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Advanced 3D Planets

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Advanced 3D PlanetsI bet you’ve seen a gazillion tutorials on creating 3D planets, but I also bet you’ve never seen it done this way before. Find out on your own.

This tutorial is unlike any other 3D globe tutorial. Of course there are strong similarities like using CC Sphere, but this tutorial pushes this subject to it’s limits. This subject is as old as the Earth itself. How to create 3D planets? Simple. Just apply CC Sphere onto a texture, right? Wrong! If you want to make it cool you need to do a couple other things as well, which I’m going to show you in this upcoming tutorial.

Since you seem to enjoy the “live” tutorials, like HS: Bad chroma key I thought I’ll do this one a Live tutorial as well. Unfortunately after I finished recording my AE crashed, so theres no project file at this moment. I should have save it while I was still working. Then I’d have some auto-saves, but I didn’t - sorry. I recreated the project file for you, but be aware that it is a little different from the tutorial. Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy it.

There’s also a bigger plan behind this tutorial. Read about it in the blog section.

Download project file: Advanced3dPlanets.zip (After Effects CS3 Professional)

56 Responses to “Advanced 3D Planets”

  1. Maltaannon…
    I think i know Kung Fu

    tutorial it’s super…i like how u do things on the fly…

    amazing

  2. maltaannon your the greatest .. soon as i get some money im going to donate you a carton of smokes… lol ..
    very very usefull tutorial .. thanks

  3. Maltaannon is the best!!!!!!!!!

  4. Grate tutorial Maltaannon.
    The clouds efx with the shadows looks incredible

    Keep up the great work, cheers.

  5. Süper tutorial thanks Maltannon :))

  6. You can find those planet textures http://www.oera.net/How2/TextureMaps2.htm
    I guess there’s about 12 textures over there, including mars, and moon textures.

  7. Yeah I already found them and included them in the project file, which is now available for download. Thanks!

  8. Thanks for the earth maps and the project file ..

  9. Awesome tutorial man.

    Thanks!

  10. Totally cool man !
    tnx. :D

    bytheway - can you try and make a tutorial recreating the Stargate teleport rings effect ? if so it would be really grate ! tnx again.

  11. Thanks for this most excellent adventure! Great stuff! Your “live” tutorials are interesting and I know they save you lots of work, but I prefer your edited versions as they are easier to follow along with. But whatever you do is appreciated in any case. Thanks again!

  12. Thanks Frank. I think that if I’ll do a few more “live” tutorials I’ll get around it and they will be shorter. I hope. It really saves me a lot of time. Like… Just a lot. Thanks for your appreciation.

  13. This is awesome. Thanks for your hard work.

  14. Good tips Maltaannon, but check this out:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9b4Y1tUIu4

    The quality is not the best but is enough, please comment

  15. That was amazing, I only have AE 6.0 so I can’t do this yet, but that was really great. Thanks alot

  16. Really cool effect George!
    Adding layers of effects like lights and clouds makes the typical after effects earth much more deep! ;)

    Just a note about the city lights, rather than using the wiggle on the threshold I’d rather put a fractal noise layer over the city lights with a contrast at about 50% and a scale of 1% then use it as luma matte.
    Then I’d wiggle it’s evolution. ;)
    Looks a bit more realistic to me, as if the air makes the light flicker.
    Great tute though!

  17. Cool idea! Thanks for sharing. But of evolution would be used, I’d rather just go with time * factor, rather than with the wiggle, but of course I’d have to check what works better. Thanks for your opinion and for your suggestion.

  18. gookiiiilllll(cool n brilian tuts) maltaannon, thanks for all tuorial, keep smart

  19. you are so SMART and best not only that important person for all over the world. And helping me your Best tutorials coz i don’t have internet connection in my home but i download in the internet cafe, and the i see your all tutorials in my home computer so your tutorials is helping me so much, i try to be best computer GR designer in the world and i can! coz i try to work in maya 3D software and AE, including your best tutorials ,so no body stop! but you are my hero sir, 10Q so much for your free tutorials, you helping all over Africans i’m in Addis Ababa

  20. [...] • 19 Comments [...]

  21. Awesome tutorial, once again.
    I think the original image of the earth came from Visible Earth (visibleearth.nasa.gov/)– also, I’ve been wondering how to take this same technique to create the sun….I’m afraid I may need a true 3-D app—ideas?

  22. Another great tut.
    i learn a lot from your tutorials, you definitely take things inside AE to a higher level.
    smoking is very bad!!!!!!!!

  23. Nice ideas George.
    i’d like to point out a small tip tho, as Mr. Aharon lately mentioned in one of his podcasts on CC: Edit -> Copy Expression Only would have saved you some time in this project.

  24. Haha 42 plus a unicorn horn :) That’s just silly. On the subject though, the more I work with computer graphics, 3d mainly, the more I see it’s possible that we live in a created world. Nurbs, particle systems, and all the math… yeah.. :)

    Great tutorial, the night map and shadows on the clouds came off very nice, I appriciate you making this(and all the others).

    Peace to you Maltaannon.

  25. Coming back to watch this again .. and pick up anything i didnt the first time .. thx maltannon . i like the live videos better .. you get to see you thinking and figuring out problems .. great stuff

  26. Jerzy, yer the freakin man! Hey you mentioned you were gonna do a tutorial devoted to the circle effect. That got me really curious, because I’m not aware of any magical ways to use it. Were you pulling my leg, or do you really have something for us?

  27. I do, but I think that I’ll do the 3d things and brush engine first. Check out the blog section if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

  28. tenks

  29. legend!!!! i have a question though, you know the skybox tutorial you talked about… am i wrong or does this do the same thing as the new trapcode horizon plugin? i know we all love trapcode but if you can beat them with your effect preset i will sing it from the hills!…. or am i wrong

    Craig

  30. Well… theoretically it does exactly that, but as far as I know Trapcode plugins, it’s going to be great with many useful features.

  31. you rock man. First time visit. Great site. Great CSS too on Wordpress.

  32. OMG !!!

    HES DONE IT AGAIN !!!

    THE ONE…..THE ONLY…..MALTAANNON !!!!!!

  33. [...] love this, After Effects junkies. Maltaanon is up to his shenanigans again creating planets and new worlds and such. This guy thinks on a different plane with respect to After Effects, code, design, and creatively [...]

  34. As usual very nice job !! Thanks !
    You said you wanted to give credit for the pics: I think it is located here:
    http://www.oera.net/How2/TextureMaps2.htm

  35. Wonderful tutorial! I showed the results around the video department where I work. Even the seasoned graphics guys who have been churning out globe animations for 20 years were impressed. The way you supplied controls mean this project can be easily modified and used again and again. Love your site. While my family watches TV, I sit around and do your tutorials for fun & relaxation! Thank you so much for this wonderful resource!

  36. Thank you RxR, and thank all of you boys and girls. Your comments mean a lot to me, especially when you say you have good time watching them, so thanks again, and stay tuned for more. I’m in the middle of a project right now so I don’t have much time for myself nor for the tutorials, but I assure you… more cool stuff is coming soon. Cheers.

  37. Don’t worry that the tutorials come across as disorganised, that doesn’t matter to me. In fact I like it that way. This is one of your best tutorials ever! Keep up the good work.

  38. Hi Maltaannon. It´s a very beautiful tutorial. One of the best world tutorial in the Internet and inspired me to create a little video. http://www.anymotion.com.ar/l_work.html
    Tks.

  39. i like ur tutorials but maan this that u make the things looks like u are thinking at the moment is very annying also ur voice is terrbile or the way as u record i dont know , but anyway great job

  40. Just one word: Beautiful.

    Thank you so much.

  41. I think you’re not a Human Being! You must not from planet Earth. You’re too: nice, good, honest, wise, clever, smart, intelligent: I’d think maybe you’re a Super Human? NO! You’re absolutely the SPIRIT of After Effects. Thanks GOD for “releasing” the “AVATAR” from Heaven. I’ve seen “Heaven on Earth”. Merci beaucoup!

  42. k***a, przestań kopiować Kramera!!!

  43. Your work in this is much better in the other site tutorials…the clouds, bumps, etc. thanks for the great job Bro…I wish you will make a tutorial for those effects that are not commonly use…cheers!!!

  44. Awesome, thanks! I’m working on it now. I found some similar texture here: http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/courses/phy315/povray7.html

  45. YOU ARE A FREAKING WANNABE!!!!!!!! This tutorial is from the Great Andrew Kramer, http://www.videocopilot.net, such has many other tutorials that you have in your blog…….you should be ashamed…..FUC**NG POSER!!

  46. shaGa… Could you pls STFU. This is one of the best resource sites for After Effects Users. This is an awesome tutorial and i think Maltaannon’s tutorials are way better than Kramer’s since he does not use as much 3rd party Plugins.
    Maltaannon, ur the best i know for AE, I’m a broke college studnet right now but once i start making money, I swear i’ll donate 5% of my first years paycheck!

  47. I’m really counting on your promise, and everyone else’s as well. Keeping this site not only costs money, but also keeps me from work. I’d rather be making more tutorials but unfortunately I do have a day job, I have to pay bills and do all that nasty stuff. I also trying to run my own company and that costs even more money and time - thats why I usually record tutorials late at night and I don’t edit them anymore.

    In other words, a nice donation from time to time would solve a lot of my problems, even for a short while.

    Thanks again, and enjoy the free tutorials!
    Happy AfterEffecting.

  48. Great tutorial George, thanks for that and thanks to Pascal to provide the links to the nice maps.

    Cheers!!… CC³.

  49. Spoko tutorial…no i pozazdroscic angielskiego…Pozdro

  50. You are soo cool man, why you done make tutorials wiith polish languge?

  51. Hey man, you’re brilliant!
    More than many professional guys we have on the net. We all know who is.

    Thank u so much
    Antônio from Brasil

  52. hi. is there a tutorial on how to make this earth into a real 3D space in after effects?

  53. you said at the end about sky box tutorial in creative cow? i could not find it. could you post the link?

  54. Maltaannon is the GREAT! im so appreciate for all your guide line…so many many thank to maltaannon

  55. great tut ill get u some cigs for that

  56. and ohh yeah these tuts arent stolen Maltaannon just shows u how to do everthing in after effects verry verry cool Andrew Kramer
    is still 1 of the best too that i have seen i think its good that thay show us there stuff u can learnalot from the 2 of them.

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