This tutorial demonstrates a technique you can use to create planets in Paint Shop Pro.
1.First, upon clicking the new icon, make sure that your colors are set to 16.7 million, background set to transparent, and size set to 400x300 (or whatever size you choose, depending on your situation). Now, use the selection tool to create a circle (with anti-aliasing checked) and fill it with black.
2.
Add some noise by choosing Image »Noise »Add, and set it to 100% uniform.
3.
Now, go to Colors »Colorize and set the Saturation level to 0 if it is not already. Don't toutch the Hue. Then go to Colors »Adjust »Brightness/Contrast and turn the brightness up to 20 and the contrast to 20 as well.
4.
Then, choose Image »Blur »Gaussian Blur with a radius of about 2.
5.
After the Gaussian Blur, choose Layers »New to make a new layer to work on. You may wish to name all of your layers so you can easily keep track of them. Do NOT deselect yet!
6.
Now, choose white as your foreground color and black for the background and then select the "Sunburst Gradient" from the Fill Tool's Palette. Under Options, choose numbers for Horizontal & Vertical to position the lighting on your planet's surface (for the example, 30% and 30% will be used).
7.
After that, choose Colors »Adjust »Brightness/Contrast and change the Brightness to -15 and the Contrast to +10.
8.
Now, on the Layers dialogue box click on the drop-down box on the 2nd layer and change its Mode to either "Overlay" or "Multiply".
9.
Now you have a planet... but who ever heard of a planet floating around on a transparent background?!? Our planet needs some surroundings which would commonly be associated with large masses of rock or gas spinning around in space, eh? So to start off, we'll need a nice vast and starry background. Press CTRL+D to deselect our planetoid and then make a new layer (remember to name it!).
With our new layer selected, choose Layers »Arrange »Send to Bottom.
10.
Select the Fill Tool, making sure that "Solid Color" is selected on the drop-down list. Then fill the layer with black. Ok, there's the space part... now for the stars:
Select Image »Noise »Add, and use between 5% and 30% Random, depending on how "thick" you want your star-scape to be.
11.
Now, just like we did with the planet earlier on, choose Colors »Colorize and drag the Saturation to 0. Buh bye colors. If you're not satisfied with your stars, you can use Colors »Adjust »Brightness/Contrast and tune the Brightness to +10 or so, and the Contrast to around +10 as well.
12.
Well, that's about it... that is if you don't mind all your planets looking like the moon! Follow the steps below to add some color to your planet:
Go to the original layer (the one you first made the shape of the planet on) and choose Colors »Colorize. You can make whatever adjustments you want from there to adjust the color (I used Hue 18, Saturation 132).
