo viendo las nubes de atrás y no entiendo bien la solución que das, podrías explicarlo mejor?
Saludos
Eren Goksel October 6th
or may be you forgot to invert the clouds image?
( )Kieran Innes October 5th
I love the final effect. Reminds me of a Video Copilot (Andrew Kramer) tut.
( )Ravi Vora October 5th
Nicely done, I could see this coming in very useful for a lot of people’s projects.
( )David Moreen October 5th
Looks very intresting I can’t wait to get started!
( )Carlos cualquiera October 5th
wooww freaking awesome,, finally I start to know how is 3d in photoshop!!!
Very good!!
( )load October 5th
Yeah, doesn’t work for me either, i’m using ps cs4 ext
( )Oscar October 5th
Thanks for sharing! Great!
( )Sergio Ordonez October 5th
Indeed, really nice outcome
( )Ceylan Shaman October 5th
step11???
please video
( )Connor Crosby October 5th
Really nice looking. Thanks!
( )Rafael Braga October 5th
Nice .. I’ve forgotten that PS had these 3D options.
Great to see tuts about it ., thanks ..
( )Chris October 5th
Good stuff, this is the first time I’ve really used 3D in Photoshop!
( )ikis October 5th
that’s good
( )Nice
Congratulation
Roger dodger October 5th
ok ok its a gr8 tut an all but can someone please tell me why I dont have 3D tool options in CS3 Extended. Ive got New Layer from 3d File but that’s not right? Are their other Extended versions or is this CS4?
( )Ibesoringola October 6th
This is Photoshop CS4, bro.
( )Anonymous October 9th
Read the intro text again, he clearly said “3D features of Photoshop CS3 Extended or CS4 Extended”
Ibesoringola October 6th
Where have you been?
( )cat October 6th
no missing steps! this is great! I especially like the fact that all the tools and buttons that were used were highlighted. thank you!
( )WearyMax October 6th
3D Earth realy cool!
( )dzinc October 6th
nicely done…
( )Ceyhun October 6th
Thanks for this Eren.. Great tutorial…
( )Omer October 6th
Very nice the new feature of this 3d thing is fascinating. cant believe how easy to implement this!
thanks for the great tut again Eren
( )merb October 6th
muy bueno, no conocia muy bien esta herramienta!
( )Steve Peters October 6th
Great tutorial. You can spin the globe to highlight anywhere. I want to use these results.
( )One thing though. I’m using CS4, but I couldn’t get rid of the clouds “round the back” of the globe, even by unchecking the two-sided option. Did I miss something?
Steve Peters October 7th
Eren’s reply to a similar earlier comment helped me fix this.
He said: “if it’s still looking two sided, may be render mode is set to ray traced.”
Phil replied “Ahh you genius. On the render settings it was indeed on ray traced without with ‘remove backfaces’ unchecked. Thanks very much!”
That was it. I had a custome render and when I looked at the properties I had to check “Remove backfaces”.
Beautiful world. Thank you Eren for the tutorial and feedback and Phil for the additional detail.
( )LIGHTNING October 6th
Cool 3d effect, as a begginer didn’t know that pshotoshop was so capable.
Thanks
( )Fabio October 6th
Very cool =D
( )punkd October 6th
This is amazing, pity that I don’t have CS4.
( )Jungle Dude October 6th
Please rewrite intro, I can’t afford CS4
( )tutorial blog October 6th
really cool
Thank for post
( )Philippine Outsourcing October 6th
Cool trick! Thanks for sharing your inputs… there really are countless things that can be done through Photoshop. All it takes is some imagination, a bit of creativity and of course, knowledge of the software. =)
( )Agodesa October 6th
ohh! nice but, i need photoshop cs4 extended and i haven’t:(
( )Eren Goksel October 6th
Hey everybody,
thanks for your lovely comments. actually i did not check this tut for CS3, i’m saying this one is for CS3 ext or CS4 depending on some info on the Adobe’s site. But from your comments i see that it doesn’t work for CS3. sorry i said it will
Thanks.
( )rc October 6th
great stuff, just did the tutorial and it’s simple, quick and fantastic looking!
can’t wait to explore more 3D capabilities in photoshop.
( )Harene October 6th
That was fun…thanks!
( )saroj October 7th
very very cool and so funny
( )Umar October 7th
Hello,
( )first of all awesome tutorial, I am trying it, but am having a problem in the cloud stages. They are way too cloudy and when I rotate I can see the back side of them as well… I also unchecked the “Two Sided” option, can you help me with it?
Eren Göksel October 7th
hi Umar,
make sure Double Sided is unchecked in step 11,
make sure you have inverted the opacity map for the clouds as well in the same step, otherwise the clouds will be too dense,
make sure in the Render Settings dialog box Remove Backfaces is checked
( )joe nathan laban October 7th
as always…the guru is back again…!!!
( )Thiago Paulino October 7th
Incredible ! congrats
( )MarcJ October 7th
Great stuff. I had never used the 3D features in PS. I’m looking forward to more tuts from you!
( )Ross King October 7th
Awesome!! I’ll have to play with the 3D settings in Photoshop.
Thanks for the tutorial!
( )tonnynam October 7th
very cool, thanks share.
( )sopheak October 7th
That really great Earth!
( )DKNY October 8th
Very cool, this is first time i read about 3D in PTS. thanks u so much
( )tck October 8th
great tutorial, keep it coming Now coz of this tutorial i have to find CS4
( )Akash October 9th
resolution is pretty bad, otherwise an awesome tut.
( )LIGHTNING October 10th
If you want better resolutions, just google earth texture maps, and tour 3rd entry will be greater resolutions for all maps.
( )LIGHTNING October 10th
i also did the moon:D : http://furtuna.ro/design/2009/10/09/the-moon/
( )clippingimages October 10th
WoW, Great image preview. well explained. Thanks for sharing this nice tutorial.
( )Ebess October 10th
Hi
( )Can you help me?
I cant make clouds for Earth. maybe you make for me with picture(tutorial). send for me: ebes_karimipour@yahoo.com
fear me O mine October 10th
lookin for it! thanks!
( )anand October 12th
can i do this in photoshop cs3?
( )Adam October 12th
Great tutorial. I just wanted to point out that a better image dataset can be found at http://www.shadedrelief.com/natural3/index.html, and was created by Tom Patterson of the National Park Service. You can download cloud layers specifically created to highlight different continents as well as extremely high resolution images.
( )chaitrax October 13th
Excellent.. my first 3D work in photoshop cs4….
( )Mason Sklut October 13th
Please edit where you say “In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a shiny planet icon using the 3D features of Photoshop CS3 Extended or CS4 Extended.” The 3D features in PS CS4 Extended are not the same as PS CS3 Extended.
( )Ruby October 14th
Just finished following the tutorial! It’s great! Thanks a lot for sharing
( )shahjee October 15th
excellent… really cool
( )anand October 15th
“Please edit where you say “In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a shiny planet icon using the 3D features of Photoshop CS3 Extended or CS4 Extended.” The 3D features in PS CS4 Extended are not the same as PS CS3 Extended.”
( )hmmm… wait a minute…. there is a 3d option in cs3 extended? but i dont see any… can someone help me?
anand October 15th
oooh so there are no 3d tools in cs3 ext?
sux
( )cat October 15th
this was very easy to follow! thank you for the detailed tut!
( )Joe Warren October 19th
Could someone do me a favor since I don’t have CS4 =/
Basically what I need to do for school is create a travel poster. I am doing my travel poster on Washington D.C. and I have all the monuments and the good stuff in a photo reel. What I want to do is get a planet and center it with reels on both top and bottom. The favor I am asking is if anyone has CS4 and created this could you please rotate it so that Washington D.C. is facing up, it is going on a 11 by 17 tabloid so it needs to be fairly big but if not I can make it work.
Virtuosity44@gmail.com
Someone please help me out with this favor!
Please and thank you
( )-Joe
jaleela October 19th
Hi
Very exciting tutorial I really like it
And this is my first 3D work in photoshop cs4
http://img101.herosh.com/2009/10/20/344251885.jpg
I hopeyou like it
( )Donald October 20th
It was a very new tutorial to me, reading through it may have got confusing to me once or twice, but I have never used some of these tools before.
I can’t wait to try this out tomorrow afternoon!
( )karabo October 21st
this is amazing, love it and can’t wait to get my photoshop skillz on it
( )cynthia serwaah agyei October 22nd
this is really cool and easy to make .thanks.
( )Maite October 22nd
I’m a Spanish teacher and I’m doing a project with volcanoes and earthquakes, can I use your picture in my project? Please say yes! I love it!
( )arnel October 25th
nice but would be nice if you can do an animation wiht this
( )Fábio Russo October 27th
tks to share.. look mine if u like
http://twitpic.com/n7xao
( )m a r c o October 28th
Very sweet tutorial, and very easy to follow… Thanks!
( )musthu November 3rd
hai well done
( )Pablo Augusto November 3rd
Can you please share your gradient presets?
( )SJM November 5th
Hola como andan? aca les dejo mi version espero que les guste, y si alguien mas puede aportar todas las teexturas que se necesitan pero en mas resolucion se lo agaredeceria! http://i36.tinypic.com/iven38.jpg
( )Hello, how are you? here’s my version of the earth in 3d, i hope you like it, and please if someone can bring me all the images that you need (3 in total) to do this amazing project but in beter resolution thanks, because i want to do a bigger earth because the effect is amazing!
Brad T November 12th
Love the outcome, thanks for the tutorial.
( )Allison November 18th
This was great. Alot of fun, and will come in handy. I only had one major problem; although I followed all the steps my clouds still look slightly muted and grey. Any ideas?
( )