Reply With QuoteThat's what's great about many of the tutorials here, they can usually be adapted to whatever your particular needs may be.
Well kudos for those suggestions. I came up with this. A few things I changed or added.
I used the eraser and clone tool a lot on the mountains. I just plain needed spinal ridges in exact locations and couldn't leave it up to a math algorithm. Likewise the continental shape (this is, again, a kitbash of a recent commercial product) is a selection outline.
I used only the ocean layer for reefs, didn't need more than that and simply used the eraser liberally. I've noticed in whole-earth nasa pictures that the amount of reef area visible from distant space is patchy.
The reef layer did double duty. I applied a gradient lighter than the ocean color via image adjustment and erased segments until I got a nice continental plate falloff. It'll look cool for fantastic stuff, but I'm not sure if that's visible from space so I'll remove it in the final image.
I also used several segments in my other desert areas. It took awhile to figure these out but I think I came up with a scheme.
1) I drew a very squiggly selection line, going around mountains and terrain features in ways that could sort of make sense (basin areas for heat collection, etc... who cares what the coriolis forces or albedo are doing, I'm restricting myself to the existing map and, well, it is sci fi).
2) Feathered the selection by 5-10 pixels depending on size of area.
2.5) Already had several copies of the reef layer. Did a couple more difference clouds filters to taste. Mostly just stuck with what I had.
3) Inverted selection and deleted a copy of the reef.
4) Applied a desert gradient. See the tutorial for desert color suggestions. Did use hard light blending. Played with the scale to taste.
4.5) On a black 128x128, I already created a grey crinkly paper template by doing multiple difference clouds and then an emboss filter, exporting by selecting edit > define pattern.
5) Applied the new layer (named Desert 1, 2, 3, etc for each one) via normal blending.
6) Stretched and adjusted the image at its edges by alternately using a soft eraser and smudge to taste, getting the desert into the nooks and crannys of the mountain ranges.
7) Applied the crinkly paper texture as a layer style, using hard light blending and scale to taste. Also applied bevel and emboss layer style: smooth, down, size: 2, soften: 4, highlights and shadows to taste.
If you want a scrub desert or some other feature, like forest, the same techniques might be applied along with the texturizer filter, using the sandstone texture to taste. It makes things a little less realistic, but if the viewer goes "oh that's a forest", it might be worthwhile.
That's what's great about many of the tutorials here, they can usually be adapted to whatever your particular needs may be.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
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SG -- Agreed. To me a tut represents the sum total of my knowledge/process at a given point in time. It's been five or six months since that tut was posted here (although I used the same process for about six months prior to ever being here at The Guild), and I have learned so much in that time. Also, for me, a tut is meant to be a starting point for others to learn some basic concepts and procedures...the evolution of adaptive ideas springing forth from a common base. Sort of like you have to learn addition and subtraction before you can theorize about quantum mechanics. It's always nice to see others learn, change, adapt, and even outright disregard my stuff as I know that they have at least seen it, understood it, and made their own tweaks.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
I've been down in my secret lab messing around and experimenting...I've come up with coastal shelves finally and changed the ocean stuff in general. In the future I want to work on plateaus and better canyons, but for now I'm happy. Here's my current continent, divided in two because the original is 6250 x 3125 and in order to upload it I'd have to chop the quality to 3.
Before anyone says it, yes, it's probably dark...so be it, I like itWhen I get the above mentioned things hammered out I'll update the tut doc file.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
It's too dark!!(Yes, I'm being a smarty-pants)
Seriously though these are interesting and cool changes.
Just an opinion here, I know you're still working the kinks out on this but you may want to reduce the 'bevel/height' on some of the underwater "terrain" (at least in the lighter colored water) they almost appear to be islands with the wrong coloration.
Hope that makes sense to you.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
SG -- take a screenshot with a red circle or something and I'll give it a look over...not sure what yer meanin.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Ok here you go, there are several of these on this map, but this one appears to be the most obvious, and maybe I'm just misinterpreting what you're trying to do here.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Gotcha. I noticed these as well but was unsure if I liked em or not. I could call one a meteor impact but I didn't know what to do about the others. As I now think about it, I could shrink the size of the shelf itself and eliminate the holes or just do some manual painting to fill em in before beveling. Thanks, bro.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
No problem...what about possibly reversing the bevel so that it looks sunken rather than embossed? Just a thought...
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
What do you mean? It looks sunken to me. The shelf is an enlargement of the landmasses, expanded by 40 (I think), filled, then an outer bevel -- chisel soft, size 21 with an up direction, white color dodge highlight 75% and black hard light shadow 75% and the light source is -30, 30 (low-middle right). If you look at the ocean trench it has the same settings with the direction being down.
The common thing people assume is that the light source is in the top left and since this is a northern hemisphere map, the light source is in the south (or bottom) of the map. I always do morning sun so the sun is on the right (east). I also try to do summer maps so the light source is close to the middle whereas a winter map would have the sun be closer to the bottom. If the light was indeed in the top left then yeah, it can look opposite of the way I have done it.
Try it out on Sketch Up sometime and you'll see what I mean or just do what I did, mark on a window where the sun rises on summer solstice and winter solstice. Luckily, I have one facade of my shop that is 100 feet long on the east side with about 80 feet of windows. Here's a screenshot. Based on the shadows, green trees and dead grass, I'd say the photo was taken late August to early September about 9 or 10 am on a Saturday (only 2 cars).
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
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