Emulating Fathusra

[GlennZilla]

I promised I'd post the results of my attempt to emulate the style of map in this image:

http://www.glennzilla.com/Maps/Fathusra_Wilds.jpg

Here is the PSD file I created.

http://www.glennzilla.com/Maps/Terrain_Test.psd

It's not meant to actually be a map just an attempt to demonstrate the techniques used. I used a heightmap similar to my previous tutorial (GlennZilla's Own Little World) and a lot of layer masks.

For example to paint the forest into place I used this brush



I simply created a green layer with some noise on it and painted with the brush on the Layer Mask.

Similarly I painted the areas to have the "pebbles" texture on a layer mask. The trick to getting the Texture layers to work right is to use a layer filled with black with the blending mode set to "Screen". This way only the white highlights added by the texture are visible. Conversely you could use a white layer set to "Multiply" to make the shadows visible.

I think it gives everyone a sense of how I did it at least. Now I need to look into incorporating this into my new world and cough up a decent regional map before D&D 4.0 is released.

[RobA]

Can you post an image, too? I'd like to see the result and don't have photoshop.

Thanks,

-Rob A>

[GlennZilla]

Sure thing! I'll get it uploaded this afternoon. No Photoshop at the office any longer.

[GlennZilla]

Here's a JPG screen shot showing the Layers Palette.

The "pebbles" layer is a black fill with the blending mode set to "Overlay". "Multiply" and "Screen" also work fine as they alternately add the shadows or highlights from the texture created by the Bevel and Emboss layer style, set to the standard pattern "Wrinkles". The area affected by the texture is controlled with a layer mask.

The "Mountians" layer is a lighting effect I created like in my previous tutorial.

The "Forest" layer is a green fill with some Gaussian noise added. There is a layer mask there as well. On this one I used a paint brush with the settings in the earlier image. This created the forested look.

The "Desert" layer is simply a painted layer adding the desert color. In the future I'll probably use a layer mask to allow me to use different blending modes and layer styles.

The "Grassland" layer uses a green fill with Gaussian noise similar to Forest layer. On this one I did use the layer mask to control where it appears.

The "Land" layer is a painted layer with the browninsh color of the mountians and beach. IN the future I think I'd use a layer mask here as well so that I have a ready made selection for all the land areas.

The "Oceans" layer is simply a blue fill, though in the future I would add some kind of shading to make the littoral areas of the water obvious.

And the bottom layer is the clouds I rendered and used for the lighting effect for the mountians layer. Just in case I want to double check elevations need guidance when drawing in the rivers.

The "

[RobA]

Thanksm for the image.

I think the use of layer masks is key to any of thechniques, to provide maximum flexability in allowing changes at a later time.

Have you figured out how to apply rivers on this yet?

-RobA>

[GlennZilla]

Yeah, I was just going add another blue layer with similar layer masks and an inner glow in the layer styles.

[pyrandon]

This is great! And thanks for the PS file, from us PS users!