Create realistic looking planets without touching 3D Software planets, photoshop, tutorial Create realistic looking planets without touching 3D Software. 1.gif 150 150 Step 1 1 First you need to create a background. Create a new document, make the background black, than add some noise by going Filter>Noise>Add Noise with a setting of 90 - 110 with Mono checked. Once you've done that, adjust the levels by hitting Ctrl+L (Mac: Command+L), so that your background looks something like this. 2.gif 150 150 Step 2 2 Now create a new layer. Using the Elliptical Marquee create, a perfect circle holding Shift and dragging. Fill the circle with a texture. I simply selected a dark red and a light pink color and went to Filter>Render>Clouds to fill the circle with cloudy texture. 3.gif 150 150 Step 3 3 With your selection still active, go to Filters>Distort>Spherize. Use a setting of 100. 4.gif 150 150 Step 4 4 Now, create a new layer, grab the Airbrush Tool, set its pressure to 10-15. Then, add a shadow to your planet, try to get it to look something like mine. 5.gif 150 150 Step 5 5 Using the Filter>Render>Lighting Effects filter, add a light source to you planet for an added level of realism. 6.gif 150 150 Step 6 6 If you want your stars to be stronger duplicate the background and go Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur to blur it a little bit. Finally, set its Blending Mode to Screen, and duplicate it again if the stars aren't strong enough.