Thread: Good method of detailing forests.

Originally Posted by offtoruin

Hello everyone, I'm new to this website and new to creating maps honestly. I've been able to effectively make a map in PS5 however, I'm looking for a better way to display tree's/forests on my maps. As of now I've just shaded the world map in a darker green to represent forests. I was wondering if anyone would mind linking a tut for my question if there is one, or giving me a short run down of instructions to accomplish my goal.

I'm not familiar with Photoshop myself, but I expect that the people who are would be a lot more helpful if you were more specific. There are a lot of different ways to represent forest cover on a map. I've used two completely different ones on two of my recent maps, one made use of Inkscape's Spray, Tweak, and Align and Distribute tools and an external Ruby script to produce a symbolic forest of tree icons, the other, also done in Inkscape, used Path Effects to produce a scalloped edge with some faint sketchy emphasis, topped with a light watercolour Filter Effect.

One thing you should be careful about, regardless of software, is adding detail that doesn't mean anything. It can sometimes be hard to tell such aesthetic details from meaningful ones. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to make your map pretty, but you need to be careful about disrupting its ability to convey information to the reader, which is the whole point of a map.

The Tutorials forum has a lot of material, here's a search for "forest" http://www.cartographersguild.com/se...archid=1508168

Hi offtoruin, I guess it all depends on the look and feel of the map. For handdrawn style maps there's dozens of ways, and if that's what you're looking for, I can give some samples of how I do it. For satellite looks there's tutorials like Ascension's and Pasis. And of course there is Ramah's awesome Treething to generate trees... cheers, DJ

Thank both of you for the replies, I really appreciate it. In hindsight I could have used the search function myself but at the time the notion escaped me. The tuts that Djekspek listed will help a great deal, especially treething and I did not know about Inkscape until after reading these replies. I can see myself spending time to learn the program as it might be useful in the long run.

Originally Posted by offtoruin

I did not know about Inkscape until after reading these replies. I can see myself spending time to learn the program as it might be useful in the long run.

Well you might find this tutorial useful then:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...Mapping-Basics

It explains two different ways to do forests in Inkscape.

Thanks for the links, the tutorial made my Pasis looks amazing! I'm about to try it out now.