Bretoria - take two

[pasis]

I’m starting a new project to build a bit smaller scale map and I have started by experimenting with Photoshop and trying to find new ways to create good looking landscapes. I have started with hills/mountains and I have been playing with few different techniques. All the techniques have good and bad sides and I have not decided yet which one to use. In the end I might even use several if I can somehow make them work well together as they are so different.

Here awe have few samples I have put together:
The sample1 is a kind of rough rocky hill with forest partially covering it. The hills are easy to create, but hard to controll exactly. It is also difficult to blend the hills seamlessly to the surrounding ground. The good thing is that it is really easy to do and I can have several textures following the same height impression (forest and rivers or snow as in sample 1b). This actually look even better when I reduce the forest texture size and then it looks more like a mountain instead of a hill.

The sample2 is done with a different technique and I call this test version a Reptile Mountain. It is a bit harder to do than the first sample (but not too hard) and it blends really well with the surroundings. I have also made a way to add forest over the mountains and got it to follow the mountain height, but it requires a bit of extra work.

Comments please and let me know which one you like (or don’t like).