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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 35</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
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              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Painting 
          on Polygons</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Creating A Space Scene <font size="+1">(part 2)</font></font></p>
        <p align="right"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Rick "<a href="mailto:flat@iserv.net">Flatness</a>" Grossenbacher<br>
          </font></b></font><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"></font></b></p>
        <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Repeat the entire process 
          with the other two renders so that you have three planets in the same 
          document stacked on top of each other. I’ll list the process again so 
          it is in a nice easy to read order:</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1. Make sure your <i>Layers 
          Palette</i> is up and the <i>Channels</i> tab is pressed (at the top 
          of the <i>Layers Palette</i>). </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">2. Open the TIF file of one 
          of your rendered planets.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">3. Bring your cursor over 
          top of the Alpha channel in the <i>Layers Palette</i>.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">4. Press the <b>Ctrl</b> 
          key, then left-click the mouse (to put a selection around the planet).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">5. Cut the planet out.</font></p>

        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">6. Paste it <b>directly over 
          top</b> of the other planet (in the new document).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">7. Repeat this entire process 
          until all three of your rendered planets are stacked in layers on top 
          of each other.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">With that done, you no longer 
          need your renders of the three planets, but you might want to save them 
          in case you mess something up. Take a look at my Layers Palette now 
          with the three planets. I named them &quot;Render 1,&quot; &quot;Render 
          2,&quot; and &quot;Render 3.&quot; </font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="layers1.gif" width="211" height="212"></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you are wondering why 
          we have three planets all stacked directly on top of each other, here 
          is the reason. It’s time to erase sections of the two top layers so 
          they show through to the bottom one (&quot;Render 1&quot;). In other 
          words, you can go in now and selectively figure out where you want the 
          bumpiest part of the planet to be, and where you want the smoothest 
          parts. For my planet, I wanted to make it real smooth in the middle 
          and bumpier towards the top and bottom -- also fairly bumpy at the point 
          where light and dark meet. Then, I would put in the mid-bumpiness here 
          and there (where ever I see fit).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I diagrammed it below:</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="diagram1big.jpg"><img src="diagram1.jpg" width="109" height="96" border="1"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>Click the thumbnail to 
          see a larger image.</i></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Since the planet was looking 
          a bit dull and colorless, you’ll notice I brought up the <i>Saturation</i> 
          slider to about +42 or so (you may want to experiment). I also messed 
          a little with the <i>Brightness/Contrast</i> (brightness -8, contrast 
          +6 or so).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The planet is looking pretty 
          good now (on my monitor, at least). I took the time to view it on a 
          Macintosh the other day and it was quite bright and washed out looking. 
          This is one thing I really hate about computer art. You can never get 
          everyone to see your work as <i>you</i> want it presented since everyone 
          has different monitors. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The planet is missing something 
          though -- a glow. A slight glow can really make it look like it has 
          genuine atmosphere. Just be careful not to over do it too much on the 
          glow, however -- that will just make it look fake.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are several way to 
          go about creating a glow.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1. You can use a Photoshop 
          filter (or an <i>Outer Glow layer effect</i>).</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">2. You can create one in 
          3-D Studio MAX in <b>Video Post</b>.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">3. You can create one manually 
          using feathered selections and opacity trimming.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Option number one...</b> 
          Personally, I avoid 90% of Photoshop filters. The worst thing you can 
          have happen to your artwork is for someone to be able to say, <i>Lens 
          Flare</i> here, <i>Lighting Effects</i> filter there, bla, bla, bla, 
          bla. This isn’t to say that Filters can’t be used creatively, however. 
          I’ve seen some people come up with some damn cool stuff using combinations 
          of filters wisely and creatively. But the nice thing with the layer 
          effects such as Outer Glow is that you can do quite a bit of manipulating 
          color, intensity, etc.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Option number two...</b> 
          Video Post can be powerful, but it’s a fairly slow process (unless you 
          have a quite fast computer or video card). Plus, sometimes it can be 
          a pain get things the way you want them.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Option number three...</b> 
          I like to create a lot of my effects manually because you can add the 
          nuances that you are looking for and they aren’t as uniform as in a 
          filter. And if I ever hope to be quoted for anything in my life regarding 
          art, I hope it is for saying that the use of interesting little nuances 
          is the keys to realistic, professional-looking computer-art (in the 
          context of what we are talking about -- I’m not talking about cartoons 
          or something, I’m talking about detailed, fairly realistic, artwork). 
          If you take a look at just about anything in real life, you’ll see what 
          I mean. Heck, look at your monitor sitting right in front of your face. 
          I bet somewhere there might be a smudge on the screen from where you 
          slapped that bug that was flying around and never got to fully cleaning 
          off other than smearing it with a tissue. Or maybe a sticker stuck around 
          the frame that is now peeling off. Or maybe just a collection of dust 
          that has been settling on the top for three months too long. Anyway, 
          you see what I’m getting at. Those are the things that add character 
          to your work and make it stand out from a mere &quot;computer-generated 
          image.&quot;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok, I’m a windbag today. 
          Let’s get on with the glow. Out of all three options, option number 
          one presents the easiest, least time-consuming solution. Basically what 
          you do is duplicate the layer of your planet and put it behind the planet. 
          Then you can go about working with an <i>Outer Glow layer effect</i>. 
          <b>You don’t want to put the glow directly on the layer that has your 
          original planet</b>. That’s because it will be very had to vary the 
          thickness and intensity of the glow in different places (such as the 
          dark side of the planet where you want much less glow). So, if you have 
          it behind the planet on a duplicated layer of the planet, you can pull 
          out the good ‘ole eraser tool and erase (with various percentages in 
          the eraser tool’s opacity box) the parts that you don’t want so dominating. 
          The other reason that you don’t want to put the glow directly on your 
          original planet is because you will probably want the glow to extend 
          into the planet a bit to make the atmosphere more realistic. This is 
          a bit trickier. Actually, not tricky, it just takes a steady hand. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As usual, there are several 
          ways to approach this. You could use an <i>Inner Glow</i> effect but 
          then the glow would be very uniform and probably too much on the dark 
          side of the planet. So, hex that idea. I rendered one in 3D Studio MAX 
          with a <b>Video Post</b> glow effect then slapped it over top of everything 
          and erased out the center. This is really the hard way to do it and 
          I don’t necessarily recommend it, but it will work. So, the easiest 
          way that I have found is to simply set your eraser tool to a very low 
          opacity setting, like say 15% or so, then go around the outer edges 
          of the planet and erase a bit off. Then the glow <i>behind the planet</i> 
          will start to show through a bit and make it look as though it is extending 
          into the inside of the planet (works very well for how simple it is). 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Anyhoooo.... Take a look 
          at my final image. Again, you might need to darken it if the dark side 
          of the planet is too bright on your monitor.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="final1big.jpg"><img src="final1.jpg" width="113" height="96" border="1"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here is another planet that 
          you can take a look at to give you an idea of a planet with land and 
          oceans. I did a lot of <i>Rubber Stamping</i> to get the land, cloud, 
          and water features.</font></p>
        <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="planet2big.jpg"><img src="planet2.jpg" width="99" height="96" border="1"></a></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">While I’m thinking of it, 
          I have one other final note on Alpha channels to end up this part of 
          the tutorial...</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Say you create a TIF image 
          with an alpha channel, then are finished manipulating it and want to 
          save it as a JPG (because TIFs have waaaaaay to big of file sizes). 
          Hmmmm.... that’s funny, Photoshop won’t let you! This annoyed the hell 
          out of me the first time I encountered it. So, I thought, &quot;Ah-hah! 
          I have to flatten my image in the <b>Layers Palette</b>. Hmmmmm.... 
          what the f#*@! It won’t let me flatten the image.&quot; Finally, I figured 
          out that the Alpha channel was what was keeping me from saving my file 
          as a JPG. JPGs don’t support Alpha channels. So, you have to go into 
          your <b>Layers Palette, </b>click the <b>Channels</b> tab, then delete 
          the Alpha channel (drag it into the little waste basket icon, or right-click 
          and select <b>Delete Channel</b>). Now you can save it at whatever file 
          type you wish.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I hope you learned something 
          new here, and I hope you get some use out of Alpha channels. There are 
          more uses for Alpha channels, but that’s all the time I have for today. 
          See you next week with the final (hopefully) tutorial on creating your 
          own space scene. I’ll get into creating stars, a galaxy, and maybe a 
          nebula. Then we can throw them all together into a cool composition 
          and have good looking space scene.</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- 
          Rick Grossenbacher is a professional 2D artist and graphic designer. 
          Amongst other things, he has worked at Ion Storm and done freelance 
          work for RCA and Sony records.</font></i></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> <b>Credits:</b> 
        Painting on Polygons is &copy; 1999 Rick Grossenbacher. All other content 
        is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't do it, or we'll paint you white against a white background.</font></i></p>
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