Making elemnt changes less abrupt, how do?
To get it out of the way first, I use photoshop and consider myself a general novice. I've created one large map to date, using techniques I have found online. The thing I wish to ask is, how does one make changed between forest/grassland/snow without making it appear so abrupt. I haven't discovered the tools or blending options that allow me to do it. Any ideas?
Example Below.
Example.jpg
Generally, use a wide, low-opacity brush to paint your textures. This allows the textures to 'blend' somewhat naturally. I'm not an expert with Photoshop or anything either, but that's what I did with my Mythic Earth map; this is the result:
MythicEurope.jpg
Better yet, use multiple layers and layer masks. This is a NON DESTRUCTIVE way to blend textures as opposed to texture painting. ie, you can easily change without having to redo.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
So low opacity is the general rule, I use multiple layers as it is, each one is divided into what it is (forests is one layer, mountains another, etc etc) but the key is low opacity? How do you get those colors across one layer to blend well, or even mixing those colors together?
As you can see from my image, nearly everything is one uniform color. And this is something I would like to fix.
Since you already keep your layers separated out, it should be easy - the trick with the low opacity is to do a lot of overlapping. the more you paint over the same spot the more opaque it will get, so you do that in the center areas of the region you want to look like, say, grassland. then let it fade out as it goes into the hills. Forests don't need the opacity but if you have a broken up edge, it should work.
The other thing you might want to try is blending modes - overlay for the forests, etc.
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
now should I make my "grassland" layer opaque, and then just blend in the rest (excluding mountains and such)?
What I usually do is pick out a layer to be the base ground. So grasslands work, or plain dirt, or some sort of scrubland. And then everything else blends on top of that. Be sure to post up some results as you go for feedback
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Take a look at the link in my signature to a real simple Layer Mask tutorial. Even though it targets GIMP, the concept remains exactly the same for PS or any other image editing software that has layers and layer masks(even if the exact steps are a tiny bit different). Using Layer Masks correctly, you can get blending results that would meet your needs and yet never have to "destroy" the contents of the layers, ie, it's easy to undo, add more, remove some, etc at a moments notice.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Does anyone have any good land textures? I usually throw in a texture on top of some of my colors to give them a little more depth
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...-Fill-Textures
awesome stuff in there
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
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