Base Layers

[Whip It]

Hey guys, I'm really sorry if I'm posting a question that gets asked really often, but it's something that's been on my mind for a little while.

When creating the "base layer" as I'll call it on Photoshop CS3 - you know the rendered clouds then a new layer with 50% gray and hard mix (see Ascension's Making a Continent tutorial, or the Saderan one), could you copy the basic shape of an island or continent, cut it out from one map and insert it into another map that you are currently making without problems? As in, if I wanted to make a Saderan-style map but I want to include one of the islands that was part of a map I made using Ascension's tutorial, if I cut that island out of the base layer of my Ascension map and pasted it into the new document, would anything be stuffed up? Because I know the base layer is based off the cloud layer below it, so if I copy and pasted it would it stuff up the continuity of the clouds and therefore everything else? Or are the original cloud layers you use in making the base layer only used for making the base layer and for nothing else (in which case there's no problem with me copy and pasting)?

Apologies if that's confusing, just let me know and I'll try to rephrase it. Any help is appreciated.

[Ascension]

What I use the clouds for is to generate the the shape of the landmass and for the lighting effects filter to have something to work with to make some mountains. So if you were going to cross-paste your base layer island you might also have to cut out a chunk of the clouds and paste them onto the other set of clouds. I don't remember how much Tear uses the clouds in his tut but if he doesn't use clouds for mountains then it's all moot and you don't have to cut the clouds layer at all, just the base layer. If there is any bathymetry (underwater topography) involved then you will need to cut/paste the clouds. Using the lasso tool with a fuzzines of 10 or more helps to avoid cutting hard line edges so that when you paste the new clouds you don't get any weird effects.

[Whip It]

Thanks for the reply, that answers my question perfectly. Thanks for the tip with using the lasso tool too, very helpful (as I'm a complete beginner when it comes to map-making with Photoshop).