[Award Winner] Making maps in Photoshop

[jezelf]

Hey that is great, RobA. thanks for that link. Doh it's such an easier techique! I'll amend or add it to my tutorials - or link to it or something (I'll give yer a credit) if don't mind me doing that? It should save people time -especially when going from their sketch.

thanks!

[RobA]

I'll agree it is easier, but it doesn't give the same control your way provides...

Feel free to link away

-Rob A>

[jezelf]

Had a play about in PS. It can be done. Might be able to to do a video tutorial using that technique then feeding it through wilbur and ending up with the relief map I've done. still testing but might be able to get the whole process down to 10 minutes (real time)

cheers

[Redrobes]

Tancread: I noticed that ViewDale - Instant Island (Thanks to Redrobes for that one ) could give similar results than going through all the Difference Clouds thing I mention. You can then import it into PS and use levels on it. The added advantage of using Instant Island is that it also generates a height map. ( BTW, II saves your created file to C:\Program Files\ViewingDale folder - It wasn't obvious to my feeble mind at first )

Just checked and it saves to the current folder so if you have installed it to C : \ Program Files\ViewingDale then thats where the saves go to. Its a single .exe so you can take the app and put it where ever you want and run it from there. Or you could create a (or modify the desktop) shortcut and edit the current directory for it. I think that should put the saves in that place too. The intention was to put the InstantIslands and the DragonFlight in the same dir and then run II, save a terrain out and then run DF and then you get the 3D view of the island terrain in one shot.

[Azurecrusader]

Hey Jezelf,

I love the tutorials but I am having some trouble duplicating the blurred color effect. No matter how much I seem to blur the colors there is always a hard edge to them (even when duplicating your colors exactly). Could you walk me through this process a little more thoroughly?

Currently I have only the "extra color" layer selected, the green land layer is not selected, is that my problem? If so, how do you keep from blurring out your coastline?

Thanks!

[jezelf]

Hi Azurecrusader.

Sorry to hear you're stuck. (But this will help me refine the tutorials for others)

can you say which tutorial and step you are at? Is it colouring the map? at step 1.6 - 1.8??

From what you mention, it sounds to me like you have a duplicate of your sketchy colours. you blur the copy, but the original is still visible underneath, and that would appear as if nothing is happening. make sure that layer is hidden - or delete it if you don't need to edit it.

here are some things to try...

a) Do you have any duplicate layers of the colours you want to blur visible?

You can see in the screen grab on the tutorial I have an an original layer (named sketchy terrain) and a copy (that I named Blurred terrain ), but I turned off the visibility of the sketchy terrain (I kept it only as a back up, it's not really needed) I left the green land one alone so I could change it's hue, colour or saturation if I wanted to - though I didn't, so it's not essential. Having the the blurred terrain colours on a different layer means you can play around with it's opacity to your liking.

(The green land can be any colour, and can be a variety of blurred colours too there is no hard rule.)

b) Have you used your Alpha channel to select the land to blur only that? Alternatively, you can create a new layer not yet worry abour selecting anything, paint over it , blur it, then use your alpha channel to select the water and delete any blurred bits over the water.

c) There is always multiple ways of doing stuff - you could merge everything to do with the land onto a new layer and blur it in one go...

1. click on the top layer
2. select all (Ctrl+A )
3. merge visible layers (ctrl+shift+c then Ctrl+v )
4. with this new layer active, select the land using your alpha channel
5. Filter > Guassian Blur
6. use your alpha channel to delete any blurring on the water area if needed (invert selection)

let me know how you get on. if you're still stuck, you could send me the file, so you could crop your work down to a square to show a problem area no bigger than 500x500 pixel (for file size). I only need to see how your layers are placed, not your whole map, so it can be emailed.


good luck

Jez

[lanyards]

I did the first part of the tutorial where I create my basic black and white / alpha channel map, and this was my result:



The black is land and the white is water.

Now I am on the tutorial "Adding Basic Color to a Map".

You think you could explain this part a little better:

1:1 OK! - this is why we have spent a fair bit of time creating this Alpha map - now we can have some fun. On the floating Layers box - you'll see it has two other tabs - Channels and Paths. Choose Channels, then under the Blue Channel, create a new alpha channel -'Alpha 1' by clicking on the new layers icon

1:2: Now click back to your Layers tab, Duplicate the Background image by dragging it over the New Layer Icon. Then Select all [ Ctrl+A ] and copy and paste into the Chanels tab. In your new Alpha Channel. You might find you have to click on RGB layer to get everything back after creating the Alpha Channel, because when you create it, it will turn off all the other channels and you'll just see black.

You should now have Background and Background copy in your Layers and RGB, Red, Green, Blue and Alpha 1 in your Channels - all showing an thumbnail of your map. When you click on your Alpha map channel you'll notice the balck areas are red. This is normal. It's showing that it's identified the Black from white and it also knows the grey scales too.

I can make the new channel "Alpha 1". The I duplicate the background layer. Then I am supposed to select all and then copy and paste into the new channel. How do I copy and paste? When I use "save selection", the channel thumbnail is just all white, not a thumbnail of my map.

Thanks for the wonderful tutorial, the end results you got look real nice.

--lanyards

[jezelf]

lanyards: Hi there. Sorry you can't follow the instructions.

You are nearly there. To copy and paste, Select > All (Ctrl+A). Edit> Copy (Ctrl+C). back to the Channels tab. Click onto your new Alpha 1 channel . Edit > Paste (or Ctrl+V)

• You don't need to click on the 'save selection as a channel', but you use the 'Create new Channel ' next to it.

Here's a more detailed walk through...

1: First make sure your artwork (your B&W alpha map you post here ) is in the right color mode. Image >Mode > RGB color

(It sounds like you are, but I copied your map to my PS to check and it was grayscale, which I'm guessing you changed it to for the sake of putting it up here, but just wanted to check)

If you don't have it as a RGB image, then some of the tutorial may not make sense. All you would see in the channels is 'Gray' and no RGB that I mention. If this is so, perform the step above first.

2: In your Layers tab > L click with your mouse on the Background layer and drag it to the new layers icon. It will create a copy of your B&W image above your Background layer called 'Background copy'. This is not yet technically an alpha map until it's in the channel tabs. it is currently still just a B&W looking image.

Note: step 2: (on this post) is not absolutely necessary for what I'm explaining here, but I think I use the background copy for other stuff later in the tutorial

3: Now click on your Channels Tab. You should see 4 channels: RGB, Red, Green, Blue. They will most likely all be selected. You can click on them one at a time to see how they effect the layer.

4: While still in the Channel tab, L click with your mouse on the new channel icon at the bottom (next to the trash can - looks like the new layer icon from the layer's tab). You will create a new channel, which will name itself as Alpha 1 as default. It will probably be the only channel visible (the eye icon) and will be white, because it's an empty channel.

5: Click on the Layers Tab. click on your 'Background Copy' layer. Select > All (Ctrl+A). Edit> Copy (Ctrl+C).

6: Click back to the Channels tab. Click onto your new Alpha 1 channel . Edit > Paste (or Ctrl+V)

7: You can test if it's working by Ctrl+L click with your mouse on that Alpha 1 channel. It should now select only the black & grayscale areas.

(You can rename your alpha channel if you prefer by double clicking on 'Alpha 1' once it is active and type in something else. The same method for renaming the layers )

You should now have your image in the correct alpha channel. Let me know if this helps - or not.

cheers

Jez

[lanyards]

Thanks a bunch Jez. I'll be sure to post my end results when I'm finished.

--lanyards

[lanyards]

Sorry to bother you again, but I guess I'm just doing something wrong again. So I have my new Alpha channel. I Select its pixels, and then try to fill in the ocean with a blue, but it turns out red for some reason. I have never used channels, so I don't know what I am doing wrong. Thanks for the help.

--lanyards