Tried doing this in Photoshop CS6... It ended up not going well
The Mountain Difference Cloud layer is near impossible to make
The Masking options are different and as a result the masking portions don't work... which is a lot of it. I got to trying to sculp mountains and I couldn't get it to look well.
I'm pretty sure the Land type layers would work, but from what I have seen GIMP's airbrush is better or something about Photoshop is making it hard to get it right.
Hmm, I really wouldn't know since all I have is Photoshop Elements and I'm really not all that familiar with it. You might be right.Originally Posted by Durakken
Working on a new thing, decided to make a new map. This is the second time I used this tutorial.
Still haven't magically figured out how to do mountains well... The main problem i had was messing with the temperate gradient which didn't look all that good and I had to go try to figure out how the editor works which I still don't really know... Oh well.
GMap.png
I just started this tutorial with photoshop. Here is my progress for it:
New Layer, then Filter > Render > Clouds, then on the same layer Filter > Render > Difference Clouds
Repeat this with a second layer. Set the layer mode of the second layer to Linear Dodge. Select all and use Copy Merged, then paste, to get a new layer. Use Invert on it. Set Opacity to 90%, again select all, use copy merged, then paste and you should have a Mountain Clouds layer that is pretty close to the ones made in GIMP.
I used Land Clouds out of GIMP, because I liked them better, but I'm sure you can get a same result in photoshop. I also made 2 land cloud layers and I used a mask on the top land cloud layer. With a soft brush I went over that mask to blend those two land cloud layers together. I just did this for some options regarding my terrain. I liked some stuff in one layer and some in the other.
For the sculpting (after I had cut and placed all my mountains) I used a soft brush (0% hardness) as eraser, 35% opacity, 12px (my image is 4000x2000). I only used this brush for any mountain layers that overlapped each other and needed to be blended. Sometimes I drew a greyish color on the layer underneath, if I erased too much. Then I merged all mountain layers. I also ctrl + left clicked the thumbnail layer image of my map to get a selection of my landmasses, then inverted the selection and used this to delete any mountains on the mountain layer that were over the oceans.
Now I copyied this layer, just for safekeeping.
After that I ctrl + left clicked the thumbnail layer image of my mountain layer and used modify selection > feather (with 5 px), I inverted the selection and deleted that part. Again, I select all mountains, I use modify > contract (with 5 px) to make the selection smaller, I invert it and use modify > feather (5 px), and delete it. After that, you should have a pretty smooth mountain layer. The pixel amount can vary depending on what size your image is. The smaller the image, the smaller your feather amount should be. (I forgot, now would be time to use the gradiation curve, like in the tutorial.)
I use my eraser brush (same settings) to erase any left over weird spots, like all the black spots inside mountains etc.
Now I make a new layer on top of the mountain layer, I set opacity to 60% and layer mode to linear dodge. I use a brush with 33px, 20% hardness, 20% opacity, color: #878787 (or whatever fits your medium map color).
I use the toning brush (the 3rd one) from this set: https://www.deviantart.com/pearlpenc...2014-442921937
But I'm sure the standard photoshop brush is fine enough.
Now I gently paint around the edges of the mountain to make to blend them into their surroundings. At this stage you can sometimes spot some left over hard edges on the mountain layer, so I go over this one last time with the eraser here and there.
That's my progress so far. I'm not sure, if this will even get me a nice result in the later steps of the tutorial, but that's how far I got yet. Here is my result so far:
anicca_eriond_mountains.png
I'm not sure, if my mountain placement even makes sense and if it is too much or not.
Last edited by Candacis; 07-05-2018 at 08:58 PM.
So I've decided to try an experiment with this technique: a poster-sized map. I'm going for a 10200x6600 pixel image, which I intend to print on a 22x34 inch poster at 300 dpi. This is about 8 times the size of the largest maps I've made to date. I'm up to the point where I'm placing mountains. I'm having no stability issues so far with GIMP, though the file size is growing quite fast (500 MB and climbing). Swapping layers and running filters takes longer, but the commands are working. I'm curious to see how WILBUR handles it.
Any suggestions and/or adjustments to the tutorial that you'd recommend? I'm thinking that when I get to WILBUR, I should cut the percentage noise to 0.5% or so. I'm also trying to keep the layer count in GIMP as low as I can.
That is a massive image... very massive. I believe photoshop runs giant files better than GIMP, but if GIMP is working that's good.
I'm not too familiar with Wilbur but I believe it doesn't run well with large files (never mind super massive files like that). I've really only used Wilbur once or twice, but I think even around 4000 px (I think, can't really remember, maybe it was bigger) and Wilbur was crashing.
But if you get it to work that would be a truly epic product!! I'm really curious to see it!!
I've never worked with an image that large before so I'm just going to defer to Waldronate here. Best of luck though, I'm really curious how it will turn out.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
I'm trying something similar to this myself, though on a much smaller scale. I'd suggest doing sections of the map at a time. I split my map into 3 continents, and I'm making each chain of mountains apart to limit the strain on WILBUR and GIMP.
The 64-bit version should be able to handle large file sizes. The 32-bit version is much more limited as Josiah describes.
good size but it is NOT10200x6600 pixel image
right now i am working on a SMALL!!! rgb map of Mercury ( the planet) and it is 23,040 x 11,520That is a massive image... very massive.
this is just the color layer for the 256 ppd map 92,160x 46,080 px image that comes next
and that is not even the largest i have worked on
suggestions
first i am guessing this will have a few continents
use qgis or mmps to remap them from Mercator or simple cylindrical to "stereographic" centered on the one continent you are working on
use wilbur to eroid and remap back to the format of the full map
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