Filter Forge Ice Giants

Tips for creating and manipulating planet textures for Celestia.
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MrSpace43
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Filter Forge Ice Giants

Post #1by MrSpace43 » 18.04.2021, 19:13

So here's something I wanted to show off. A few of you may remember that I made an ice giant for CelWP named "Darler." I had made a custom filter a while ago in a program called "Filter Forge" that I can use to make realistic-looking ice giant textures, which is what I used to make Darler. Here's another generated ice giant texture made using this preset:
Filter Forge Ice Giant texture preset.png

Here is an ice giant in Celestia with its textures in use:
Ice giant test.png
Ice giant test 2.png
Ice giant test 3.png
(Rings made using a separate filter that I might talk about another time)

Added after 18 minutes 14 seconds:
There are 9 settings for this filter, 7 of which determine the overall look of the textures (6 of those for the surface, and 1 for the clouds), while the other 2 just swap between the surface texture and the cloud texture (with or without alpha).
Parameters.png
Parameters.png (31.33 KiB) Viewed 4980 times


Added after 33 minutes 54 seconds:
-The temperature parameter goes from 0 to 100, and changes the color of the ice giant's surface texture depending on the temperature. The color goes from a Neptunian-blue at value 0 to a lemon-yellow at value 100, with a Uranus-like (but kinda not really) green somewhere in the middle (value 50):
Temperature.png


-The band distinction parameter goes from 1 to 100, and this changes the visibility of the darker bands on the surface texture. At value 0, the bands aren't visible (perfect for Uranus-like ice giants), while at value 100, they are clearly visible:
Band Distinction.png

-The band variation parameter basically just changes the variation of the bands on the surface (value goes from 1 to 30000).

-The band distortion parameters (Cloud Dist. Var. 1 & 2) simply just determine the distort variation of the bands (values on both again, go from 1 to 30000).

-Surface variation just changes the seed for the main surface (value yet again, goes from 1 to 30000).

If we check the box that says "Cloud Map," we will be given the planet's alpha cloud map texture, which is nothing more than just white cloud streaks on a black background (unless of the "Clouds with Alpha" box is checked which will display the cloud map for use in Celestia):
Filter Forge Ice Giant cloud texture preset.png


-The cloud variation parameter (Cloud Streak Var.) is the only parameter that affects the cloud texture, and again, it pretty much changes the seed for the clouds (value goes from 1 to 30000).

Overall I'm pleased with how this filter turned out and will use this for more ice giants that I might create sometime in the future.
Been into Astronomy since the age of 3 or 4. Started making planetary textures back in late 2016. 3D animator who makes high quality animations in Cinema 4D. Likes to sometimes, deliberately torment myself with the stupid green screaming apatosaurus that is Arlo.

My addons page: https://celestiaproject.space/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=22167

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