The maps I did for requests and practice

[DZFaeley]

I made a post on NaNoWriMo offering maps of continents so that I could get in some practice. I figured if I was making a bunch anyway, I may as well offer to do them for someone. Everyone loved them, which made me want to keep making them and get better at it, so it was a nice boost to my self-esteem, too.

If I post the pictures wrong, please let me know! This is a new forum and I have no idea how to work most of the bits. I tried looking for help on posting pictures, but didn't find anything. Granted, I'm terrible at searching for things. And I can also make a new comment/post for each of these instead of having them all in one post.

map trial 1.jpg
This was the first one I did, following the tutorial to the letter to the best of my ability.

AKLindsaymap.jpg
This one is the second map I did, and the first request, and it's where I veered off-tutorial with the water. So far it's my favorite map.

testzone34.jpg
This is the third one, and I also really like it, but the second one, to me, is still far superior.

I've been having trouble with coasts, and with the mountains. Tear's tutorial is beautiful, and the elevation section is where I seem to fail. Tear's is more realistic and interesting, while mine ends up looking forced. I'm able to sort of correct it by the end, but I could really use some tips or something.

[DZFaeley]

I say I have trouble with coasts after posting my best examples of coasts. XD Oh dear.

[Psylence]

Ya know, I'm just starting out on it too, but I find (once you get the shape ya like and get the white down of your island/continent) I like to shrink the outline by a few pixels(depends on the size of the image), Smooth it by half, and then Refine Edge(at least that's what it's called in Photoshop) with a contrast set to 100%. Seems to clean up the lines a bit. In fact if you ever run into issues with an outer glow or a stroke because it's bleeding in funny ways, ctrl+click the layer icon and refine the edge with contrast at 100% - seems to do wonders cleaning up messy blurring/feathered areas.

[DZFaeley]

thanks for the tip! i had some trouble with that in one of my other trials that i didn't post up, and couldn't figure out how to fix it! and i'd control+click the layer that has the outer glow?

i REALLY like having "interesting coasts", with the crags and stuff that seems to come with real land. but finding the balance between "created looking roughness" and "too neat" is really hard. i was more accidentally successful in my first few, but now i'm getting more troubles. i'll probably look around and see if there are any tutorials on how to make them look realistic.

[Psylence]

Yeah ctrl+click the layer with the glow, that's just for the outer glow or stroke issues. Otherwise, just doing that to your land mass seems to work pretty well too, it doesn't really smooth it out or destroy the cragy-ness of it . It gets rid of stray pixels that are slightly opaque or helps shore up the lines basically. That only works if you have a layer that's the large mass. Which one is Tear's Tutorial for mountains? I probably looked at it, I just don't recall which one it is.

Of course, take my stuff with a grain of salt too, not like I'm a professional.

[DZFaeley]

i was using her saderan tutorial, as it has everything. her mountains just look so nice XD. i found another tutorial (but now i've lost the thread and i'm a little mad i didn't save it) by pasis? i tried that out, and WOW. such a difference! i've been tweaking the look of everything whenever i make a new map, but here's the one i finished today using that new mountain technique.
undertheweepingcherrytree.jpg

i keep fiddling with colors, because i'm not 100% happy with them yet. i LOVE rich colors, but i also don't want it to be too harsh on the eyes.

[Psylence]

Pretty cool look you got going on there. Yeah, there's a lot of different tutorials, and they're all quite good!

There's also some pretty good ones over here. I believe the person doing that blog is also on the forums.

[DZFaeley]

Thanks! I was looking at those earlier, actually, and got really intimidated by the hand drawing aspect. I don't have a tablet (I might luck out and get one as a Christmas/birthday gift), and I'm pretty much crap at drawing anything.

[Diamond]

That last one looks really good, DZ. I also really love Pasi's tutorial; that mountain-making technique has saved my ass on many occasions.

And I think this is the tutorial: http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...photoshop.html

[DZFaeley]

yes, that was it! thank you!! i bookmarked it so that i wouldn't lose it again XD. i have the PDF, but it's good to know where i got it from.