Just a little village

[Ascension]

Originally I had started this to play around with a whole bunch of ideas for different tree styles, hence the smaller size than my usual. As it progressed, I threw out the less-than-cool results and focused on an emerging idea until I got it right. Then then I thought "oh heck just add the darn buildings and get it over with and make a village". So here it is.

The trees started with random clouds and have two texture layers (mosaic tiles filter of differing layer styles), two color layers of clouds, two bevel layers (inner and outer), a shape layer (stained glass filter) and two shadow layers...a process which will get refined and simplified even more for future maps.

[jfrazierjr]

Originally I had started this to play around with a whole bunch of ideas for different tree styles, hence the smaller size than my usual. As it progressed, I threw out the less-than-cool results and focused on an emerging idea until I got it right. Then then I thought "oh heck just add the darn buildings and get it over with and make a village". So here it is.

The trees started with random clouds and have two texture layers (mosaic tiles filter of differing layer styles), two color layers of clouds, two bevel layers (inner and outer), a shape layer (stained glass filter) and two shadow layers...a process which will get refined and simplified even more for future maps.

Very nice... hmm that gives me an idea.... I might just have to try the "bubble noise" from the GIMP Femilage plug-in and then perhaps a displacement map to break it up and make it less roundish and bump map that.... will have to play with that to see if I can get that to come out right.

[Steel General]

Trees are very cool!

You are strong with the Phorce Oh Ascendant One!

[Lathorien]

Its the shadows from the trees on the dirt paths that does it for me... Good Job!

[NeonKnight]

I love the trees. The circular huts on the other hand distract me from the rest of the map. They are too uniform, both in their size and spacing. Other than that, it is pretty durn nice!

[Feralspirit]

Whoa! Thanks for sharing Ascension. Those are very (in)credible trees. I only hope I can do something with your described method (though I work with GIMP) as my trees are in definate need.

[Gandwarf]

I love the trees. The circular huts on the other hand distract me from the rest of the map. They are too uniform, both in their size and spacing. Other than that, it is pretty durn nice!

What Neon says

The trees are awesome and the roads as well. The size and layout of the houses don't look too natural however, which is a shame.

[Hoel]

Awsome!
Look forward to seeing your refinements!

[woekan]

Yea, its to orderly spaced. Needs a touch of chaos

[Ascension]

I wasn't much too concerned about the orderly placement of buildings since my main focus was experimenting with making some cool trees on a regional scale for my modern city. Once I added roads and buildings the whole scale was thrown off so I add had to add a new layer for bigger trees. Here's what the original looked like.

As to how I did the trees in the first post:

1. Start with that Bison grass that SG uses then add a layer of 50% gray (set to overlay) then dodge/burn some hills in.

2. On a new layer, do up some clouds. Then filter - texture - mosaic tiles = put the settings as low as they can go. Select - color range = black with a fuzziness of 200 then delete...leaving only the whites and light grays.

3. Add some layer styles (1-pixel black outer stroke at 50% opacity; color overlay of this color 384C20 set to multiply; inner glow of this color 2F381A set to dissolve at 50% opacity and size of 5; outer glow of this color 608040 set to multiply at 50% opacity, 100% spread, size of 5) then the whole layer is set to overlay.

4. Copy this layer and remove the layer styles. Chisel soft inner bevel with a depth of 1000%; direction is up, size is 1, highlight is white set to soft light 50%, shadow is black set to hard light 50% then set the whole layer to overlay. Copy this layer, remove the layer styles, hit ctrl-I to invert the colors from white to black, put this layer under the previous tree layers and move it around to make a basic shadow and set the opacity to 50%.

5. A layer of dark green and medium tan clouds set to soft light...for some color variation.

6. A layer of medium green and light tan clouds set to soft light...for more color variation.

7. The previous steps give us some texture underneath and some color on top. Now on a layer between the colors and textures I made a layer of 100% noise. Scale it up 400%. Up the contrast all the way leaving only black and white shapes. Select - color range = black with a fuzziness of 200 then delete leaving only white blobs.

8. Now for the layer styles. 5-pixel black outer stroke set to dissolve at 10% opacity (gives us lil black dots around the edges). Color overlay of this color 465D14 set to dissolve at 20% opacity (gives us lil ochre colored dots all over). 5-pixel inner glow of this color 4B3B0C set to dissolve at 20% (gives us lil brown dots around the inner edges). To pump up the fullness I added a 5-pixel chisel soft outer bevel, highlight is this color 818A4D set to normal at 75% and shadow is black set to multiply at 75%. Then a drop shadow of black at 50% opacity; distance is 15, spread is 50, and size is 10. Lastly I set the layer fill to zero (so that the layer styles interact with the grass and lower tree layers and not the white blobs).

Rather complicated styling, I know, but this is just a run through for others to experiment with if they wish. Not much for a tutorial since it's mostly styling with the Phorce (not sure how much it will translate to other apps) and the real meat is all in steps 7 & 8. Anyway, have fun with it.