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I'm a li'l shy about posting this as I'm fairly new to the program and I don't know if something like is has already been done or is common knowledge but I'll never know unless I do it. So here goes.
I wanted an exploding planet but I couldn't find any images I liked or that were big enough. After searching for a while and finding a few exploding planets that were made in Photoshop I figured I should be able to do something like it in PdN. It took a few tries but I finally got something I liked.
1. I started off by finding some dry mud.
2. Copy the image and paste it as a new image. (Ctrl+Alt+V)
3. Now invert the color of the image. (Ctrl+Shift+I)
4. Select the Ellipse tool and select an area of mud. (as big or as small as you like just as long as it's somewhat centered)
5. Invert the selection (Ctrl+I)
And then delete it.
6. Now fill in the blank section with black.
7. Next step is to bulge the image. (Effects -> Distort -> Bulge...) This makes it look round and thus planet-like. For this image I used a bulge of 31%. Do what looks best for your size of image.
8. Now duplicate the image (Ctrl+Shift+D) (Rename the layer if you wish)
9. On the new layer, adjust the blending to Color Burn.
10. Duplicate the image you just did the Color Burn on and adjust the blending to Additive. (You might be able to skip this step if your mud is fairly dark.)
11. Now Merge Layer down (v3.0) so that you only have one layer to work with (You should only have to do it twice)
12. Time for some glow. (Effect -> Glow...) You'll have to adjust the glow depending on the effect you want and the image. You'll need more or less depending on how many cracks your "planet" has.
13. Now duplicate the image. After you've done that, on the new layer do a Zoom Blur. (Effects -> Blurs -> Zoom Blur...) I used 48% use more or less to your liking.
14: On the image we just did the blur on, adjust the blending to Lighten.
15: Final step. Turn the saturation to zero (Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation) now merge down and you're done. (Again, depending taste and the type of mude you use, you might want to skip the saturation step)
That's that. Here's an image I did with some different mud. I simply changed the hue before I started.
