Celestia Forums

I have created 2 fictional planetary systems for Rigel Kentaurus A aka alpha centauri A and Rigel kentaurus B aka Alpha Centauri B.
I have also created a Mars Ice texture.
These files can be downloaded from my website at http://members.chello.nl/r.sanders20/productions/ or from the celestia motherlode website here http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/fictional.html#systems

Rigel Kentaurus A



Rigel Kentaurus B



Mars Ice Texture



ROB SANDERS PRODUCTIONS
http://members.chello.nl/r.sanders20/productions/

I dont know if you know Isaac Asimov's books, but in of of them(Foundation and Earth), the characters visit a planet orbiting Aapha Centaurus A. The planet is called New Earth and I think its almost fully covered but water and has an island where all the people live...

ElPelado wrote:I dont know if you know Isaac Asimov's books, but in of of them(Foundation and Earth), the characters visit a planet orbiting Aapha Centaurus A. The planet is called New Earth and I think its almost fully covered but water and has an island where all the people live...

No, i dont know them, but i will have a look
Can you people give me some feedback on how you liked my creations?

I like the look of the icy mars texture.

The other planets look a bit too recognisable though. The first and fourth planets of A are obviously tweaked Venus and Callisto, and the second and third on the bottom row are obviously tweaked Callisto and Jupiter.

B is a little better, though again planet #5 is very clearly a Ganymede (and I think the last one is an Io?)

I have made 6 screenshots of my creation.














http://members.chello.nl/r.sanders20/productions/

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:I like the look of the icy mars texture.

Thanks, i was playing with the texture in paintshop and voila there it was

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:The other planets look a bit too recognisable though. The first and fourth planets of A are obviously tweaked Venus and Callisto, and the second and third on the bottom row are obviously tweaked Callisto and Jupiter.

Indeed part of me learning about celestia editing was editing excisting celestia files.

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:B is a little better, though again planet #5 is very clearly a Ganymede (and I think the last one is an Io?)

B was my second attempt and should indead be better.
Thanks for the feedback.

http://members.chello.nl/r.sanders20/productions/[/url]

Hey, don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to come up with original looking textures (I don't have a clue how to do it myself) and I'm in awe of those who can do it. But it's definitely a good start - I just think it greatly lessens the "alienness" of it if you use things that are too familiar though.

This is something that has been a problem for me as well. When designing entire systems, and with the sheer number of systems that I want to put together, finding or making absolutely new textures has been, in the short term, pretty much impossible.

I'vegotten into the habit, with some of the later systems, of simply using archetypical textures for various planet types. The advantage is that it makes the add-on file that much smaller in size. But it DOES get a bit distracting to find a moon here that looks like Ganymede, and then go to THIS planet's moon and find... Ganymede!

It will slow me down quite a bit, but I think I'll be getting back to tweaking and making entirely new textures for each planet and moon. Heh, everytime I make a desision like this, I'm pushing back the completion of my next system!

Still, I hope that it will make even the first version much mroe worth the download time.

...John...

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Hey, don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to come up with original looking textures (I don't have a clue how to do it myself) and I'm in awe of those who can do it. But it's definitely a good start - I just think it greatly lessens the "alienness" of it if you use things that are too familiar though.

One technique I've found for 'quick and dirty' world textures is combining two or more.

If you take a selection of textures (for instance: Venus, Callisto and the Moon), resize them so they are all the same dimensions. Take each and paste them into a separate layer on a single Photoshop image, then play around with each texture's transparency settings. You can eventually get something that, while slightly familiar, has a nicely alien look to it.

Another way is to combine the bumpmaps using the method above, then import it as a bumpmap into a heightfield editor (such as the free program 'Wilbur'). Once its in there, you can play around with height-related colouring to your heart's content.

Cheers,

Cormoran

Cormoran wrote:One technique I've found for 'quick and dirty' world textures is combining two or more.

If you take a selection of textures (for instance: Venus, Callisto and the Moon), resize them so they are all the same dimensions. Take each and paste them into a separate layer on a single Photoshop image, then play around with each texture's transparency settings. You can eventually get something that, while slightly familiar, has a nicely alien look to it.

That is how I am making the textures for my work in progress Proxima Centauri system, except I like to add a Lunarcell texture as well and then I edit the textures extensively, you can still see a few resemblances from the originals though.

Bringing back an old post again,

Michael Kilderry

Pictures of rocks can be used, too.

selden wrote:Pictures of rocks can be used, too.

Rocks, and ice, marble, granite textures...

Or, get the 43k Bluemarble from NASA. Sample small parts of it, and tweak color and saturation. A tiny island lifted off that and re-shaped a little can easily serve as a unique - and unrecognizable - planet texture.

An advantage is that you can inherit very realistic geological features with this procedure - the flow of mountains, plains, etc. The Earth is so incredibly varied, you can get raw material for almost any project from it...

-rthorvald