map help - beachline sand/water transition

[Kennyt]

Hey gang!


I was hoping someone more skilled than i can take a look at this map and give some pointers. i am having trouble with beach line transition; in particular a "ripple" effect around each of the "islands".

I am using GIMP but if you have ideas with photoshop - i can prbably figure it out in gimp.
I hve tried using the selector tool to select each island, then select a 10 pixel border, then alter that somehow but just can't get it right.

This encounter details members of my group vs a band of sahuagin raiders attacking the players as they make repairs on their boat.

the image that i am trying to make a map of is THIS:
sea pillars.jpg

however if it ends up being just sand bars thats ok too.

what i have done so far and just cant seem to get any further:

beach.jpg

[Kennyt]

Ok made a few adjustments - the water was way to "rough". here is about 2 hours later.

beach.jpg

Going to add some more details, like driftwood and some a few plants.

[Kennyt]

Ok, getting close to wrapping this up; cant fins any cool beach clutter and after clocking in 4 hours on this i don't have the grit to make some so... this may be all she wrote.

beach.jpg

[Meshon]

Ok, getting close to wrapping this up; cant fins any cool beach clutter and after clocking in 4 hours on this i don't have the grit to make some so... this may be all she wrote.

For the beach clutter you could do it really simply and use a scatter brush to paint some random shapes around and then apply effects to make them look like little pebbles. It's not the same as 1,000 years of tidal action but it would add some variation fairly quickly.

I use PS so I cant say exactly how it works in GIMP but I believe the brushes are similar.

cheers,
Meshon

[Kennyt]

Meshon, awesome - good idea, never thought of that :-D will do!

[madcowchef]

I think what would really sell those tall tower shapes is some long shadows to indicate both height and the shape of them, otherwise its going to be very difficult to show the undercut section rather than just a slightly raised column like shape.

[Kennyt]

MCC, good call - will do!