[Award Winner] Rising up the mountains in Photoshop

[pasis]

I have been experimenting a while with ways to create ”realistic” looking mountains in Photoshop. I came up with very nice way to do them and actually instead of starting to create a larger map using the technique, I decided to create a tutorial to explain it. This is the first version of the document and I will add more to it as soon as I get parts finished (making forest to follow the height line of the mountains etc.). Here we have few samples I have done while experimenting. The “Lizard Mountains” was the first finished sample I did and it got me inspired to do the tutorial as I really liked the outcome. Another sample is the one we will create in this tutorial. So more will follow and critique and comments are welcome.

EDIT: Added latest version of the guide to this first post

[woekan]

Thanks Alot! Repped

[Midgardsormr]

Those are some terrific looking mountains, and much easier to build than I would have expected. Rep to you, and hopefully a shiny new tutorial badge is in your future!

[Hoel]

Thanks! I'll try it out on the next map i do

[pasis]

Here we have an updated version of this tutorial where I have clarified few things and added instructions to create forest.

[Steel General]

Excellent!

[ravells]

Pasis, I have just run through your tutorial and Soixante's tutorial on making mountains and can I just say that I am utterly humbled at the expertise of the members on this site.

Both of your tutorials yield utterly beautiful results and they make the process of making mountains both easy and amazingly adjustable. I am truly at a loss for words to tell you how grateful I am that you have posted this tutorial and have chosen to share your knowledge with us.

Simply amazing.

and thank you. 5 compasses and rep from me.

Ravs

here is my result with a bit of further experimentation. Using the Eyecandy 'Jiggle' filter on the low mountain slopes created the boulder effect on the south west bit of the mountains. Using Jiggle and marble (eyecandy) filters gave me that terraced effect on the mid level. Will play more.

[pasis]

Ravs, its great to hear that you have found this technique useful and that you wanted to take that even further and showed us the results. I really like the look on the biggest craters you have conjured there. If you would apply those craters to a RPG map, they would raise the players imagination right away - great stuff...
I also played a bit more with this on my coffee break and tried other settings and textures and the outcome is again very different which really underlines the versatility of this technique.
This is a really quick example as I had only 10min to play with this, but it's great what can be done in just 10min...

[Gandwarf]

I am not a Photoshop user, but those are some very good-looking mountains and I like the fact you took the time to share the creation process with us. Repped and thread rated.

[pasis]

Attached is the latest version of this tutorial. I expanded it a bit and now it covers also the ways to create hills, river and towns.
So here we go and hopefully you find it useful. In case you want to have something added, please let me know and I’ll check if I can come up with a good way to do it.

And as this was my first tutorial, please let me know if the level of explanations and details was good or if I overexplaned or something.