I was following this tutorial http://www.2dgameartguru.com/2013/02/rings-of-saturn.html for creating a Saturn planet and its rings. Please refer to the end of the first part, where the author has created a single, simple planet. My question concerns the transition from image 8 to image 9, where the rather plain-looking circle is transformed into a beautiful planet:



The author writes: "Add another few circles to the planet and shadow on the ring and we get our basic Saturn shape planet." And this is where I am stuck.

• What does the author mean "add a few circles"? If he's talking about the stripes on the circle of the planet, I don't see how this can be achieved using circles. I was able to add two stripes using paths, but it's a lot of pain to add, say, 20 rings this way.
• When I add shadow to the ring, I get it all messed up. How can I do this correctly?
  
• Also, the shadow I produced is really jagged.
• The planet also has a vertical-type shadow on its rightmost part. How can this be created?

I'm an Inkscape noob and so any help will be highly appreciated!

Hi.

Check out clipping.

If you want to add details to an object that goes right to the edges of the shape,
group anything that builds up the pattern, exceeding the desired area and clip the group to the right boundaries -this case, one circle for the clipping path and anything for the stripes.


Another option for the stripes could be using a radial gradient but its rendering has some limitations. Namely gradients are not anti-aliased, noticeable when two steps are positioned the same %, to create such striped look.


For the shading I'm not exactly sure what you are after but clipping can work there as well.

Hey, thanks a lot! I had no idea that something like clipping existed, and it has made my life a lot easier!

It's a pity the tutorial's author didn't use this method.