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August 5th, 2009 in Photoshop Tutorials by Richard Carpenter

Vector Style Earth

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Good evening everybody, in this tutorial il be showing you how to create a simple vector earth from scratch. The PSD file is available free to download.

Creating a New Document

Were going to start off with a canvas size of 600 x 600 pixels for the purpose of this tutorial, feel free to make your canvas much bigger if you require the image in a bigger size, the results should be the same.

The Background

For the background il be using something relivantly simple, fill your background layer with a dark blue color the color code i used is #081122. Were now going to add some minor noise, go to “filter > noise > add noise”, use the settings below.

You should have something like this.

Creating The Globe

Select the circle tool or the elliptical marquee tool and create a circle covering most of the canvas. TIP: Holding the shift key whilst dragging will ensure the circle is the right aspect ratio.

Dont fill your circle just yet, first select the gradient tool with a radial gradient. Set your foreground color to #439abf and your background color to #033e76, drag the radial gradient from the top right corner of the circle down diagonally towards the bottom left.

You should have something like this.

Now add these layer styles to your globe.

You should now have something like this.

Creating The Islands

Select the pen tool and randomly create the points that make up your first of two islands.

Once you’ve closed your last anchor point right click inside the island with the pen tool and go to “fill path”.

You should have something like this.

We now need to cut into the island so it wraps inside our globe. Click your globe layer whilst holding down the CTRL key. This should load a selection around your globe, select your island layer while the selection is active. Now go to “select > inverse” and hit the delete key.

Now add these layer styles to your top island.

You should have something like this.

Using the pen tool once again create another island inside the island you just created, fill the inner island with the color #f5b47a.

Creating The Second Island

Using the same methods listed above and create another island somewhere on your globe. When adding the island layer styles leave off the drop shadow.

Adding Smaller Islands

Using the pen tool create some smaller islands dotted around the globe. The islands at the top fill with a darker shade of blue, the small islands at the bottom fill with a lighter shade of blue. Finally set the small islands layer opacity to about 20%.

Creating The Globe Shines

Select your globe layer whilst holding down the CTRL key, this should load a selection around your globe. Create a new layer above everything and fill the selection with the color white.

Using the elliptical marquee tool make a selection like the image below.

Once you’ve made the selection hit the delete key. Now set the layers opacity to 2%.

Repeat the steps above a couple of times, ive done it 4 times, 2 shines at the bottom and 2 at the top.

The Finished Result

The finished result looks something like this.

Many thanks for reading, il look forward to your comments.

License and Attribution

The PSD file is licensed under the Creative Commons license and can be used for personal purposes ONLY. No attribution is needed but it is always appreciated.

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