How to make planets in Blender 

The only!!?? You don't like my other videos? Haha just kidding. Thank You! I love sharing my knowledge and helping other reach new levels.

@@DanielGrovePhoto hahaha good catch- this is my first one. I’m subbed now ;)

6:25 It doesn’t even let me add a new object

Great to hear and thanks for watching! Happy planet making! part 2 is coming soon.

That's great! Be sure to check out my whole blender playlist I have a lot of great tutorials for new users. Especially my hard surface modeling ones and material basics ones.

Thank you so much! These reactions are what I do this all for :D Glad to help another learn something that I enjoy.

Highest praise, thank you!! Check out my other ones too I think they are pretty brilliant :P

That's awesome! Where can I see them? Any vids on your channel?

​@@DanielGrovePhoto I just published one of them on my portfolio here (www.artstation.com/artwork/KrJAaB) Coruscant is still in the works as I want to publish the renders when I release it on gumroad (i.imgur.com/K83hk6r.png) And finally I have an older and highly incomplete one that I plan to resurrect at some point soon (i.imgur.com/l6Z58Kn.png) The node setups are slightly hideous, especially the Blue Gas Giant because that has several layers of noise textures that can really slow down render times on less capable machines so that one would probably require some optimization before I can consider releasing it. Coruscant is by far the best one I've done. All aspects of it are procedural including the clouds and stars background. Nice to find some with the same passion for planet creation!

@@SamMorseBrown i'm so jealous!

Thank you so much for saying so I appreciate it and that's my goal. Check out my lightsaber video it's another good intro video.

same for me on every point! im excited to start.

Yay That's what I do this for and I agree Photoshop is not profeicient at planet art and you're very limited on things. Certain things that Blender will do with just a few nodes will take a long time in PS and it's not consistent - like atmosphere and shading. So happy you found this video and I'd love to see your renders when you're ready! Daniel@danielgrovephoto.com

I'm making a part 2 for some really epic celestial objects!

@@DanielGrovePhoto Sounds awesome! Looking forward to it :-)

Thank you for enjoying and commenting. It isn't at the moment, been working on 3d assets I'm selling on Gumroad. But it's not off the table, maybe I'll do it one day!

Thanks! I do have an introduction to Blender 2.8 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0ZLEl_DBcHY.html but I try to aim for newer users in Blender with most of my videos and to get them to a point where they can build things on their own. My lightsaber video is another one good for beginners. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QuRB6S1ql5s.html

To me, explaining why you’d do something is at least as important as what you do.

Thanks! You mentioned music be sure to watch my animation to music video!

Awesome! What project is it?

Black holes can be made easily. Try Sam Krug's tutorial.

Thanks so much! I think I will because there are a few tricks I did not have time to put in here.

I'm still having problems 😭 I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong......

@@whatailsyou6616 What problems are you having exactly?

@@DanielGrovePhoto you are so awesome for responding to me right away. Thank you 😊 I think I figured it out.... My nodes were linking to eachother so all of my planet work would disappear and become clouds or atmosphere. They would just replicate. Thank you kindly for your time and video, it is truly great!

@@whatailsyou6616 Good to hear! Be sure to check out my latest video on how to make these planets procedurally with noise nodes and masks. Lots of fun and unlimited variety and resolution since it's not texture based.

Daniel, I'm so sorry to bother you again. But for several weeks I have tried to export my files as FBX and I've searched high and low with forums and youtube videos to try and solve my problem. And I'm having issues exporting my planet now. It will not export with the texture. I did change it to copy and I clicked the button next to it to embed textures......

Thank you!

Thank you so much! Lots of other gems on my blender Playlist.

Haha call me lazy I call it efficient! F3 on windows also does the search function. I never use those menus anymore! Same when modeling search can find any function you need. Just type the first 2 or 3 letters of it.

So glad to hear that! I hope you enjoy my other videos as well I love sharing what I've learned and enjoyed making in Blender.

Glad to hear it. How did you find my channel?

Well thank you! It would be if I didn't forget to explain how to properly setup the alpha portion of the cloud layer :P oops! But it is one of my most popular. I guess I should make part 2 huh?

@@DanielGrovePhoto absolutely.

Sorry about that! I tried to keep it short but as you can tell I couldn't! I appreciate you saying so and I do want to do a part 2 for more advanced celestial objects. Any suggestions?

@@DanielGrovePhoto I'm currently trying to learn how to make nebulae in Blender but it's giving me a hard time. If you know how a video would be great! Thanks for the reply!

Wow I would love to know more about that and I'm honored you'd use my content to teach them!

@@DanielGrovePhoto Yes, we are modifying a room in the school to look like the bridge of a starship. Kids, grades 5-8, will come and act as the captain and crew of the ship. We send the kids on missions that teach STEM, ethics, social studies, and/or history. They're much more theatrical, like a Star Trek adventure, than your NASA-like space camp adventures, and are meant to provide emotional experiences alongside the academic ones. You know, to make the kids care about what they're learning. We have networked controls on our bridge set that allow them to control the ship and us to respond and give them various stimuli. When they fly to a planet we want to show them images of the alien world, or when they look up various systems on our star map, I need images of those worlds. My staff (Grades 9-12 students) make these images, and when they are learning how, they will watch your video!

Oh yea? What kind of stuff do you do or make?

Thanks!

Thanks! How did you find me?

Thank you so much!! Check out my other Blender videos for many more!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Check out my other videos in my Blender playlist.

Right? I looked long and hard for how to make stars that way and it was so simple! Be sure to check out my newer how to make PROCEDURAL planets! Lots of fun and possibilities there.

Glad to hear it! Have fun making new worlds!

Thanks you're welcome!

Thank you! How'd you find it?

@@DanielGrovePhoto just got in my youtube recommendation .

yeah it mimics how real atmosphere looks so it's perfect. I use to use emission but then there would be no shadow on the dark side of the planet so I had to go with diffuse for that part.

Use a sphere gradient with ramp to make the volume fade out right around the edge of the cloud sphere. Then Anime W or mapping data with #frame*. 001 or similar.

I'll be selling some really cool procedural planets soon. I've currently got a gas giant, earth like planet, and a Rocky lava planet. All with easily controllable node groups.

Yea tutorials are tough because I never know what the viewer doesn't know. And sometimes I get to having more fun and forget to explain simple keyboard shortcuts or other things then later in editing I realize I missed something or someone points it out. Oops! Sorry but also - thanks I guess haha. Check out my other tutorials on materials, nodes, and modeling they may fill in the gaps.

@@DanielGrovePhoto Yea I spoke too soon, I'm stuck now. Like another commenter asked, when I add the cloud textures, it's not transparent, it's black. So all I see is a cloud pattern with black background. You answered the other guy "switch to eevee" then change the clouds to alpha blend. How do I switch to eevee? I found the option in the render properties tab, but it doesn't change anything... I'm familiar with alpha controls from using davinci, but have no idea where to begin getting this cloud object transparent.

@@over1498 eevee / cycles option is in the render tab. Looks like a small camera. By default the tabs are on the bottom right quadrant of bekdner ui

Thank you so much! How did you find me?

@@DanielGrovePhoto many hours of searching, many hours of watching different tutorials.

@@glbgrb very cool well I'm glad you found me. Check out my previous ones too, tons of gems.

Haha that's what I'm saying! I'll get there. Thanks man. What topics would you like to see me do?

Thanks! How did you find it? Be sure to check out my Epic Space Scene tutorial too it's great though the geo nodes part has changed slightly with Blender 3.0 changed, I have a video on new geo node scattering too.

@@DanielGrovePhoto Will do! I watch a lot of blender videos, so the algo on youtube served you up.

Thank you! And that's a great question! I haven't figured it out perfectly but if I do I will include it in part 2. One idea I just had is to use compositing and use the shadow pass as a mask! It might just work to kill/allow the emision pass in certain area. There are also some light path nodes I don't understand yet haha maybe something in there.

Thank you

I'm sorry but I don't have any experience with baking textures or preparing things for other programs.

Thanks I was wondering why that wasn't working

THANK YOU!

You are welcome.

Switch to eevee, go to the cloud material, scroll down to alpha settings and change it to alpha blend, then go back to cycles and the transparency shader should work normally if you have the nodes setup right.

@@DanielGrovePhoto I love this tutorial and I mean no offense but how would anyone know this without someone telling? I mean what would be the process of someone stumbling upon this solution besides randomly clicking every option we can get our hands on? :D

@@thegwolf Well it didn't use to be like this until Eevee came out or sometime after 2.8 came out. I realized the same problem when using Eevee but eventually learned about the alpha trick so I tried it before switching to cycles and it fixed the problem. Nothing random about it just torubleshooting tricks. If it works for X try it for Y. But Blender foundation should really fix this so cycles users don't have to bother with this workaround or make the options visible in cycles and not just in eevee.

@@DanielGrovePhoto the problem is that in Eevee mode this workaround does not cast shadows from the clouds.

@@user-ut4hj7kc1t be sure to switch back to cycles. The option is only available in Eevee for some reason.

Yes I learned that after making this video and I'm so glad they did it.

Yea I think I'll put that in part 2. Thank you so much!

I also have a bubble thing in my atmosphere

@@SEZMALOIN A bubble thing? Like it's something you're trying to get rid of? Or you added it on purpose?

@@DanielGrovePhoto I need to get rid of it

thats what I was looking for

Thanks! Check out my newer procedural planet tutorial it's tons of fun. No images needed!

Love that program. It's just a shame the maker has left it alone and not developed it further. Much possibilities there.

Switch to Eevee, go to the materials tab, scroll down and look for the alpha settings and change it to Alpha blend. Then go back to cycles and try it. Other commenters have had the same problem and were able to resolve it this way.

How are you creating them? Procedural or painted or mashed from real map elements?

@@DanielGrovePhoto for the planets I'm trying procedural, but for smaller moons, I can get away with bashing a few textures together. I actually have a tutorial on moons on my channel! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NAvoJBOz72k.html

@@richardbourque5604 cool thanks!

I have not tried cartoonish / cell / procedural planets yet, sorry. But my advise is you'll need to use a Musgrave/Noise/combination of the two as your terrain source. Feed this terrain in to multiple ramps to give different thresholds for different parts of the planet surface - one to set the depth of the ocean, another to set the coast line, another for mountains etc. And use those ramps also to mask in unique details for each part so it's not flat and boring. Atmosphere will also play a big role in realism - the distortion in the noise node is helpful for cloud dynamics.

@@DanielGrovePhoto Wow, that is awesome. Thanks!

Sorry I didn't show that step for some dumb reason. Switch to Eevee go tot hat material scroll down to settings put alpha to alpha blend. Switch back to cycles. fixed.

Simple! Color of a material is what's seen on the surface (if light is on it) bump simulates geometry and implies shape along the surface. You can use a color. Image as a bump map if you don't have an actual bump map image. The black to white values are used to generate the bump. Make sense?

Oh that's a great tip! Thanks for commenting that information.

Your nodes may not be setup correctly for the transparency of the clouds to work. Go to that part of the video and carefully recreate that shader. Transparent node in input 1 of mix shader. BSDF in to input 2. Use cloud texture as the mix input in the mix shader.

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thanks this reply! I did Transparent BSDF -> Mix shader no.1 left side. / Principled BSDF -> Mix shader no.2 left side. but it doesn't work. I checked the texture window also. the preview has the shadow at the floor! but I did't see in work window.... something wrong with me. anyway, thank you so much. I appreciate your help.

Very true! Thanks for the input if I do a part 2 I'll show how to do an easy odd shaped moon with procedural noise to shape it randomly.

Yep I'm kicking myself I didn't explain that trick in the video! Thought I did but nope. Blender needs to fix that annoying problem.

You have to change the alpha mode in Eevee and then go back to cycles. Look at previous comments that covered this. Sorry I forgot to put in the video for some dumb reason

That's very strange. Have you tried swapping the black and white handles to invert it?

And is it a mix shader or mix rgb you're using.

Having the same problem as well

it is like a ring that appears where the light is pointing? i think im having the same issue... seems like something to do with the layer weight but it doesn't show up on the emission viewer... Edit: i just fixed it by increasing the angle on the sun light, no idea why this worked.

@@Sol-hm7ol absolute gigachad godsend answer. Thank you so much!

Yes I missed a crucial step in this video check previous comment replies for details.

Are you in cycles or Eevee and don't D you select all spheres and apply Shade Smooth?

@@DanielGrovePhoto I ended up deleting the atmosphere sphere and re duplicating it that seemed to fix it, I’m kinda new to blender and I’m not too sure what eevee is. Are you referring to the rendered viewport?

@@kort7367 Eevee is the latest render engine provided by and built in to blender. It's fast but does not support Ray tracing. The other available render engine is cycles which is slower but provides more photorealistic lighting.

@@DanielGrovePhoto I believe I have cycles

Make sure you've got the alpha settings on alpha blend. It's lower down on the materials tab and only accessible when using Eevee.

@@DanielGrovePhoto Was having the same issue. THANK YOU! Great tutorial!

Try switching to Eevee. Go to material settings. Change the alpha mode to blend or on of the other 2 settings. Then go back to cycles and try.

@@DanielGrovePhoto I'd like to explode a moon into three or four big chunks with the molten core glowing inside, for a book cover idea I'm working on. Any chance of a tutorial on that one?

@@kevinkelly5780 Oh yes, that's something you can do with cell fracture and it's super fun. I'll add that to part 2 as well :D

no problem i have fixed it. At render Prop i had to chance it from eevee to cycles.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6-ddodPmQgI.html

You'll need to use a light set to point so it emits light in all directions. Put it inside your sun mesh but need to somehow make it to where the sun mesh will not cast shadow or block the light from it. Havnt tried that yet.

@@DanielGrovePhoto thanks alot ,i will try

In Addons enable Node wrangler. It has a number of handy shortcuts for node work

Using Eevee or cycles?

@@DanielGrovePhoto eevee because of how I'm switching between the day and night earth textures

@@mashonoid I'm sorry to hear that! Blender can be super frustrating sometimes. I'll do a new version for 4+ soon.

You can find night photos of cities taken from ISS and use those just make sure the scale is realistic. If you want to make it procedural you can use various voronoi noise patterns mixed or masked with other grid patterns to make random light dots. Be sure they are an emission shader mixing or adding to the planet surface shader. I wish Blender's texture painting was quicker and easier so we could do things like this manually.

@@DanielGrovePhoto Thanks. :) Much appreciated. Need to do the moon with colonies soon, was wondering, can't seem to find a decent tutorial for that specific thing.

@@Ricovision100 Well how detailed does it need to be? Just specs of light from orbit or actual structures or structures with actual terrain around it for closer scenes?

@@DanielGrovePhoto Just the specs from orbit.

@@Ricovision100 Ah okay well check out the procedural building textures in this file. They may be a starting point for you. drive.google.com/file/d/1B9mfLflMnkwMs9Or72N-R3l_QcZuS73g/view?usp=sharing

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6-ddodPmQgI.html