Photoshop Nebula's

[Bob The Great]

I'll post some when I get home, but I'm making some space nebula's in photoshop 6! they are really neat looking! I use render/clouds with black and dark blue and then use ambiant lighting of different colors (purple, red, orange, blue ect...) to make the centers of the clusters. This also darkens the edges. Sometimes I put some lensflare in too! Then I make another layer paint it completly black and add some monochrome noise for the stars! Its a lot of fun!

Any one else done stuff like this? Do any space pictures? What techniques do you use? Mine is rather simple so I'm guessing there must be a way of getting higher detailed imgaes!

[Bob The Great]

heres one I'm working on. I'm having trouble merging the layers down. The stars suddenly come to the top when I merge it down. I'm not sure whats up with it, but this one is looking pretty neat so far, plus I think I got a great idea for doing charactors from this! That'll be my next project. I'm still a newb with photoshop, but I love it a lot!

Edit: BTW it looks a lot better at normal size (2???x2???)

[OuTpaTienT]

Why do you want to merge the layers? Unless there's a specific need, I wouldn't.

If you want to merge the layers and have it remain looking exactly as it looks, then create a new blank layer and with it active goto the menu in the layers palette and do "Merge Visible".

Also, if you want to merge the layers like that but also keep the original layers intact, then just hold down ALT when you do "Merge Visible".

[Bob The Great]

well to save it as a Jpeg don't you need to merge layers???

[goldenbuddha]

nope, just do a save as, and change the file type in the save dialog to jpeg, this way you keep your non compressed original version with layers intact....in PSD format

[George VII]

Geez Bob, I coulda told ya that!

[Martoch]

Cool looking nebula Bob!


I remember the first multi-layer PS job I did...don't get me wrong it was nothing spectacular, but I was proud...I saved it as a .jpg, then wanted to make adjustments later. Of course I was unable to access any layers...


OuT has taught me a TON about using PS...I would say that's the biggest lesson learned so far. ALWAYS keep a copy of your .psd file.

[George VII]

amen martoch!

[Bob The Great]

George your a stupid head, go get our LAN party going

Yeah the layer thing was a little strange at first, but I quickly realized just how powerfull a tool that was! Thanks for the tips on saving the layers! I already have been saving .PSD's if they look at all cool, or have nice effects. I wish photoshop would allow you to attach notes on what you've done with each layer or like a text history of all the settings you used and such which would combine with the .PSD's. That would make it nicer to look at my work, and other peoples as well.

BTW I think I just made my best nebula yet! Ithink it will show up in the image gallery in a little while!

[OuTpaTienT]

You can in PS7, attach text notes to different parts of the image. I don't think I've ever used it, but it is there.

[Cody]

Hmmmm You should make a tutorial for people like me who are just getting into PS7 and want to learn how

<hint hint>

Cody

[Bob The Great]

sweet! I wish I had PS7, but hey whatever

[Cody]

Still a tutorial would be nice as PS6/7 are fudamentally the same.

I have the clouds/lighting made but they don't look as good as yours

http://dotnet.com/~bccd/Upload.png

Cody

[Bob The Great]

well first off, in that pics looks like your usuing black and white??? It should be blue or purple and black selected as the colors. It should be 3 layers (1x background nebula then 1x stars, then 1x front nebula. The background one should give it depth while the front one catches the eye. I used 3 lights, a red (makes a purple color with the blue neb), and two shades of blue. You can check out my newest nebula here. Its probably my best me thinks.

[Bob The Great]

oh, wait I think I know what your prob is. Its one of your lighting settings. My friend had the same prob. I think one of the lower sliders is all the way to the left or really close to all the way. Move it to the right most of the way. I think that will fix it.