Hello, I am having a lot of trouble when doing steps 1.6 - 1.8 on the map coloring part of the tutorials. Before the bluring part of those steps my map looks like: 3jabyVt.png
after i apply a guasion blur (i use this because it does not specify which blue to use) it looks like this: KLaVeeF.png
Please help ! the tutorial looks great but i can't make my map look that good
Hi there. This is not my software, so I'm afraid I can't tell you *precisely* where you went wrong... however, I did notice several things right away that will probably help quite a bit.
1) Your colors are off. First of all, the colors are too bright, and unnatural. The shades you chose to highlight certain areas are too different from the base color. Finally, In 1.7 where it says:I'm fairly certain this is referring to new layers for *piling up* your colors.Create a new layer, pick another colour and draw in areas where you want it to change. don't worry about
how it looks just now. you can be quite sketchy about it. Make sure you have the LAND areas selected only.
You can create a new layer for every colour you use if you want to go back over areas and redo.
EXAMPLE:
layers.jpg
(Don't worry about the buttons, it's a different program... just look at the main image, and the layers.)
These colors won't blend as well as others, but I wanted to hurry, and I wanted enough contrast for you to see what I was doing.
This doesn't have any kind of blur yet, it's just color painted on different layers.
Now:
2) In the tutorial it specifically mentions a merged layer. If you don't want to risk messing up your land shapes, I'd make a COPY of each layer before continuing.
BUT what you really need is one layer that has ALL of your colors on it. THUS:
layers.jpg
On YOUR project, you'll still have a lot of other layers. I'm not doing anything else with this, so I don't really need them, and made no copies. What you DO need is one layer with ALL of your colors on it.
3) Finally, I *believe* the "blur" mentioned was a TOOL, not an effect. Like your paintbrush.
layers.jpg
I don't know which is the "blur" tool on your software, but it should tell you. *I* am using "smudge" (the pointing finger) in this image:
layers.jpg
And "Blur" in this one (and after a quick google search I believe it might have something to do with the tiny arrow on the button for your smudge tool):
layers.jpg
Finally, the same step mentions darkening the outline of your landmasses which will also help achieve the effect in the tutorial.
Hope this helps a bit. Best of Luck!
I appreciate your help, however the effect you achieved above is not nearly as clean and good looking as the one in the tutorial...Originally Posted by Jalyha
You're welcome.
and.. No, it isn't. I took 30 seconds to slap some color on a canvas so you could see the METHOD described in the tutorial. I'm not working on anything I want to utilize that for at the moment, so I didn't follow any of the other steps in the tutorial. I did exactly (and only) what you see in that post... the steps that you specifically asked about. I also chose colors which would contrast, so you could see what was in each layer.
The method in the tutorial works. You've seen that in the tutorial. I was simply clarifying where you went wrong in the steps you indicated. This will fix your problem if you 1) Take your time and 2) Use more complimentary colors.... and maybe 3) Have the appropriate program, since I did not.
still that does not achieve the blurring affect that was like the one in the tutorial. Even after an hour of going at it...
Are you using a mouse or tablet?
Also, be sure to check the strength of the blur--bigger number = more blur, etc.
I am using a mouse. Messed around with that still no change really.
Thanks folks- glad this stuff is helping out. I wrote them because they were things I wanted to do as well -enjoy being creative!
wreed58: Sooo sorry - 2yrs later. I've been away, life , work , changing jobs and stuff like that, also migrated to world machine.
... Apologies for any unclear or confusing instructions. I'm sure the maps been long done by now, Jalyha thank you for stepping in! I'll answer this 'for the record' in case anyone else has the same problem.
Yes, clone a layer if you don't want to screw it up - Im always doing that for a fail safe ( or have your history brush on )
In general, I was winging and eyeballing it. The (Gaussian) blur radius and the colour you pick has a lot to do with it. Looks like your blur radius was not large enough. You can do these different areas on different layers so you have more control if you like the way you did one, but not the other. You can also merge them together and do a smaller blur with all of them, there's no real hard fast rule.
Concerning colours : a personal preference of course, but if you're not sure what's happening looking at reference is always the step I take. Check out real world maps and colour pick from there if you have to. Or print screen my tutorial into a new document in PS and colour pick from that. I sometimes have to step back and start again , break down a process and then do my own take on it on the second , (or 5th) try once I get my head around everything.
I've updated my first post on this thread with my new website address ( or here : jez-elf.com ) where you'll find a contact form at the bottom. I'll certainly help out where I can. Response should be less than a week or so. Advanced apologies if I take ages!
Last edited by jezelf; 02-11-2016 at 05:54 PM.
Hello, I am having a lot of trouble when doing steps 1.6 - 1.8 on the map coloring part of the tutorials. Before the bluring part of those steps my map looks like: 3jabyVt.png
after i apply a guasion blur (i use this because it does not specify which blue to use) it looks like this: KLaVeeF.png
Please help ! the tutorial looks great but i can't make my map look that good
Hi
Just going to provide some potential solutions to this as I've had other people have a problem with this step. My humble apologies to you all! - it bugs me that it's not working out for you.
I would say there's a couple of things this could be. Top of the list is that my Blur value of 0.3 just worked for me at that time - try a much higher value like 40.
Q1: Have you sketched in your colours like I did or do blobs in different areas like Wreed58 did?
A: Similar to me: Go to Q2
A: Similar to Wreed58 -> could be that...
a: you're not overlapping your sketchy colours? Not essential, but it will help to draw them all on the same layer try not to isolate them in such a high contrasting way . It makes no difference in how you draw them really, but if they are too far apart then they wont overlap unless you have a large blur value. I like to add some colour variance to make it look more interesting - BTW there's a brush setting for that called colour dynamics. . Also for the green strokes (in my tutorial PDF) I used a sketchy brush and drew them on, but with the circles I switched to the round brush and used spacing and scattering in the brush tools.
With Wreed58's I would whack up that blur radius. BTW in Photoshop (Win) Ctrl+F repeats the last used filter, so you can keep pressing that and watch it blur until it get where you want.
these may help provide clarity - appologies for the typos! DOH!
jezelf_tut_map04_bluring.png
brushtool.png
Q2: Are you working to a specific document size?
A: I think I was working to 72ppi/dpi - if you have a big image for print ( usually 300dpi) then the blur radius could be too small. The blur size is on a pixel radius, so 0.3 may be fine for 72dpi, but for a 300 dpi you may need 30 (I'm guessing - you'll need to try it out ) - but that dpi thing will effect your results.
Q3: Have you tried the Layer properties options?
A: Layer properties. I see in my document I have it set to 'Linear Burn' for the coastline edge, I can't remember if I changed it for the blurred colours but could need setting to 'overlay'. I usually just go down through them and see if any 'pop' into looking cool :-) . I would have mentioned this step if it was important though so don't worry if that's not the solution.
Also, I didn't put specific colour values in the tutorial because it's all just done on the fly and wanted you to have creative freedom etc. but if you want the same colours I picked, then you could simply..
1: open the PDF page step image on your computer ,
2: hit 'print screen' button ( usually at the top right of your keyboard)
3: then in PS, create a new document (File > New> OK the dimensions it provides)
4: Ctrl+V (Paste) your new screen grab into you new file
5: Use your colour picker tool to pick any colours you like and use them in your work.
Hope that helps.
Thanks
Have fun!
Jeremy
Last edited by jezelf; 03-04-2016 at 09:11 PM. Reason: forgot to add something
Just wanted to thank you for updating this post with this more in depth information. As a writer/worldbuilder who is a rookie hobbyist at cartography this really helped a lot and gave a lot of neat tricks. Cheers
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