How I create my Alien Worlds

My DA’s take anywhere from 3-32 hours.

First & foremost is my imagination, and my camera, a Canon S3 and a Kodak LS753 are always with me on my travels wherever I go, it could just be to the store,or checking the mail,the camera is always there.
I look for scenes that would work in a DA,it might be part of a snow
bank,tree branch ,person,flower, cloud formation, sea, water, river maybe a chain of mountains, some trees etc.

Of course for many of my creations I do not use photos, just my imagination, if I can fool someone into thinking its a photo, then thats a bonus. That tells me I’m learning, and I’m always learning!!

Its all loaded into my computer, (I use a Mac/with a 30” Cinema screen) and into Photoshop CS4, which is the main software program I use for affects.
The others are the old Bryce 4 & Artmatic for landscapes,planets, seas, skies, nebula etc, once I find the right chemistry I render it, a render can take up to 6 hours .
Infini- D for building ships, space stations, buildings etc.
I use Poser 6 and Quidam 2, for DA people, animals.
Deep Space Explorer and Starry Night Pro which are software I use with my telescope, this for the REAL galaxies, planets, nebula, suns , and star systems.
The main filters I use are
Color Efex Pro 2.0, Sharpener Pro 2.0, Liquid, Mystical_TTC, plus on and off a number of other photoshop filters.
I have 100’s of folders that contain bits and pieces of photo’s and creations, everything I might need now or in future DA’s.
I have one folder that I use for my creationshop.

I also use a Bluenose Wacom Tablet.

I first select what I may use, everything is on a transparent background, then I build the shot, which can take up to 12 hours.
I’ve being known to spend 2 days inside a single program, getting a certain sky, landscape or planet, until I achieve my goal.
In some cases I have done a built over 3 hours or so and ended up deleting it and starting again!.Mostly that happens when too many ideas colide.
Once the build is to my liking I save all the layers into a folder,
( I have had up to 76 layers so far)
then crop and save as a .jpg into another folder, then clear the screen and reopen the jpg.

Now starts the path to the finished DA, I transfer any ships, people, etc onto the render in PS.
I try different effects until I get what I want, the mist or fog in my DA’s is created using the Fog filter in Efex Pro, the nice thing about this set of filters is that the effect can be painted on and off just where it is needed.

I use the Liquid filter and feathering and masks to blend the edges of each layer,it also gives a nice paint effect,which I think adds to the DA.

And then I sit back and reaklly look at the image and critique it in my mind
if it seems right I upload it.
Also has I am creating I also build the story in my mind, I also could have been writing the story all day in my head and talking it on to my voice recorder, best thing to use while driving.