What's best way for Planet Surfaces?

[darthmop1]

I'm trying to get a real good Planet Surface running, but the first one i made
was kinda mixture of a Map conture and a surface file from don't ask me what it was.

now, i have made progress over a period of time but at the end i'm still using the same
Texture scince the Beginning, now i'd like to create a new one, but with more realistic
surface detail.

on the Atmosphere effect i'm also still working,


http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z311/darthmop1/tamrielworld1.jpg

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z311/darthmop1/tamrielworld2.jpg

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z311/darthmop1/tamrielworld3.jpg

[JackDeL]

Number 3 looks mighty good!

[darthmop1]

and this was made over long period,
it doesn'T mean i was working on it all the time,

the first one imade in 2006/07 i think, and at that time i liked it so much, and
thought this would be final.

i was wrong and later i made the new one, same surfacetexture + bump this time, new cloudmap and atmosphere effect, and again i thought it was final.

then 2008 the thrid version came out, again same surface texture, new cloudmap and new
atmosphere effect. and actually i don't think this will be the final again,

now i wanna create a completely new surface based on the actuall one,

there is also a 3D model of Planet Nirn but i don't know how this would look like combined
to my textures and effects,

so i stay on texture only, next time maybe i try to work with normal maps instead of bump

[lonewriter]

I made my planet maps in photoshop using Lunarcell on the atmosphere I followed this tutorial, http://chrusion.com/tutorial_earth.php

[darthmop1]

this looks great, i will have a good look on this tutorial, thank you

[waerloga]

High resolution Texture Maps of all planets are available here:

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/

along with lots of sci-fi models from various movies. A good site for free resources.

[darthmop1]

yes, this site i know very well, i mixed my texture with the Terraformed Pluto surface

[Quetzal]

my lightwave planets never get this good :(

[hunteds911]

I have used those same tutorials and that celestiamotherlode.net to get planetary maps to make my planets. I am now trying to get to the point of getting a good backdrop of stars and creating my on nebulas and such to give my space scenes a little more pizazz. My earth render turned out well I went off on my own a little from the tutorials and doctored the textures to my needs to get what I felt to be a better effect as far as a planet look goes. I will post the render later if anyone wants to see it. But I don't want to steer the topic off. The links in here are pretty much what I used for planetary surfaces though. You look like you are off to very good start though. :) I wish my backdrops looked that good. lol My poor Earth is sitting against a plain black backdrop until I can create a worthy backdrop to put my earth in.

[PeterT]

What program are you using to create these image?. I agree #3 looks best. If you're using Photoshop 6.5 or later, you could use the outer glow in the layerstyles to add an atmosphere layer to your planet.

[Scortis]

You may use photo sources like sxc.hu, cgtextures.com and manipulate the photos in PS.

[CheeseMonger]

I think three looks the best.