Help with planet orbit map: Photoshop

[Daelin]

Wow, that's actually a bit of a coincidence. I'm going to look into that same exact problem right now, with my own project, like literally right before I read your post... Scary.
Anyway, if you just want a really simple representation of an asteroid field, you could try the "spatter" brushes in PS. Or maybe use a plain circle brush and then play around with the brush settings, like spacing, scatter and size jitter.
But I'll probably try something a little more advanced that fits better with my planets.

[Fuse]

Cool.

Hey I found a solution for mine and possibly yours. There was a tutorial here http://www.biorust.com/tutorials/detail/54/en/
and instead of doing the scaling, I just erased all but a very fine edge of the swirl and then applied the effects the rest of the tutorial said, then added some really faint glow of about 8% inside and outside (dust particles) and changed the blending levels of the asteroid layer so that you can see the starfield behind them.

Here is what I came up with.. not perfect, eh, but it's a learning experience.

[Fuse]

Oh yeah, I was checking your project. I was reading about it the other day. Looks pretty sweet! What did you use to do the planets? Can't wait to see it finished.
Me.. I've got 28 star systems to map... so it will be a while before I get done. That's why I'm doing a template haha