The perfect Nebula

[jerry533482]

I have been trying, trying, and trying some more to create a realistic nebula, and it's actually quite invigorating. There's no "one" approach to it, and it's quite frustrating. Yet, I continue to do it because it's actually kinda' fun. So what I'm asking here is if any of you guys have any special techniques or ideas on reaching this goal, and if you'd be willing to share them with other members. And I don't mean the same ol' hue and saturation with clouds in a bunch of layers, I mean unique ideas. How do you get the textures to look cool? Do you need to manually erase to get good shapes? How is the coloring implemented? Can 100% PDN = realism? Blending? That sort of thing. Unique ideas.

I know the PDN community has the creativity to make something that looks awesome.

[Frontcannon]

Doing good nebulae is very difficult and can be achieved in lots of different ways..

A noise layer does wonders for me.

Ono of my better nebulae (can't do anything about the blending artifacts, though [it's set to normal, but.. ???]):

[yy10]

Hope this helps ^^

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs20/f/2007/294/7/d/Nebula_Tutorial_by_Superiorgamer.jpg

Edited July 24, 2010 by yy10

[jerry533482]

If you guys haven't already checked this out, I suggest that you do. It teaches some basics on blending, and multiply layers, and it gives off a nice effect. It's here: Making Polished Spacescapes v2

Edited July 24, 2010 by jerry533482

[Lance McKnight]

Okay, this thread got me wanting to share some tips I used in my scene. To start, I used Goonfella's Almost Realistic Fluffy Cloud tutorial as a spring board. Next, I used pryochild's smudge plug-in with a very low (I mean low!) jitter function enabled, and twist plug-in. Then it was duplicating (a lot of duplicating and merging going on), playing with blending modes, coloring here and there, and I used a bit of oil painting (hat tip by 007 Nab). If you look at a lot of nebula pictures taken by the Hubble space telescope, you can see that they almost look like clouds in space, with vibrant colors and stuff going on.

That was my main objective in my scene, the nebula, and it's a fun thing to do.

Edited July 24, 2010 by Lance McKnight

[Sozo]

Nebulae, my nemesis... along with rings. Tough to do in Paint.NET, no doubt about it.

[Falken]

Yeah, I've never been able to make lone nebulae, I normally just add them in with the stars .

Nebulae, my nemesis... along with rings.

Wait, why rings?

[Goonfella]

Rings because it`s difficult to capture the texture and to get them looking as real as poss.

[Sozo]

Rings because it`s difficult to capture the texture and to get them looking as real as poss.

Goonfella hit it on the nose. I've yet to be truly satisfied with any planet rings I've made. Try and try again, and eventually I'll be good at both nebulae and rings.

[Frontcannon]

Now I want to make a spacescape, too

[Sozo]

I think I may have just found a way of making a decent nebula.

[Frontcannon]

Well share it then.. DUH.

[LFC4EVER]

In the spacescape i made, i did some stuff with the clouds plugin and displacement. then copy, move, erase, distort a bit.. until it sorta looked like a nebula type thingy, if you can call it that.

most nebula made in PS use PS' amazing brush system, which PDN doesn't have, making it harder for us, but this community does rise to the challenge and produces some fantastic art that puts some PS artists to shame..

[Sozo]

Well share it then.. DUH.

Ha ha, sorry I wasn't on my own computer when I posted that, so I didn't have enough time to type a long explanation out. Basically, I made a cloudy, blurry, and somewhat dark mess one one layer. Then, I added a new layer in on top, rendered some clouds (size very large, somewhat rough), and set that layer to Color Dodge. With some brightness and contrast work on the clouds, you can eliminate any major glowy artifacts and have a decent looking nebula. I'll post pics soon, so you know I'm not making it up.

EDIT: And until I do, this is a great tutorial that should be easily reproducible in Paint.NET for creating nebulae: clicky for the linky

Simply stunning results, the only caveat is that you have to take some pictures.

Edited July 30, 2010 by CommanderSozo

[jerry533482]

I found that tut a couple weeks ago.

Indeed, the outcome is awesome.

[Lance McKnight]

Ha ha, sorry I wasn't on my own computer when I posted that, so I didn't have enough time to type a long explanation out. Basically, I made a cloudy, blurry, and somewhat dark mess one one layer. Then, I added a new layer in on top, rendered some clouds (size very large, somewhat rough), and set that layer to Color Dodge. With some brightness and contrast work on the clouds, you can eliminate any major glowy artifacts and have a decent looking nebula. I'll post pics soon, so you know I'm not making it up.

EDIT: And until I do, this is a great tutorial that should be easily reproducible in Paint.NET for creating nebulae: clicky for the linky

Simply stunning results, the only caveat is that you have to take some pictures.

Didn't you guys read my post? You can try to use Goonfella's tutorial, smudge, and twist. Many layers, blending modes, and keep at it.

[Sozo]

Yeah, I'm just looking for new and inventive ways of making a nebula.