PART II: The Space Scene
Step 14: Planet Two	open online photoshop Back to homepage

We will be creating our second planet completely from scratch. This is a lengthy step with lots of directions, so read the directions carefully and follow along as we will cover lots of great ToolPic tools and techniques. The planet we are going to create will resemble the planet Saturn, complete with an awesome set of rings, but will have colorful bands of gas like Jupiter. Yeah, I know, I can't wait to get started either.

ONE MORE QUICK REMINDER THAT IS A VERY LONG STEP.
IF YOU NEED TO STOP AND COME BACK TO IT AT A LATER TIME, SIMPLY USE File > Save as PSD TO SAVE YOUR WORK.

1. Open your Space13 file in ToolPic
2. Turn off the visibility of all of your current layer folders (you should see the checkerboard)
3. Insert a new layer and name it Planet2...
   
4. Click the Ellipse Select Tool

The first thing we need is a circle that will serve as the shape of our planet. For everything to work correctly, we are all going to have to use the same sized circle, so let's first make sure everyone is using the same measurements.

5. Click Edit and then click Preferences (near the bottom of the edit menu)...
   
   This will open the Preferences window...
   
6. Click the drop-down selection arrow next to Ruler Units and select Pixels...
   
   If Pixels is already selected then leave it alone
7. Click the X to close the Preferences window
8. Place your cursor near the upper left hand corner of your image (but do not place it on the very corner or you will have problems later)...
   
9. Press and hold the Shift key then click and drag down and to the right until you have created an 800 pixel Wide x 800 pixel High circle...
   
   Keep an eye on the black box pointed at with the red arrow above as this will let you know how big of a circle you are creating (yes, this is a big circle - you will resize it later) and release the mouse button and then the Shift key when you have an 800x800 circle (if you can't get it to go exactly to 800 px don't worry about it - just get as close to 800 as you can, being 1 or 2 pixels off will not make a difference)
10. Press D to set your foreground color to black
11. Press Alt+Backspace to fill the circle with black

Before we move on, a quick word of warning. This Step works much like the previous two Steps in that you will need to keep the circle you just created selected for most of this Step. To ensure that we do not mess up the original shape of our planet, we will insert additional layers to place our bands of gas (and a few other things) onto. If we lose our selection and need to get it back, we will always have the Planet2 layer with its black circle to allow us to make a selection the size of the planet (we actually have a few other uses for the black circle, but we'll talk more about that later).

12. Make Planet2 the active layer
13. Lock the Planet2 layer
14. We will be using a gradient to simulate the bands of gas that wrap around the surface of the planet, so click the Gradient Tool...
    
    If you do not see the Gradient Tool, just right-click the Paint Bucket Tool and select the Gradient Tool...
    

We will start by inserting a new layer to place the gradient that will become our bands of gas onto.

15. Insert a new layer, place it at the top of the layer stack, and name it Gradient...
    

We are going to apply one of the rainbow gradients to get things started.

16. Press Ctrl+D on the keyboard to deselect everything
17. On the Gradient tool options bar, click the drop-down arrow next to the gradient box...
    
    This will open the gradient selection window...
    
18. Click the Transparent Rainbow gradient to select it...
    

This gradient has 7 different colors built into it, which will be important to us later when we apply the Gradient Map because ToolPic will take those initial colors and split them into multiple, individual lines of color. Keep working and you'll see what I'm talking about.

19. To apply the gradient to the image, click just above your image and press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard as you drag down to create a line stopping just below the bottom of your image...
    
    Your gradient should now be applied to your image...
    

For everything to look as realistic as possible, we will need to create a layer with multiple bands of gas. If you have worked with photoshop free before, you know that this is a fairly easy process, but in ToolPic it is a little more complicated and involves multiple uses of ToolPic's Gradient Map feature.

A Gradient Map is a simple adjustment, which is why it can be found in the Adjustments menu, that you can apply to a color image to turn it black and white. However, if we apply a color gradient as a Gradient Map, ToolPic will replace dark areas of our image with colors from the left side of our gradient and light areas of our image with colors from the right side of our gradient. OK, if you didn't understand that, don't worry. When we apply a Gradient Map you will get a better understanding of how it works.

20. Make sure the Gradient layer is still the active layer
21. On the Menu Bar, click Image and then point at Adjustments and click Gradient Map...
    
    This will open the Gradient Map window...
    

Notice that the Gradient Map window has a black and white gradient chosen by default (which means automatically). This is because, as we discussed earlier, the Gradient Map adjustment tool was originally intended to simply turn a color image black and white. Notice also that there is a drop-down arrow that will allow us to select a different gradient.

22. Click the gradient selection drop-down arrow...
    
    This will bring up the gradient options...
    
23. Select the Copper gradient (pointed at with the red arrow above) - notice that the gradient on your image should immediately change color...
    
24. Click OK...
    

Notice that we now have multiple bands of color. Instead of the original 7, we now have at least 10 separate bands of color. Yes, we only have light and dark bands of a brownish color and no longer have a bunch of bright colors, but we didn't actually want a rainbow color planet anyway - that's just not realistic. By applying a Gradient Map, we have increased the number of color bands. We will add color back in later that will give us a much more realistic planet surface that doesn't look like we just dropped a rainbow into our space scene.

Let's apply a Gradient Map several more times to get a bunch of thin bands of color.

25. Click Image on the Menu Bar and then point at Adjustments and click Gradient Map
26. Click the gradient selection drop-down arrow and select the Copper gradient again and click OK - your gradient should now look like this...
    
27. Click Image on the Menu Bar and then point at Adjustments and click Gradient Map
28. Click the gradient selection drop-down arrow and select the Transparent Rainbow gradient and click OK - your gradient should now look like this...
    
29. Click Image on the Menu Bar and then point at Adjustments and click Gradient Map
30. Click the gradient selection drop-down arrow and select the Transparent Rainbow gradient again and click OK - your gradient should now look like this...
    

Notice that we now have lots of lines of color. Notice also that they are all different thickness - this is good and will help to add realism to our planet.

31. Click Image on the Menu Bar and then point at Adjustments and click Gradient Map
32. Click the gradient selection drop-down arrow and select the Copper gradient one final time and click OK - your gradient should now look like this...
    

We are going to stop here because we've got some nice lines of various width. You may be wondering why we are going with this rather dull copper color as our final gradient. Well, as I said before, if we use the gradient from three directions ago with the bold reds, pinks, purples, and so on, we will make a planet that doesn't look realistic at all. By ending with a copper colored gradient, we have colors that actually exist out in space. Don't worry, we are not going to leave it like this. Our next task is to give our planet a little color, but just a little.

33. Insert a new layer at the top of the layer stack and name it Gradient Color...
    
34. Make sure the Gradient tool is still selected
35. On the Gradient tool options bar, click the drop-down arrow next to the gradient box...
    
36. Select the Spectrum gradient..
    
37. Apply the gradient to your image the same way you did in direction 19

We want to give our multi-line gradient just a touch of color, so let's lower the Opacity of the Gradient Color layer.

38. On the Layers panel, decrease the Opacity of the Gradient Color layer to 15%...
    
    Notice that your bands of gas now have a slight coloration to them...
    

At this point, our lines are very well defined and solid, so let's make a few quick adjustments that will soften up our lines a little so they look more like bands of gas on a far-away planet.

39. Right-click the Gradient Color layer and select Merge Down - your two gradient layers should now be one layer named Gradient Color (can you explain why it is called that?)...
    
40. On the Menu Bar, click Filter and then point at Blur and click Motion Blur...
    
    This will open the Motion Blur window...
    
41. Set the Angle to 90 and the Distance to any number between 15 and 20 - I'm going to use 15...
    

The higher the Distance you use the blurrier your image will be. Being extra blurry is not necessarily a bad thing. The faster a planet spins the blurrier its clouds will be. Don't go above 20, because if the clouds are too blurry the distortions we are going to be adding next will not look right.

42. Click OK - your gradient should now look something like this...
    

So far everything is looking pretty good, but if you look at real gas giants out in space (like Jupiter and Saturn) you notice that they have distortions in their bands of gas...

In other words, they do not have clean, straight lines across their surfaces. Let's take a quick minute to give our planet a little character by distorting the lines just a bit.

43. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Ripple...
    
     to open the Ripple window...
    
44. Set the Amount to something between 200 (any less and you won't be able to see the ripples after you resize your planet) and 300 (any more and the surface just begins to look like mush) - I'm going to use 250 - and leave the Size set to Medium
45. Click OK - you should now have something similar to this...
    

Our lines no longer look perfect, but they are still pretty straight across the planet. Let's add some waviness to our clouds.

46. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Wave to open the Wave window...
    
47. Use the above settings as a starting point, and adjust the numbers until you get something that you like (avoid simply using my numbers as you want your planet to be unique and if everyone uses the same numbers then all of the planets will look the same), but keep the following in mind:
         -  Number of Generators determines how large the waves are - setting this number too high will make your planet look like a cartoon, so try each number between 1 and 5 to see what gives you a result you like (your waviness should look something similar to the image above)
         -  Set Min Length to 1
         -  Set Max Length to any number between 400 (closer together waves) and 600 (more spread out waves)
         -  Set Min Ampl. (short for Amplitude) to 1
         -  Set Max Ampl. to any number between 20 (shallow waves) and 40 (deep waves)
         -  Set Scale X and Scale Y to 100%
         -  Set Type to Triangle
         -  Set Undefined Areas to Wrap Around
         -  Leave the Randomizer Seed setting alone
    I'm going to use the numbers in the above image - keep in mind that we will be resizing our planet later in this step so it is ok if the waves are a little exaggerated right now, they will look fine when we resize
48. Click OK

You should now have some nice, wavy, slightly distorted lines that more closely resemble the actual surface of a gas giant...

Keep in mind that since you (should have) used different settings than me that your bands of gas will not look exactly like mine.

Scroll back up to the picture of Jupiter and Saturn and notice that the actual surface of both planets have a lot more distortions on their surface than the planet we are creating here does. Let's take a quick second to add in some additional variations to our clouds (and learn some new tools in the process).

49. Click Filter and then click Liquify...
    
    This will open the Liquify window...
    
    Yes, it's a big window
50. In the Liquify window, click the Smudge tool...
    
    Hint: it is on the left at the top

The Smudge Tool does exactly what the name says: it smudges. It works very much like what happens when you stick your finger in a dab of paint and move it around - the paint smudges (sorry, really no better way to say it).

51. Roll the mouse wheel up until the Zoom level is 100%...
    
    Hint: it is on the left at the bottom
52. Under View Options, click the Background checkbox to turn it on and set the Opacity to 90...
    
    This will allow us to see the black circle of our planet behind our bands of gas...
    

Being able to see where our planet sits is helpful because it lets us know where to make the changes in the next few directions. Everything outside the shaded circle area will be deleted, so don't bother making adjustments to the lines outside the shaded circle.

53. On the right side of the Liquify window, set the options to match the image below...
    
54. Click and drag quickly in your clouds in various directions and at various lengths to simulate variations in the surface gas...
    
    DO NOT go crazy with your smudges - try to space them out as we will be decreasing the size of the brush in the following directions and adding additional smudges of various sizes to give our planet a lot more character

When creating the smudges, if you click and drag quickly you will pull the color where you click a longer distance than if you click and drag slowly, which will tend to blend together the colors you drag over.

55. Place smudges around your image (but don't go CRAZY) - if you need to reposition your planet so you can see a different area, you can press and hold the spacebar and then click and drag to move your planet around
56. Press the [ key on your keyboard twice to decrease the size of your brush from 35 to 25
57. Add in some additional smudges - again, don't over do it
58. Press the [ key on your keyboard twice to decrease the size of your brush from 25 to 15
59. Add in some additional smudges - this time you can make as many as you like (you can even draw onto some of the previous smudges)
60. Press the ] key ten times to increase the brush size to 80
61. Select the Shrink tool...
    
    This tool pulls whatever is within your brush circle in to the center of the circle
62. Change the Rate to 30...
    
    This controls how quickly the surrounding area is pulled into the center of your circle - if this is set too high then you pretty much have no control over how much Shrink you apply
63. Click around your planet in a few different places - this tool works great to repair any areas that you went crazy on - to add some additional distortions to your clouds (keep in mind that the longer you press the mouse button on one spot the more ToolPic will draw the surrounding area into your circle) - once again, do not go crazy with this

The Shrink tool is a great way to create thinner bands of gas...

Simply click and hold the Shrink tool as you drag along a band of gas to thin it out.

64. If you want to create smaller areas of shrinkage, simply decrease the brush size and create more shrunken areas

Also available in the Liquify window is the Blow tool...

It functions the opposite of the Shrink tool. When using the Blow tool, anything inside the brush circle will be pushed out from the center toward the edges. If you have areas that you want to be slightly more spread out, you can place the Blow tool over that area and click multiple times, or click and hold to slowly apply the Blow.

65. Look over your planet and decide if there are any areas you would like to spread out and use the Blow tool on those areas - be extra careful not to over use the Blow tool because the more you use it the more unrealistic your planet will look (in other words, don't go crazy with this)
66. Look back over your planet and make sure that you are happy with all of the Liquify changes you have made - you should have something similar to the image below...
    
    When you are happy with your planet, click OK to exit the Liquify window

67. Press and hold the Ctrl key and click on the Planet2 thumbnail...
    
    To select the planet shape...
    
    This will select all of the non-transparent pixels on the layer - in other words, it selects the black circle (see, I told you the Planet2 layer would come in handy)
68. On the Menu bar, click Select and then click Inverse
69. Make sure the Gradient Color layer is still selected
70. Press the Delete key on the keyboard, or click Edit on the Menu bar and then click Clear...
    
    The area around your planet should now be gone...
    
71. Press Ctrl+D on the keyboard to deselect everything

What might be awesome at this point is to add in a nice storm to simulate something like the Great Red Spot on Jupiter...

This spot on Jupiter is actually a huge hurricane that has been churning for decades, maybe even centuries. Let's start by creating a selection to contain our storm.

72. Click the Ellipse Select tool - make sure Feather is set to 0...
    
73. Draw an oval over the empty area of your image (NOT on your planet) that is 200px wide by 100px high...
    
    Don't waste a lot of time trying to get your selection to be exactly 200x100 - just get close
74. Determine where on your planet you would like your storm to be - it should on the same side of the planet as your sun (in other words, if you put your sun on the right side of your image like I did then you want your storm to be on the right side of your planet since we are going to shade the other side later in this step and you want your storm to be visible) and looks best when placed in darker bands of color (if you place it over light colored clouds it will be difficult to see when you resize your planet)
75. Click inside the selection (your cursor should look like this: while over the selection) and drag it onto the area of your planet that you chose...
    
76. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Twirl...
    
    This opens the Twirl window...
    
    Note that the preview of the planet shows what the twirl will look like when applied
77. Set angle to 300 degrees as in the image above
78. Click OK
79. Press and hold the Shift key and press the right arrow key 10 times (or press the left arrow key 10 times depending on how close to the edge of your planet you placed the first twirl) - this will move your selection 100 pixels to the right...
    

Using just the arrow keys to move something left or right (or up and down) will move the object 1 pixel each time you press the arrow key. But by holding down the Shift key, we force ToolPic to move the selection area 10 pixels with each press of the arrow key. In this way, we can precisely control how far we move selections and objects, but don't have to press the arrow key a hundred times to get it where we want.

80. Reapply the Twirl filter (use the same settings as before) - you should now have something like this...
    
81. Press and hold the Shift key and press the left arrow key (or the right if you used the left one earlier) five times to move your selection oval 50 pixels back toward your original twirl so it sits between the two twirls you just made...
    
82. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Twirl to reopen the Twirl window, but this time set the angle to 400 degrees...
    
    This should combine the first two twirls into one large twirl...
    
83. Press Crtl+D to deselect the oval

You may be wondering why we didn't just create one large twirl at an angle of 400 and be done with it. Remember that the bands of gas on our planet (and on the real gas planets in our solar system) are created due to the planet spinning really fast and, because there is no solid ground to provide friction, stretching the gas across the surface of the planet. Because of this, a simple round storm would look out of place. By applying two small twirls and merging them into one large twirl we are able to create a storm that is definitely noticeable, but that blends into the surrounding clouds and looks stretched out so that it could actually be on our planet and not look like some weird artificial storm we stuck on same fake planet using ToolPic (and now you know why the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is an oval...you're welcome).

Let's make one more minor adjustment before we move on. If you look at the Great Red Spot on Jupiter in the image above you will notice that the center is far less defined (it's blurrier) than the center of our storm. We have a quick fix we can use to soften up the center of our storm.

84. Click the Smudge Tool...
    
    You may have to right-click the Blur Tool and then select the Smudge Tool...
    
85. Choose the Soft Mechanical 24 pixels brush and make the Size 70 px
86. Click in the center of your storm and move your mouse back and forth slightly (do not go too far or you will begin to remove the oval shape of the storm) until your center is well blended - it should look something similar to the image below...
    

87. Press and hold the Ctrl key and click on the Planet2 layer's thumbnail...
    
88. Make sure the Gradient Color layer is the active layer
89. Click Filter then point at Distort and click Spherize
90. Set the Amount to whatever value between 50 and 100% that you think looks best - I'm going to use 70%...
    
91. Click OK

You should now have an awesome looking gas planet. Since this planet is covered with all kinds of strange gasses and doesn't have clouds like we do on earth, we don't have to worry about creating cloud layers and just need to apply a nice glow to the Planet2 layer.

92. Lock the Gradient Color layer
93. Unlock the Planet2 layer and make it the active layer
94. At the bottom of the Layers panel click the eff icon...
    
    eff is short for Effect
95. Click Outer Glow...
    
    This opens the Layer Style window with Outer Glow selected
96. Make the following adjustments:
    Blend Mode: Normal
    Opacity: 75%
    Noise: 0%
    Technique: Softer
    Spread: 0%
    Size: 70 px
    Leave all of the Quality settings alone
97. Click on the title bar for the Layer Style window...
    
    and drag it so that you can see your planet
98. Click the Set color of glow box...
    
    This opens the Color Picker window
99. Click on the title bar for the Color Picker window and drag it so that you can see your planet
100.  Place the cursor (it should be a plus sign right now) on an area of color within your planet that you like - I'm placing mine here...
     
101.  Click to select your chosen color - notice that the glow around your planet is now your chosen color
102.  Click OK in the Color Picker window

Let's give our planet a slight tilt.

103.  Make the Gradient Color layer the active layer
104.  Unlock the Gradient Color layer
105.  Click Edit on the menu bar and then point at Transform and click Rotate...
     
106.  Place your cursor just off one of the corners until you get the curved double-headed arrow...
     
107.  Click and drag to rotate your planet - how much you rotate it is up to you (remember that you can always flip and rotate it more later)...
     
108.  Press the Enter key on the keyboard to apply the transform

We now need to add in a shadow. With Planet 1, we started with a full black circle and erased part of it until we had a nice shadow. For this planet, let's use a different method.

109.  Lock the Gradient Color layer
110.  Insert a new layer at the top of the layer stack and name it Shadow...
     
111.  Turn on the visibility of the Star Field layer group (the black background will allow us to see our outer glow better)
112.  Make sure your planet shape is still selected (if it is not, Ctrl+click on the Planet2 layer's thumbnail to select your entire planet) and notice that the outer glow is not included in the selection...
     

We are going to add a shadow on top of the main body of our planet first, and then we will deal with removing the outer glow on the shadow side of the planet. Trust me - this is going to work.

113.  Press D on the keyboard to make black your foreground color
114.  Choose the Brush Tool
115.  Change the brush selection to Soft Mechanical 24 pixels, and change the Size to 500 px
116.  On the Brush Tool options bar, make sure Opacity (the depth of color) and Flow (the amount of color you drop each time you stroke) are both set to 50%...
     
117.  Zoom out so you can see your entire planet and some of the area around it
118.  Make sure the Shadow layer is the active layer and click on one side of your planet and drag around to the other side...
     
     Keep your cursor half-on your planet as in the image above and make sure you are shading the side of the planet AWAY from the sun (notice how the image above indicates that my Sun is in the upper right-hand corner of my image so I'm shading the bottom left of my planet) - you should now have something like this...
     
     Notice that you have a slight shadow - yes, it is supposed to be that subtle, you will make it darker in the following directions
119.  Press the ] key on the keyboard once to increase the size of your brush to 600
120.  Repeat direction 118, but put slightly less of the cursor on your planet - your shadow should now be slightly darker...
     
121.  Press the ] key on the keyboard once to increase the size of your brush to 700
122.  Repeat direction 118, but put slightly less of the cursor on your planet
123.  Press the ] key on the keyboard once to increase the size of your brush to 800
124.  Repeat direction 118, but put slightly less of the cursor on your planet
125.  Press the ] key on the keyboard once to increase the size of your brush to 900
126.  Repeat direction 118, but put slightly less of the cursor on your planet
127.  Press the ] key on the keyboard once to increase the size of your brush to 1000
128.  Repeat direction 118, but put slightly less of the cursor on your planet - you should now have a nice, soft shadow...
     
     Notice that because the planet is selected that we only drew over the planet so that the stars in the image are still shining just as bright as they were before we began this Step
129.  Lock the Shadow layer

Now let's deal with the outer glow. Because the outer glow is a layer style and not something we actually drew on our planet, we can't simply erase the outer glow. However, since we applied the outer glow to the Planet2 layer (which you'll remember is just a black circle), if we remove part of the black circle on the shadow part of the planet, we can push the outer glow back so that it is not visible. If that made no sense at all, don't worry. After we make this change you will understand.

130.  Make the Planet2 layer the active layer
131.  Click the Eraser Tool and use the Soft Mechanical brush with a size of 500 pixels...
     
132.  Click and drag the same way you did in direction 118 to remove the outer glow on the shadow side of the planet - you should now have something that looks like this...
     

OK, so I said that we can't directly erase the outer glow because it is applied using a layer style, so why does it appear that we were able to erase it? Well, if we turn off the Shadow and Gradient Color layers we see this...

This is what is left of our Planet2 black circle after we erased the part on the shadow side in the last direction. Notice that the outer glow is actually still there. It's not as solid and bright as it is around the other side of the planet because we used an eraser with a soft edge, but it is still there. We have basically just pushed it back so that it is not visible on the shadow side of our planet anymore. With the Shadow and Gradient Color layers above our Planet2 layer, people viewing our image will never know that the outer glow on the shadow side is there.

Things are looking pretty good, but at this point all of your planets look pretty much the same, which is pretty boring. Let's take a second to modify the color of your planet so that everyone has a unique planet. We could simply take our Planet2 layer and edit the colors directly, but doing so would permanently change our planet. If we close our image or continue on with Step 15, we would be unable to get our planet back to the way it currently looks or to modify any changes we made. Luckily for us, ToolPic offers a way to modify a layer without doing so permanently. This can be done with an adjustment layer.

Adjustment layers are layers that sit over other layers and make some sort of change to them. The good thing about adjustment layers is that unlike actually changing a layer, changes made using adjustment layers can be quickly and easily undone (by deleting the adjustment layer) or easily changed (by modifying the adjustment layer).

We need to give our planet a color scheme we like at this point because later we will be adding a ring system and will need to apply color to the rings based on the color of our planet's swirling clouds. We are going to need a new layer that sits above our Gradient Color layer.

133.  Turn off the visibility of the Shadow layer - this will allow you to better see what impact the color change is having on your planet
134.  Make Gradient Color the active layer
135.  At the bottom of the Layers panel click the New Adjustment layer icon...
     
136.  Click Hue/Saturation...
     
     to open the Hue/Saturation Properties panel...
     
137.  Drag the Hue slider (red arrow in the image above) left and right and keep an eye on your planet - notice your planet will actually change colors - and stop when you get to a color scheme you like...
     
     No, your planet does not have to look like mine...again, choose something that YOU like
138.  Drag the Saturation slider left and right and determine if you want your colors to be more or less vivid...
     
     I made mine slightly more vivid

Take a look at your Layers panel and notice that a new layer has been added...

This adjustment layer currently impacts all layers sitting under it, so we need to limit its effect to only the layer immediately below it.

139.  Right click the Hue/Saturation 1 layer (the layer shown above) to bring up a pop-up menu
140.  Click Clipping Mask...
     

A Clipping Mask is just a fancy way to say that any adjustments we make will be applied only to the layer directly below the current layer. ToolPic has a quick and easy way to let us know that we are using a Clipping Mask. Look at your Layers panel...

The tiny black downward pointing black arrow that tiny red indicator arrow is pointing at indicates that the Hue/Saturation 1 layer is a Clipping Mask layer that is impacting only the layer immediately below it.

Adjusting the Hue/Saturation slider is the quickest way to make changes to our planet's color, but we have a few other ways to make modifications.

141.  Locate the Colorize checkbox near the bottom of the Hue/Saturation Properties panel...
     
     Click it to turn on Colorize - notice that your planet should now be tinted variations of one color...
     

At this point you might be thinking: huh, what's going on? Colorize is a great tool to use when we want to add color to an image that has no color (such as a black and white image). Using it now causes our planet to be monochromatic (a variation of one color). You have a choice to make now about whether you like the monochromatic look or if you prefer the multi-colored bands.

142.  Decide if you like the monochromatic look (if you do, simply go to the next direction) or if you prefer multi-colored bands (simply click back on the Colorize checkbox to turn the Colorize option off - this is what I'm going to do)

Note that if you want a different monochromatic color, you can drag the Hue slider left/right again to get different colors.

143.  Click the Properties shortcut icon to collapse the Properties panel...
     

We have one more thing we can do to ensure we have a one-of-a-kind planet.

144.  Change the blending mode...
     
     of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer - try each blending mode until you find one that you like (do not use any that make your planet look unnatural - such as Color Burn, Color Dodge, Hard Mix, and several others) - once you find a setting you like leave it set to that (you are certainly free to use the default Normal setting if you like it best)

I'm going to leave my blending mode set to Normal.

Keep something very important in mind at this point - if you do not like any of the adjustments you have made you can always make changes to your adjustment layer. Take a look at your Layers panel and locate the Hue icon (red arrow below) located on your Hue/Saturation 1 layer...

This icon indicates that the layer is modifying the Hue/Saturation of our image. By the way, if you are wondering what that white circle inside the black box to the right of the Hue/Saturation icon is for, it is there to indicate what specific parts of our image are being adjusted. Since we had our planet shape selected when we applied this particular adjustment layer, it is only being applied to the circle, or what is in white. If we want to apply the adjustment to the entire image, we would simply apply it with nothing selected and our adjustment layer icon would look like this...

The white box indicates that the adjustment is being applied to everything. To make changes to your adjustment layer, you simply need to double-click on the Hue icon to get the Hue/Saturation Property panel from direction 136 to pop back up. This is the real power of adjustment layers - we can make tons of changes to our image without having a direct impact on our layers.

So far everything is looking pretty good, but let's take this planet to the next level by adding in some Saturn-like rings. Our planet is rather large now and it will be difficult to create rings large enough to go around it, so let's make our planet a little smaller.

145.  Press Ctrl+D on the keyborad to deselect everything
146.  Make the Shadow layer the active layer and unlock it and turn on its visibility (click the eyeball)
147.  Press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard and click the Planet2 layer to select all four layers...
     
148.  Make sure all 4 layers are unlocked as in the image above (if some of your layers are not unlocked, you may need to unlock them one at a time and them reselect all four layers)
149.  Click Edit and then point at Transform and click Scale to enter resize mode - you should notice a box around your planet
150.  In the Transform options bar, change both the W and H settings to 50%...
     
151.  Click the Commit Transform button at the far right end of the Transform options bar...
     

Now we have a smaller planet that we can better deal with...

152.  Insert a new layer at the top of your layer stack and name it Rings
153.  Press D on the keyboard
154.  Turn off the visibility of all layers except the Rings layer
155.  Fill the Rings layer with black (there should be no selection, just fill the entire layer with black)
156.  Click Filter then point at Render and click Clouds
157.  Click Filter then point at Distort and click Twirl - the Twirl window will open...
     
158.  Change the Angle to 999 as in the image above
159.  Click OK
160.  Repeat the above 3 steps three more times - a quick and easy way to repeat the last filter that was applied is to click Filter on the Menu bar and then choose Last Filter...
     
     Your image should now look like this...
     
161.  Click the Ellipse Select tool and make sure the Feather option is set to 20px
162.  Press and hold the Alt key and then press and hold the Shift key (Shift gives us a circle while Alt forces the point we click to be the center of our circle) so that you are holding both keys pressed at the same time, and then click in the center of your twirl and drag to create a selection similar to the one below...
     
     Then release the Alt and Shift keys and the mouse button
163.  Click Select then click Inverse
164.  Press the Delete key to remove the twirl outside the selection - notice that you should have a nice soft edge on the remaining selection (if you don't, delete the Rings layer and go back to direction 161 and make sure the feather is set to 20 px)
165.  Press Ctrl+D to deselect
166.  Change the Feather to 0 px
167.  Press and hold the Alt key and then press and hold the Shift key so that you are holding both keys pressed at the same time, and then click in the center of your twirl and drag to create a selection similar to the one below...
     
     Don't waste a lot of time trying to make your selection perfect, just get close to the selection above
168.  Release the Alt and Shift keys and the mouse button and press the Delete key to remove the twirl inside the selection
169.  Press Ctrl+D to deselect - you should now have something similar to the image below...
     
170.  Turn on the visibility of your Gradient Color and your Hue/Saturation 1 layers (this will make it easier to tell how wide to make the rings)
171.  Select the Rings layer and click Edit then click Free Transform...
     
172.  Use the top (or bottom) center resize handle to squish your rings into an oval, and then adjust their width so that they are slightly wider than your planet...
     
173.  Tilt your rings so they are at the same angle as your gas bands...
     
174.  When you are happy with your rings press the Enter key to apply the transform

Our rings are really smooth, so let's make them look a little more rock-like.

175.  Click Filter then point at Noise and click Add Noise...
176.  Make your settings match those below...
     
177.  Click OK - your rings should now look something like this...
     

178.  Click Image and point at Adjustments and click Hue/Saturation and change the settings so that the rings have a nice, slight tint to them (you will need to drag the Saturation slider to right first to apply some color, and then adjust the Hue slider to find a color that matches your planet) - remember that since our rings are originally black and white that you will need to turn on the Colorize option in the lower left-hand corner of the Hue/Saturation window...
     
     Your rings should now have some color...
     
     Everyone has different colors in their planet, so I can't tell you exactly what settings to use - just play around with them until you get something you like (remember that we are going for just a slight amount of color, so be sure that you are not applying too much color by keeping the saturation value low)
179.  Click OK to exit the Hue/Saturation window
180.  Turn on the visibility of your Shadow and Planet2 layers, as well as your Star Field layer folder (you still want the Rings layer to be selected, just make sure you can see the Shadow layer so you know where to erase the rings)
181.  Click the Eraser Tool and use the Soft Mechanical brush with a size of around 200 pixels and erase the part of the rings that are behind the planet, and remove some of the rings that are in the planet's shadow (the rings will look more realistic if you leave some slightly visible in the shadow - this can be easily done by turning the Opacity and Flow settings in the Eraser Tool options bar down to 50% each and gradually removing the rings until you have something you like)...
     
182.  Feel free to increase the size of the brush as needed to get a nice set of rings in the shadow, just be sure that your rings do not cover up your storm (notice that my rings are on the top part of my planet while my storm is safely on the bottom)

We have one more quick thing to fix before we move on with our lives. Take a look at my outer glow in the above image. Notice that while my planet has a definite purplish tint to it that my outer glow is still the yellowish color that it was before I adjust the Hue of my bands of gas. It looks a little odd at this point, so let's take a quick second and make an adjustment to our outer glow (and cover some great info on how to adjust an existing layer style!) so that the color more correctly matches our planet.

Keep in mind that depending on how you set the color of your planet, that your outer glow may not need to be adjusted because it is already a good color. If that is your situation, follow along with the directions below anyway just so you have experience adjusting an existing layer style.

183.  On the Layers panel, double-click the eff icon on the Gradient Color layer...
     
     This will open the Layer Style window
184.  Click the Outer Glow selector...
     
185.  Click the Set color of glow box...
     
186.  Click the plus sign cursor on an area of color on your planet that you want to your outer glow to be
187.  Click OK to exit the Color Picker
188.  Click OK to exit the Layer Style widow

Your planet should now have a nice glow that fits your overall color scheme...

In the image above, I used the color in the wide, center band of gas as my outer glow. By using a layer style instead of making a change directly to our Gradient Color layer, we are able to make changes whenever we need without messing up our original colors.

Our final task is to get all of our Planet2 layers into a layer folder and find a nice home in our space scene for our wonderful Jupiter/Saturn hybrid planet to sit.

189.  Select all five of the layers that make up your second planet...
     
190.  Click the New Folder icon
191.  Rename the new layer folder Planet2...
     
192.  Click Edit then point at Transform and click Scale and resize your planet (remember to hold the Shift key as you drag one of the corners to resize both the height and width at the same time) to something that fits your scene, then move it where you would like it to be (remember that you can still use Edit - Transform - Flip Horizontal/Vertical to reposition your planet if you need to, just remember that you may need to rotate it again to keep the shadow away from the sun)

Be sure you are not placing your amazing Planet2 on top of any of your large stars.

193.  Lock all of your layer folders

The absolute best part about how we built out Planet2 is that once we get all parts of our space scene turned on, if there is something that we don't like we can easily make an adjustment. For example, comparing my two planets I see that the outer glow on my Planet2 is so much larger than my Planet1 that it looks out of place - the fix for this is easy.

194.  If the outer glow of your Planet2 is too bright, simply unlock the Planet2 layer folder
195.  Expand the contents of the Planet2 layer folder by clicking the expand folder arrow...
     
     To show the contents of the layer folder...
     
196.  Select the Planet2 layer (remember that this is where the outer glow lives)
197.  Decrease the Opacity of your Planet2 layer until your outer glow fits better into your scene - I set mine to 65%...
     
198.  Collapse (by clicking the expander folder arrow again) and lock your Planet2 layer folder

So far it looks pretty good, but there are all kinds of other things floating through space such as comets and asteroids, so let's add in some of those.

199.  Click File and then click Save as PSD
200.  Name the file Space14