35 Stunning Planet and Space Art Tutorials

Photoshop enhanced Space and 3D Planet scenes created have always fascinated me. They are inspiring and makes me imagine what NASA and our nation will accomplish in the future.

Creating stunning scenes of space nebulae, stars, and planets can be quite a difficult feat using Photoshop. Fortunately, we've gathered 30 stunning space and planet tutorials to help you get started on your space art hobby.

In terms of difficulty, I think the nebulae are the hardest to create. Some tutorials may require a small download, you must click the images to go to the tutorials.

Space Environment Photoshop Tutorial

The after effects look great on this beautiful teal planet.

Fiery Photoshop Space Explosion Tutorial by Collis

A popular Photoshop tutorial portraying a fantastic scene of a moon colliding into a planet.

Photoshop Space and Planet Tutorial

This gas planet illustration is packed with detail and the lighting is really well done.

Create a Spectacular 3D Space Explosion

This tutorial explains how to create a supernova in the background using a proper lens flare and a cool vortex texture.

The Last Supernova Tutorial by ~keepwalking07

This is a great way to create a star like our sun or one that's about to explode using Photoshop.

Space Explosion Photoshop Tutorial by Tyler Bramer

This is a very detailed and amazing tutorial by Tyler Bramer. Tyler actually thought of everything, the stars and nebulae in the background, the lighting on the planet, even the debris in space.

Nebula Tutorial by *ladyrapid

Ladyrapid has created a beautiful nebula with great contrast and the tutorial explains how.

Helio Nebula Tutorial by =tsarye

This tutorial is packed with information about creating gasses for nebulae, but lacks some details on making the stars; fortunately, there are some brush sets on the web that have stars in them. The colors on this nebula look amazing.

Texturing and planet tutorial by ~aRchAng3lZz

The use of meshed satellite photographs to create a completely new planet turned out pretty nice.

Planet Tutorial by ~Inventor

Planet collision is a great idea, too bad this one only teaches how to create the planet.

Nebula Tutorial by ~cchomikk

This is one beautiful nebula; I think they are a must in every space scene.

Paint Space: Nebula by ~ColdFlame1987

The gold-brown color scheme and the binary neutron star looks really cool.

Nebula Brushing Tutorial by *ladyrapid

The aqua green color looks great on this excellent brushing tutorial. This Photoshop tutorial teaches you the basics of brushing detailed nebulae.

Shockwave Tutorial by ~ColdFlame1987

Shockwaves will be useful if your 3D planet scene will have collisions.

Nebula Tutorial by ~Superiorgamer

The airbrushing with those colors would make anyone's space art design look amazing.

Planet Tutorial by *ladyrapid

Another beautiful earth-like planet tutorial by ladyrapid.

Advanced Planet Tutorial by `alyn

The creator of Icarus's Wish gave us a wonderful tutorial on planet creation.

Really Cool Eclipse Effect in Photoshop

Abduzeedo shows you how he created his eclipse footer in Photoshop. Might be useful for eclipses in your planet scenes.

Planet Tutorial by ~Superiorgamer

I think this is one of the best looking planets, and superiorgamer is wise to use real land textures to add a depth of realism and detail.

Nebula Tutorial By ColdFlame1987 & ~scifisrc

This tutorial introduces brushing techniques to create nebulae. I'm sure with a little bit of experimentation this can turn out great.

Make a Realistic Star Field

I really like the star field that was created in this tutorial.

Advanced Space Sig Tutorial by ~Sunjo

Even though created for signature designs the concepts are the same and the planet came out nicely. I added some airbrushed space background to the planet image.

Exploding a Planet by `alyn

Explosions must always look great in space art and alyn shouldn't disappoint.

Planet Tutorial by *brackman71

Brackman71 created a tutorial on how to create a realistic planet, and the texture looks really good. Adding the clouds doesn't look so great though. The use of different color channels was very interesting. I did a bit of editing on figure 6 and already it looks like an awesome planet.

Planet Texture Tutorial by *Mr-Frenzy

Mr Frenzy has used a ton of textures and layers to create a very realistic planet texture. In my experience, the more layers and detail you put on these types of space art the better they look.

Space Art 101 Tutorial by keystoneelemur

Always smart to use NASAs very own satellite images.

Urban Planet Tutorial by ~Alpha-leader

Quite an impressive urban planet tutorial. I think it would look amazing with some better night-time urban lighting.

Realistic Planet Tutorial by ~Qzma

Basic planet design using texture mapped on to a sphere.

Realistic Planet Tutorial by =DemosthenesVoice

Another planet tutorial, this time a desert planet with cracks.

Planet Ring Tutorial by ~Qzma

This will be useful if you plan on creating rings for your planets.

GasGiant & Landplanet Tutorial by ~MJ00

Two tutorials in one, both look pretty decent.

Star-field Tutorial -G- by #photoshop-tutorials

I agree that making stars with actual brushing is better looking than noise and filters.

Tutorial: Creating a Galaxy in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to make a realistic galaxy that you can use in your space art.

Planet Tutorial by `dinyctis

A very simple to learn tutorial to make an earth-like planet with clouds.

Ultimate Space tutorial by ~Statross

This one has several tutorials packaged to make the basics of space art.

Try to create a wonderful piece of space art work using these tutorials and combine various ideas from here; if your art work is good enough post it on deviant art and even send it to us (we may display it in the future). Also, if you have created a tutorial in Photoshop feel free to contact us about displaying it on our website. Please leave a comment if you have further thoughts or found better tutorials.