This is a combination of scripts and an image from NASA
Solid Noise
Parchment Texture
Plasti-Wrap
Filters > Animation > Spinning Globe
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1105/mb_2011-05_LittleDipperAndreo.jpg

Wow! That thing is spinning very fast! I would hate to be on that planet! I'd get too dizzy! haha

yeah, that was my first reaction.....very nice image none the less

since the Earth (as we know) is tilted, it will be interesting to see that animation!

COOL!

Nicely done! The spinning is a bit fast, but it could be time lapsed video!
It shouldn't be too difficult to create the rotation on a tilted axis. There is an animated sphere in MathMap that will do it on a tilt/slant.

Jupiter takes 9.8 hours to one full rotation on its axis. As far as tilting is concerned, I can work on that.

That animation has 30 layers. I'd need to double the layers at least to slow it properly without a lot of jerking around.

Traditionally you should put a very crude rocket to fly tangentially from the spinning planet...
(There were such images even on ViewMaster some geological ages ago.)

But gorgeous imagery, nice spin (no pun intended)...

That would be very nice. I'd have to animate a rocket and make it grow either larger or smaller in is path away from the planet.

I started from scratch, tilted the planet and slowed the speed (80 layers). Probably could be slowed even more.

Something to work on anyway. Thanks for your constructive criticism and nice remarks everyone.

Love it O.... just beautiful

OH! see that tilt really makes it FEEL so real!
it's psychological because each planet has a different tilt, but Home is what we are familiar with.

This is very well done, very hypnotic. Great work! A rocket would be a nice touch... but I rather like the relative simplicity of what you have now. It's very peaceful. There are some artists out there who specialize in animated art. What they've done is take a still scene, and add very subtle animations (such as a waterfall). I wish I had saved the link.

This reminds me of a project I had back when I took a course in computer graphics (not digital art. This was a course in graphics programming). I had to write a C program that accomplished something similar using OpenGL.

Thank you everyone.

I'm trying to see if I can have a space ship grow in an animation so it looks like it is moving closer or moving away. I think GAP may have that possibility but I need to explore.

Awesome space scene! The spinning planet against the starfield looks so real!

That last one definitely strikes me as groovy man. You guys kick.

This is a small asteroid orbiting our sun. I've named it Ferra. It has a high iron content and may be a possible source of steel in the future.

It looks like the planet Dune.

Yeah, it could be that. Full of the spice.

Jeepers O, that is so pretty. How to you get the background stars etc. to blend in with the globe?

Very nice.

But... you can see the seam in your "seamless" texture.
And converting to a GIF for the animation pixelated some of the stars.

Thank you, molly. I used the color picker in the starfield for colors for the globe.
Original picture
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110712.html

With the blue globes, I didn't realize that the spinning globe script Indexed the colors and when I pulled the NASA image into the spinning globe image, it turned the background stars pale blue which I liked. I learned how to make the globe RGB with the last one so when I pulled the picture in it didn't change the colors.

Thank you. Yes, the globe is not seamless. I'll see if I can fix that.

I hate GIF files for that reason. Making it an APNG was out of the question with that many layers plus the fact that not all browsers support APNGs.

Later note: I luckily saved the background for the globe and ran it through Make Seamless. I changed the original picture I posted to reflect the change. You may need to refresh your browser or clear cache to see the updated one.