[Award Winner] Saderan – a tutorial

[guyanonymous]

This is a great tutorial.

Your instructions were clear, and I appreciated how you provided the menu-based instructions as well as verbal descriptions. I learned a lot, and finally understand masks a bit better.

You may appreciate knowing it works, unmodified, on a 30000x15000 pixel image. Alas, that image (in .psb format) saves out at 15.5 gigs with all the layers left modifiable. Ouch. (64bit PS & Vista 64x)

I really appreciate how well it works with land-masses, elevations, etc. exported from FT Pro and placed onto the various layer masks for mountains, hills, etc. I just need to adjust/tweak those peaks (white areas) in mountains that show up...and of course start adjusting things for better position (not in the middle of continents). It's a great start, and I'm liking the look/feel.

I'm off to experiment with doing the same with climate regions....hmm....can I have one type of climate show up as white, while the others show up as black only? Hmmm....

Thanks again!

p.s., your procedure (minus the mask-painting) also plugs into the action structure well, allowing some great repeatability for different maps.

[guyanonymous]

My first experiments with climate haven't been too successful...but that's ok. I refined experiments with altitudes/textures coming out of FT Pro and being fed into the layer masks for elevation/hills/mountains/peaks/ice. Here's where I'm at so far. Everything (except the one experiment with forests) is based on exports (repeatable for any map made there) from FT Pro and with changes only made using in-photoshop menu commands (repeatable).

abebe-retry..png

Thanks again for sharing this excellent (and educational) tutorial.