WIP - Hangman Harbor

[ajrittler]

Last night I focused on trying to soften the shore line up. Though I think it's better it could still use some more work. I'll keep at it tonight. Based on john's feedback above I'll also adjust the noise of the lowest dark layer and see how that looks. I'd still like to get a bit of green poking through too.

I continued to work with my new pen/tablet. Still awkward and clumsy but getting more comfortable with it. sketched in some more jungle trees. again, the jungle is just POC. it'll most likely be scrapped all together once I'm happy with the water and shoreline.

I also threw in a lighthouse and two small boats. This was more for scale. From point to point at the opening (from the lighthouse south) is roughly just under a mile (@1.5 kilometers)

Thanks for looking and please keep the feedback coming

Current Draft
Hangman Harbor v2.0 091516.png

[Mouse]

Its all looking pretty good

I've a suggestion... if you don't mind.

Maybe it would help if you stopped thinking of the water as having an edge.

If you look really carefully at those photographs on your first post, where there are no rocks or bits of coral interrupting the view - where the water meets the sand without anything else getting in the way, you can't actually see the edge of the water - not at all.

Is it possible to fade out the palest sea layer to nothing over the sand of the shores?

I notice you have something of a bevel around your islands. I'm thinking this isn't helping the fade out. What happens if you take out that bevel and just fade the edge of the water to nothing?

[ladiestorm]

Hi ajrittler! This is an interesting concept you have going here!

I'm afraid I can't give any technical assistance, like Mouse, I use CC3+, not Photoshop, but I do have some ideas that might give you some direction.:-)

I agree with what Mouse said, and one thing that stands out to me, is the separation of your gradient colors. You've faded (I think the PS term is feathered?) one shade of blue into another... but each gradient has a uniform thickness, is your shallows have the same thickness stretching across your beach, and your nursery has the same thickness before your deep water. I think it might look more natural if these gradients bled and flowed into each other in spots.

Also, these three water colors, while beautiful, seem a little too instense to me....there's no blending color between them. If you looks at those pictures you posted( they are absolutely gorgeous btw!) The water, has a gradual, almost transparent quality to it. The shallows gradually fade into the depths, and you can start to see the deeper water under the shallows....the deeper currents.

I have been idea how to do that in the program your using...but you can get an idea of what to do if you look at Mouse's Merelan City WIP.

[ajrittler]

Mouse and ladiestorm, thank you both for your additional eyes, input and comments! Based on your feedback I did some more "digging" into how to accomplish making the water just fade to invisible. (yes I had previously just Feathered). I learned something in the process so thank you both for that as without your feedback I'm not sure I would have!

In Photoshop Refine Edges is what I need(ed) to do. I played around with it last night and got some decent results. Now that the shore fades to invisible the texture of my ocean peaks through a bit. Not sure I actually like that. I removed the bevel/emboss of the shoreline and lowered it around the cays. I think it looks better without it. The cays need a bit more work???

ladiestorm - yes, agree the three water layers need to fade (or mix) better. I was hoping to get to that but ran out of time. I'll get to it this weekend because for the first time in two weeks I actually feel like this thing is making some progress (to where I can stomach it )

Some miscellaneous additions last night were I added a bit of contour to the shore, drew a shark and dropped a few of them around the shallows for fun. (I guess they're dire sharks because they're a bit big compared the the boats) I separated the drop shadow from a couple and manually positioned in an attempt to show they are in shallower water. Fun.

Current Draft
Hangman Harbor v2.0 091616.png

[Mouse]

Its looking a whole lot more natural now that you've done that around the shores. I'm not sure what you can do if the ocean texture is a problem. You might have to wait for someone who knows more about PS to respond on that particular point.

However, once you have perfected it to your satisfaction around the main shore line, would it be possible to do the very same thing around the islands, or would that be a practical impossibility (bearing in mind this would require the shallow water layer to be what CC3 users call a 'multipoly' - a large shape with smaller holes in it - a hole for each island as it would be applied to this map)?

NB: To get the same effect around the islands you'd have to take the bevel off them as well.

Please forgive me if I'm asking too much! I visualize effects and appearance based on my understanding of CC3 and continual assurances that PS can do all the same things, but using different techniques.

What you have already done is a huge improvement without the fussiness I'm suggesting, which would only really be a cherry on top

[johnvanvliet]

what i used in the example i posted was a "plasma" noise blended with the "distance transform" of the water
then gradient mapped

the gimp G'Mic plugin has the distance ( i think wilbur also dose) Krita also has the gmic plugin built it ( no added third party add on )

[paulotutu]

The shores are looking pretty nice now!
BTW, nice choice of model! Beautiful place!
Keep up the good work!

[ajrittler]

Thanks everyone for the input! Mouse - theoretically the refine edges should be working around the islands too. For some reason, it's not. I'll have to get that sorted out because the bevel around the edges is a bit "harsh".

johnvanliet - I adjusted the noise of the blue going into the shallows. it was a bit much for me - very speckled. so, what i ended up doing was: Refine Edge/Feather, add noise then added a Paint Daub filter. Good from far, but when you zoom in the Paint Daub shows a bit too much.

paulotutu - thanks for the comments!

I wasn't able to get anything done Friday or Saturday but was able to yesterday. Like I said, I worked on the darker blue transitions. A bit flat still. I noticed something that was completely unintentional. When I look at the dark blue water I see the side view of head. The nose going into the river to the west, the chin below it. Almost looks like a person wearing a floppy gallows man hat (along the north/nort-east shore). Well, I see it at least!

I threw in a few spotted eagle rays, a manta ray, some docks (these will be redone completely), drew a craggy tree with rope. I added a compass rose and a key. Changed the font colors.

Let me know what you think and thanks for looking!

Current Draft
Hangman Harbor v2.0 091816f.png

[paulotutu]

Oh god, now I see the head too!


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[Mouse]

LOL! I can see you're starting to have a lot of fun with this map - with all those little added extra's you're putting in - and that's more than reason enough for drawing a map.

Unless you particularly want the hangman's head to feature quite strongly in the finished map, it might be as well to increase the distance over which the deepest blue is feathered(?) (hope I've use the right term!) I agree with Storm (Ladiestorm) that the shift between the different colours of your ocean is just a little stepped, and might look better if you achieved a smoother tonal blend from beach to deep.

Other than that, its all looking really splendid. I hope you are feeling suitably pleased with yourself