Can Anyone Create Good Exoplanet Pictures with GIMP, DeviantArt, or Others?

[ProtoJeb21]

I've finally starting my Exoplaneteer career! So, for the exoplanets I observe, I want to create good images of them with online and computer-based programs. Just one teensy little issue: I'm TERRIBLE at using programs like GIMP to create any good image! I'm good at hand-drawing exoplanets, but that doesn't help so much. Besides, who has a hand-drawn picture of an exoplanet with their exoplanet's discovery/observation info?

Anyways, is anyone good enough at this stuff to help me out?

Edited June 17, 2016 by ProtoJeb21

[Spaceception]

Sorry, no, maybe you could google "Free graphic design software"?

[Tw1]

I've never done planets, but I've made posters, Facebook banners amd posters for uni clubs, mermaids, the odd genderbend, and once fooled a fair amount of my year at school with a fake poster campaign, before I even shelled out for photoshop, so....

Gimp is an excellent program. Some things it even has advantages over photoshop. It looks much friendlier for a start, and it's free of adobe's weird keyboard shortcuts. 

Like basically everything, the trick to getting good is a partly studying how the program works, and some reading up on art theories, and how digital images work, but mostly it's practice, and experience. You've got to start somewhere. 

Some tips - Get the hang of layers, layer groups, transparency, and then maybe blending modes. Masking can wait.

Do different types of things on different layers. Like, have a layer for clouds, or for vegetation, or even multiple for different layers, and different types, and achieving different effects. 

Think about lighting. Some layer modes lend themselves well to creating highlights or shadows. This comes in handy because - The dodge and burn tools in Gimp aren't that amazing, and you can easily change the highlights or shadows without altering the underlying drawing. 

Also, colour to alpha tool. Leaves other methods of clearing backgrounds for dead, even photoshop's fancy tools. Learn this. 

You might want to also learn a little Blender. A minimum, you'll get some shapes and lighting to start with. One trick you can use is multiple of the same layer serving different roles. It could be useful having the same rendered ball as a lower layer to to draw over, then again on a higher layer in a mode like darken only to create matching shadows. 

Are you looking to make them photorealistic? The trick is to star with actual photos. Drawing in lines can be useful, but it will take a bit of blurring and clever smudging to hide them. Get yourself some good photos to work with - best to avoid using anything which which someone may be unhappy if you used their images.

Go for high resolution images from the start. The results are almost always going to be better.  

I have a graphics tablet, but tbh, most of the time I prefer to use the mouse when drawing digitally. Unless I really want that hand drawn look, I can do better with precision placement of path anchors, distortion tools, shape tools, etc. Gimp isn't the best for this type of art though, it can loose track of the pen. There are other programs out there which are Also free, but more drawing specialised. 

You can do it though, most of my 

Was drawn in Gimp. 

Ok that's probably enough for now, I should probably sleep. 

Edited June 17, 2016 by Tw1

[Waxing_Kibbous]

Krita is an excellent free painting program.

Blender will allow you to texture paint right on a sphere and create nice 3D renders if you want to go a bit more in depth.

Also, oil paints

[daniel l.]

Send me the color maps, And information on the star size, color, distance, and the color of the planets atmosphere, I can have one done in a jiffy.