Hey!

Today I’m going to explain how to make a simple planet, that is not rendering intensive and actually looks pretty good.

First open Maya, and create a new scene.

Create a Sphere, Set it’s radius to 10, and center it on every axis.

Assign a Lamburt Shader to the Sphere, and set the color to Stucco.

Set the Shaker to 20, and Scale the Texture 10:10:10, and all the Subdivisions to 50.

One the First Channel Create a Cloud Shader, and On the Second Channel, Create an Ocean Shader.

For the Cloud Shader, Set the Edge Thresh close to zero, and the ratio around .7. Make the first color a tan/sandy color, and the second a green or white color.

For the Ocean Shader, set the Color Mode to Foam On Waves. Leave all the other settings alone.

Now we have created the world itself, let’s move on to the clouds.

Create a new Sphere, Center it on every axis, and set it’s radius to 10.07, and all the Subdivisions to 50.

Set the Setting’s as Follows:

Now for the Stars.

Create a New Sphere, set its radius to 1000, and all the Subdivisions to 50.

I created a Star Field in Photoshop; you can either do the same or use my version.

Set the Ambient Color to white, and the Diffuse to Black.

Now for the lights.

Create a Directional light; angle it according to your preferences.

Now Render the Scene.

It should look something like this.