Relief maps on already drawn map?

[Stalker]

So I have a black and white map of my world and wanted to make a relief map.

The problem I'm running into is that all the tutorials I'm finding rely on generating clouds, using that to make your landmass and then going from there for a realistic relief. This is of course impossible, since I already have my map drawn out.

Does anyone have any advice on making a nice relief map without creating the terrain with clouds?

Using GIMP btw, tho I do have Photoshop installed. And Wilbur (no clue how to use that one).

[Sam101]

If you could paste a picture of what you have, then maybe I could help. In general, draw a heightmap for your map in grayscale, then in a new layer fill with 50% gray, (HEX #808080), then bump map the gray layer to the heightmap, and finally, place the new bump mapped gray layer over the map in 'soft light' mode. I mean, that's a guess because I don't know what kind of map you are talking about.

[waldronate]

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=29412 provides a number of examples of going from a basic black and white layout to mountains and such. Depending on what you have, the CSU Johnsondale one may be of the most interest.

The general idea of using clouds is to create a set of masks (black and white images) that show where your major features are (one for coastlines, one for mountains, maybe one for midlands), blur those masks, and then modulate (multiply) the cloud image by the blurred mask to get an image that has noise just where your features are. Then add those mountains back onto the basic terrain.

[Redrobes]

Yeah I did this too:

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=33666

See #5.

[johnvanvliet]

i posted this a bit back
https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=36499

can you post a image of this map you made ?

[Stalker]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the variety of responses. I'll start going over the provided links in a bit.

https://i.imgur.com/HckIh4D.png

Is my map right now. My normal pipeline is drawing a rough shape, refining it to this, then tracing over it for my borders and going off of that. So generating clouds isn't really something I can do to start out, which hamstrings me for a lot of guides.

[johnvanvliet]

for that image the distance and noise parts of the synthetic heightmap post

but you DO need to figure out where you want rivers and mountain ranges

or
use parts of the image as a mask in wilbur

noise and distance transform
then erode in wilbur

[Stalker]

for that image the distance and noise parts of the synthetic heightmap post

but you DO need to figure out where you want rivers and mountain ranges

or
use parts of the image as a mask in wilbur

noise and distance transform
then erode in wilbur

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but your tutorial I find a little difficult to get through, maybe from the lack of step by step pictures, is there any alternative one? It might not help that I've never used G'MIC extensively at all.

And thank you for the examples on my own map!

[Sam101]

Actually that's a pretty nice tutorial, but here are some pics how I would do it.

I rescaled your map much smaller just for speed to make it easier to do a quick test. Also, I inverted the colors so that what looks like land (to me) is white and water is black.

First I would make a black background, and on your map I would cut all the black pixels out so just white it left on the top layer:
L3.jpg
Then lock the alpha channel of the top layer with the white pixels.

Then I fill the white areas with a very dark color to serve as the base. It may be hard to see, but it is in there:
L4.jpg

Then duplicate that layer and run a noise filter on it. I think I used plasma or turbulence from Gmic, but I think lots of noise filters would work. I put this layer in 'Screen' mode and reduce the opacity to around 5-10%
L5.jpg

[Sam101]

Then I duplicate the noise layer and run a white to black Shaped (angular) gradient. This layer is also in 'screen' mode and has an opacity of 5-10%. I may be hard to see the gradient, but it is in there:
L6.jpg
And that's it! I save it and load it into Wilbur. Then I run an erosion->precipitation based filter on it at least twice, and then I run an erosion->incise flow filter. I don't remember the settings, but you can test what settings you like best. This is what it looks like in Wilbur:
L7.jpg
And then I export it as a black and white heightmap texture.
L8.jpg