I still haven't figured out how to get the ocean to work with me the way I want it to. I'm using an inverted copy of the land layer mask, but that has the advantage of keeping layer effects consistent when I draw the rivers onto it (I have the ocean placed above the land layers). I left off the smart object step this time, it seems to work fine without that for what I'm doing here, and things are still incredibly easy to modify, so I'm not worried anymore.
[edit] I take that back.. i have it working EXACTLY the way I want to to. Putting the ocean layer above everything else was the key. I then removed the mask on the base land layer, and now the land is editable just by painting on the mask from the ocean layer. if I want to cut into the land, it takes a bit more effort, but if the land is all placed as a smart object, it works just fine. if i need to edit mountain layers, though, I need to go into the smart object to do it is all.
Oh and incidentally, I found a way to un-group a smart object (more or less). When you edit the object and it loads itself as a new file, you just duplicate the layers, and when the requester pops up, tell it you want them to copy to the original file.
{one more edit} I have my answer regarding full layer vs only what you need. I have the original file, full layers of texture - 206 megs. I have the other one chopped down by selecting the masked area and expanding by about 50 pixes for safety margin in case of edits, and it weighs in at 101 megs. I imagine it would have a similar impact on the available ram when opening the file to work on.
Last edited by Coyotemax; 09-21-2009 at 08:48 AM.
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Looks good.
I prefer your other test map though overall as I thought the edges of the land on that one were superior to this one.
If you look at the edge where the land meets the sea it all seems to have a slight step up to the land, no beaches. To me it looks like the island originally was larger but you've nibbled away at it with an eraser set to pencil, leaving a hard edge behind.
The mountains, forests and hills look great.
Royal: I'm very sorry for your loss, your mother was a terribly attractive woman.
My Cartographer's Guild maps: Finished Maps
More maps viewable at my DeviantArt page: Ramah-Palmer DeviantArt
Funny you mention that, that's pretty much what I didThe orginal landmass had a lot of straight edges that needed to be fixed, so i went over them quickly. Now that I'm comfortable with the style, I'll be fixing a few things like the coastline, but really, that's almost all that needs to be done now.
The beaches on the other one were very nice, I agree, but on a continent scale, you're not going to see beaches like that unless they're part of a desert. This map is a small part of a much larger area, and definitely not a desert area. that having been said, there will be some beach type areas once the detail work is done.
Good eye though
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
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