Firstly, this is the kind of thing you can do with a picture of some termites and the sky:
Ok, now I have your attention, this tutorial was written for photoshop, but may still be done on similar programs, although I wont be able to help with them if something goes wrong! Here's my example of what I did on my first attempt :-
Starting images (http://www.mayang.com/textures/ is quite good):
Final image:
or 
Anyhoo, Im still experimenting, but here we go (sorry if its very long):-
1.Get a decent starting image, any non-tiling image should work well, then open photoshop and make a new image about 2000x2000 pixels.
2.Paste it in and select the clone stamp tool. (diag. 1) Hold alt and click somewhere about the middle of your image and then just click normally somewhere else on the image and it will "clone" the bit you selected to there. Keep doing that until the whole canvas is covered in some part of the image or other. Select the whole thing and copy it.
- diagram 1
- What you should end up with.
3.Make a new file, this should also be 2000x2000 pixels. Paste in your image. Hold the mouse down on the select tool (top right) and select the circular one (diag 2), then drag out (while holding the shift key) from somewhere top-right to somewhere bottom-left (not too close to the edges) to make a circular selection (make sure feather is set to 0 percent). Then hold ctrl+shift and press 'i'. That should invert your selection, then simply press delete. You now have a circular "world".
- diag 2
- thats what you should have now.
4.Now go to filters/distort and select Spherize. Set to 100% and apply. Now we have something that slightly resembles a sphere, but it doesn't look round enough, so we go ahead and apply the filter again under the same settings. The center might look distorted, but it will not be a problem because we will be resizing this anyway and it will be unnoticeable.
- thats what you should have now
5.Now you have your basic planet. Look at the layers pallette now, and click on the background layer and tip-bucket or paint this black. Click back on the layer with the planet and make sure it's darker than the background, then click on the black circle with the f in it. Click on "inner shadow". Change the opacity on it to about 85% and the distance and size on about 75. You can play about with these effects until you get something you like. Then on the right of the new window, click on the outer glow check box, then actually on the words "Outer glow" themselves. The options you now see should've changed. Try having the opacity on about 20% and size on about 10px, with the colour on either a light yellow or a light blue. (b2d1ff or f9ffb2 should work well). Fiddle about with these effects until your happy. You may want to do the same kind of thing with inner glow as well, but with a smaller size and opacity.
- thats what you should have now.
6.Find a nice starry image and paste that in the background. Hold ctrl and press t then drag it out to fill the page. Then its just a matter of selecting your planet and pressing ctrl+u and change the colours a bit on it. Then your done!
I hope this tutorial wasn't too confusing, but good luck if you wish to try it! Feel free to experiment as well! Here's one I just came up with -
~m0u53m4t
Ok, now I have your attention, this tutorial was written for photoshop, but may still be done on similar programs, although I wont be able to help with them if something goes wrong! Here's my example of what I did on my first attempt :-
Starting images (http://www.mayang.com/textures/ is quite good):
Final image:
or
Anyhoo, Im still experimenting, but here we go (sorry if its very long):-
1.Get a decent starting image, any non-tiling image should work well, then open photoshop and make a new image about 2000x2000 pixels.
2.Paste it in and select the clone stamp tool. (diag. 1) Hold alt and click somewhere about the middle of your image and then just click normally somewhere else on the image and it will "clone" the bit you selected to there. Keep doing that until the whole canvas is covered in some part of the image or other. Select the whole thing and copy it.
- diagram 1
- What you should end up with.
3.Make a new file, this should also be 2000x2000 pixels. Paste in your image. Hold the mouse down on the select tool (top right) and select the circular one (diag 2), then drag out (while holding the shift key) from somewhere top-right to somewhere bottom-left (not too close to the edges) to make a circular selection (make sure feather is set to 0 percent). Then hold ctrl+shift and press 'i'. That should invert your selection, then simply press delete. You now have a circular "world".
- diag 2
- thats what you should have now.
4.Now go to filters/distort and select Spherize. Set to 100% and apply. Now we have something that slightly resembles a sphere, but it doesn't look round enough, so we go ahead and apply the filter again under the same settings. The center might look distorted, but it will not be a problem because we will be resizing this anyway and it will be unnoticeable.
- thats what you should have now
5.Now you have your basic planet. Look at the layers pallette now, and click on the background layer and tip-bucket or paint this black. Click back on the layer with the planet and make sure it's darker than the background, then click on the black circle with the f in it. Click on "inner shadow". Change the opacity on it to about 85% and the distance and size on about 75. You can play about with these effects until you get something you like. Then on the right of the new window, click on the outer glow check box, then actually on the words "Outer glow" themselves. The options you now see should've changed. Try having the opacity on about 20% and size on about 10px, with the colour on either a light yellow or a light blue. (b2d1ff or f9ffb2 should work well). Fiddle about with these effects until your happy. You may want to do the same kind of thing with inner glow as well, but with a smaller size and opacity.
- thats what you should have now.
6.Find a nice starry image and paste that in the background. Hold ctrl and press t then drag it out to fill the page. Then its just a matter of selecting your planet and pressing ctrl+u and change the colours a bit on it. Then your done!
I hope this tutorial wasn't too confusing, but good luck if you wish to try it! Feel free to experiment as well! Here's one I just came up with -
~m0u53m4t
