Looking for help on making a cliff

[Joel Fagin]

Rep?

Okay, this recipe creates a cliff effect which is transparent so it sits on top of whatever texture you like. In the example above, it was sitting on top of my "dirt" layer but I could have just as easily had a cliff made of grass (and did before I took to the grass layer with an eraser).

- Make a new layer and set its mode to "Multiply"
- Head into your layer effects and give it an outer bevel with the following numbers...

Screen shot 2010-02-13 at 2.27.34 PM.png

- Make the gloss contour on the bevel something close to this...

glosscontour.png

- Give it a texture bevel like this...

Screen shot 2010-02-13 at 2.27.45 PM.png

- Now simply draw on your new layer in white and a cliff will appear beneath your brush. It works best with a raggedy, bumpy edge to the cliff so I suggest a small brush and enough coffee to make your hands shake.

If anyone tweaks the numbers and comes up with something better or just usefully different, let me know.

- Joel Fagin

PS. I do believe I've worked out your attachment system!

[TheMarcus7]

I may just have to invest in Photoshop. Or steal my wife's copy. I don't think GIMP does that kinda stuff. At least not the sophisticated bevel function.

So looking at your example, you have a grass layer, a dirt layer, a water layer, a rock (?) layer? Does the "outer bevel" function chew up the face of the cliff?

.TM7

[Joel Fagin]

So looking at your example, you have a grass layer, a dirt layer, a water layer, a rock (?) layer?

Grass, dirt, water, solid rock, boulders, cobbles, bushes, sand, broken earth, craters (I do some Mech Warrior), cliff and dirt path. I have another couple of examples I'm using in another thread if you want a peek...

Creek crossing.
Gully entrance with an older version of the cliff effect.

Does the "outer bevel" function chew up the face of the cliff?

The outer bevel just makes it look raised. The texture bevel gives it the broken cliff effect. Texture bevel is really good. It's the powerhouse behind the craters, boulders, bushes and water reflections too. You'll need Photoshop CS3 or better, though.

- Joel Fagin

[TheMarcus7]

I've been messing around with this in GIMP, but the best I've been able to do is with shadows and transparent overlays. I did this today, just messing around trying to recreate the effect of an overlay I found in the CSUAC collection. I might write it up as a tutorial, since I hadn't seen anything like it there (although I haven't scanned all of them.)

crevice_work_merged.jpg

.TM7

[RobA]

I may just have to invest in Photoshop. Or steal my wife's copy. I don't think GIMP does that kinda stuff. At least not the sophisticated bevel function.

Bevels are just lit up bump maps. Gimp certainly can do similar looking things, but not as layer effects.

There is a gimp layer effect plugin/script that can do similar things, but it needs to be rerun whenever a layer changes, rather than the dynamic layer effect.

-Rob A>

[TheMarcus7]

Thanks Rob, thats the kind of thing I was looking for. I think I'm still going to see if I can get PS up and running. She got a package with Illustrator, PS and some other tools. No reason not to use it.

[RobA]

Thanks Rob, thats the kind of thing I was looking for. I think I'm still going to see if I can get PS up and running. She got a package with Illustrator, PS and some other tools. No reason not to use it.

If you can afford it, you might as well use it!

-Rob A>

[TheMarcus7]

Hello Learning Curve. I was just figuring out how to do things in GIMP...