Making an alien planet using Video Copilot Orb

In this video, I show my preferred way of creating a texture for a new world. Rather than get stuck trying to force Fractal Noise to create randomness, I simply take a photo of a paving slab and once cropped show how to use masks and the colorama effect to quickly make a cool, natural looking surface. Then using Turbulent Displace I create oceans which are pretty random but still under my control.

Once it's applied to Video Copilot's free Orb plugin, I then use the same texture to make a normal map and specular map. I cover illumination options too and then add clouds and an atmosphere.

In this video, I’m making a M-Class world, but the techniques I cover could be applied to any type of rocky planet. Along the way, I drop loads of useful shortcuts and tips for using After Effects. Hopefully you'll be inspired by how easy it is to make a complex looking, realistic planet.

• Atmosphere preset: https://youtu.be/rsbCJsFII4o
• Normal Map Online: http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/
• Video Copilot's free Orb plugin: https://www.videocopilot.net/orb/