Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Model the Solar system

Note: This tutorial was not written by an English speaker, so some of the grammar may be incorrect. If you find any problems feel free to fix them. If you don't understand something email me : shachar.harshuv@gmail.com

After you have created a model of earth by UV mapping, the next logical step is for you to want to model the solar system.

The following is a list of the models you will need to complete the project:


 * Sun
 * Mercury
 * Venus
 * Earth (we already done)
 * Mars
 * Jupiter
 * Saturn (with rings)
 * Uranus (with rings)
 * Neptune
 * Pluto

For an additional challenge you can make the moons of Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Create the Sun
Add a new sphere. In edit mode choose the two vertices in the poles and erase them. Now deselect all (Alt+A), and choose the upper round of vertices. Switch to orthography view and extrude approximately to where the removed vertex was, and then S + 0. Do the same thing to the other hemisphere.

Select the vertices in the half middle longitude, and mark seam (Ctrl+E). The picture we will use for UV mapping will be a map of the sun. Search the web for: "sun map", and take the one with the biggest resolution. Make UV\Image Editor window and upload the image (introduction in the previous module). mow choose all vertices and Unwrap (U > Unwrap). What we're gonna do is to make to line straight to a grid in the picture, that will make the mapping okay.


 * 1) Choose one of the longitudes (use Alt+select) and scale X to 0. That will make it straight. Do it to all longitudes
 * 2) Choose one of the latitudes and scale Y to 0. That makes the line straight. Do it to all latitudes
 * 3) Choose the middle line of the crowd lines, and use the proportional tool to scale it on X until the lines have approximately the same betterments
 * 4) Grab and scale all vertices until they fit the picture
 * 5) Switch to texture draw type, and watch you work. (Tip: if there is no light source in the scene, you can see all the object light.)

Make the Planets
By now you are probably thinking, "What! I need to go through all of this for each planet?" Actually, you don't. Just copy the object with the texture, switch edit mode, select all and change the picture!

* advice: put each planet in different layer.

Sizes
Of course the Sun in much bigger than the Earth and other planets, but by how much? You can find additional information on the size of each planet from the following link: http://sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/messenger/psc/PlanetSize.html

The web page shows the smallest planet as 1 unit. So compare Pluto (the smallest planet aka dwarf planet) to all the other planets to gain the correct scaling ratio for each planet with respect to Pluto. Once you have created all the planets you may find the Sun is too big. The solution is simply select all the models with (A) and scale (S) them all down together.

Places
I am sure you are thinking that you need to place the planets correctly with regard to distances. But there is a problem; Due to their actual distances, you will see more than one planet in the same picture. Placing them closer, but still in the correct order, allows more to be in a single render.