For this tutorial you'll need to start out with a panoramic image. They're not hard to create, you can get professional lenses and tripods to make some killer panoramics. I created this image using a digital camera on a tripod, taking a picture each time I rotate the camera a few degrees. I then used Photoshop's Photomerge feature to create the image below out of 25 individual pictures.



I've included the image above in the "tutorial assets" section so that you can follow along from here.

Step 1:

Rotate the image 180 degrees, then go to Filters -> Distort -> Polar Coordinates and choose Rectangular to Polar. This will take the panoramic image and turn it into a ball.

Step 2:

Ok now we need to correct the distortion caused by the Polar Coordinate Filter. So go ahead and select Edit -> Free Transform (or Command + T) and drag the image to the right till the globe looks like the correct shape.

Step 3:

Now use the Clone Tool to fix the "pinching" in the center of the globe. Also feel free to adjust some of the colors in the image to make it stand out more. I created a levels and vibrant adjustment layer to increase the contrast and saturation of the image.



Ok so here's part 2 of the Planet Tutorial, we're going to use Cinema 4d to create the 3d text like in the image above. Feel free to use the software of your choice, this is a technique that can be easily duplicated in other 3D apps.

Step 4:

Create a new background by going to Objects --> Scene --> Background.

Step 5:

Then create a new material and import the image you create in the first part of the tutorial into the color.

Now drag and drop this material on the background object your created.



You'll notice that the picture is a little stretched. No problem, just go to the render settings and change the width and height to fit the actual image size of the image.

Step 6:

Now select the Text tool and create the words to go across the globe.

When you're done create an "Extrude NURBS" object and drag the text into the Extrude NURBS to create the 3D text. Adjust the extrude distance to 100m or more.



Also make sure to position your camera directly in front of you object. You can see in the image below that plane is lined up with the center of the globe.

Step 7:

This is an optional step, it depends on how you want your text to look. For this step we want a two color font on the globe.

So duplicate the Extrude NURBS object, name one "text caps" and the other "text fillet."

Step 8:

So now in the "text caps" object make sure under the Caps tab that it's set to only caps.

For the "text fillet" object make sure it's set to "Fillet" and use the settings to the right to create an interesting look to your font.



Now create two different colored materials and apply one to the "text caps" object and the other to the "text fillet" object. You should get an image like one below.

Step 9:

Group the two text objects together in a group and call the group "text group."

Now create a "Wrap" effector and drag it into the text group. You'll see it will start to warp the text into a sphere shape.

Step 10:

Now adjust the settings of the Wrap to fit the globe, you can use the settings I used to help you out.

Step 11:

Now create a sphere object and move it behind the text. Scale it up to fit perfectly with the planet in the background.

We're going to use this to capture the shadows from the text, making it look like the text is actually part of the planet and not just floating in the air.

Step 12:

Now drag and drop the same texture you created for the background onto the sphere object. Now click on the texture icon to load the texture settings and change the Projection to Frontal.

Now are texture is perfectly projected on the sphere, when you render this there shouldn't be a noticeable difference in the image.

Step 13:

Create a light and change the Type to Area and turn on Soft Shadow Maps. Position it off to the upper left side of the globe.

Create a second light and position it to the lower right of the globe, this will be our fill light. Turn the intensity down to 90% and change the color to a light blue. Also turn off the shadows.

Step 13:

Ok now to add a little more realism to the scene... Go to Objects -> Scene -> and add a Sky object.

Drag the same globe texture for the background and sphere onto the sky object.



Now turn on the Ambient Occlusion and Global Illumination options in your render settings. Hit render and you'll see a noticeable difference with these two features turned on.

And there you go, now you can take your final render into Photoshop and tweak it a bit more, or you can add a camera and create a pretty cool animation piece! Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions!