Photorealistic Water, rivers and rapids for battlemaps

[Daniele Russi]

Hello everybody!
I'm new on this forum! It looks great!!!
I was trying to make photorealistic water effects for my vtt battlemaps, but all my efforts (with maptool or photoshop) are not satisfying for me.
I was looking for some tutorials on this forum, but I couldn't find anything.
Does anyone can help me?

Thanks
Bye

[Jacktannery]

I totally agree with you; making realistic looking water is very difficult. One of the first things you'll need to do is master layer-masks. Jfrazierjr has an excellent tutorial here (http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...s-gimp-ps.html) and if you read through that he has a specific tutorial for making photo-realistic river banks mid-way through the thread.

Here's one of my own river attempts from an unfinished map; there are no easy answers: you just need to use trial and error.

River.jpg

[jtougas]

As JT said, photo-realistic water is tricky. You first have to decide what kind of water you want to depict. Shallow water needs more layers as you will have to show the bottom of the river (or pond) and then build up from there. Muddy or very deep water is easier as you wont need as many layers. Also as JT said layer masks are crucial to achieving good looking water. Check out the tutorial and try some different styles. I'd love to see what you come up with.

[Midgardsormr]

If you want photoreal, then a photo-collage method might be the way to go. At the very least, looking at lots of reference can help you understand what features you need to paint in order to get the look you want. A Google image search on "river rapids aerial" turns up some good pictures.

Oh, and Jacktannery, that's some very impressive-looking water! Well done!

[Daniele Russi]

Thank you guys! Starting from this tutorial, I will try and try again! And obviously, I will show you my progressive results!

I totally agree with you; making realistic looking water is very difficult. One of the first things you'll need to do is master layer-masks. Jfrazierjr has an excellent tutorial here (http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...s-gimp-ps.html) and if you read through that he has a specific tutorial for making photo-realistic river banks mid-way through the thread.

Here's one of my own river attempts from an unfinished map; there are no easy answers: you just need to use trial and error.

River.jpg

Jack, this is awesome! Every detail of this map is so perfect!!!

[Bogie]

Great work Jack!

[Jacktannery]

Thanks but its incomplete and was an example of the style you might get when you follow Jfrazierjr's tutorial I linked to above, to give the OP an idea of what I was talking about.

[Daniele Russi]

I think that my best will never be as good as your incomplete

[jtougas]

I think that my best will never be as good as your incomplete

Believe me, we all had to start somewhere. You can certainly reach that level of skill if you simply keep trying. Oh and JackTannery what does a Dwarf know of water??

[Jacktannery]

Oh and JackTannery what does a Dwarf know of water??

???? (I feel like I'm missing something....)