New in the gallery is my first attempt at space imagery for use as backgrounds in my 3D renders. I came across this tutorial and using a flat terrain and a nebula image from the NASA Image Gallery I came up with this. I'm quite happy with it and can't wait to make more.
Below are just a few of the steps I took in creating this. It really is a fascinating tutorial and I learned a few things about photoshop layers that I wasn't aware of before.
Here is where I add the nebula, nested within the gas clouds and stars I painted.
The "planet" is a NASA flat terrain of the south western United States that I spherized.
Filter, more filters and some painted lighting...
The finished result. If you took a look at the tutorial you'll see that I deviated from it quite a bit. I didn't want to create the same tutorial image.