Thread: Fumbling through the non-destructive mapmaking tutorial

I filled the Sea 2 layer with white. For layer styles, I went to Color Overlay, left blend mode set to Overlay, and selected the same neutral gray [128,128,128] color. I left the opacity at 100%.
(Color Overlay dialog)
Then I went to Pattern Overlay, left the blend mode at Normal, left opacity set to 100% and reduced the scale to 35%. I selected a lighter stock texture that Photoshop came with.
(Pattern Overlay dialog)
(resulting image)

OK, first mistake. I forgot to render the clouds on Sea 2.

However, the result from the layer styles is the same as in the resulting image to date.

Changing the blend mode on the Sea 2 pattern overlay to Multiply:


now produces this:

Changing the general Blending Options on Sea 2 to Multiply:


Produces the following image:


Changing the general Blending Options on Sea 1 to Multiply:


Gives us this image:


So I think I've finally gotten it...?

So these are the steps I have for page 3:

First, page 3 of the tutorial. For the sea, I created three layers: Sea 2, Sea 1 and Sea base.

For the sea base, I selected a bluish color, filled the image, and added some noise: I set the amount to 12% just to give it a round number.
I filled the Sea 1 layer with white. For layer styles, I went to Color Overlay, left blend mode set to Normal, and selected a neutral gray [128,128,128] color. I set the opacity to 30%.
I went to Pattern Overlay, set the blend mode to Multiply, left opacity set to 100% and increased the scale to 350%. I selected a stock texture that Photoshop came with.
I went to Blending Options and set the blend mode to Multiply.
I filled the Sea 2 layer with white. For layer styles, I went to Color Overlay, left blend mode set to Overlay, and selected the same neutral gray [128,128,128] color. I left the opacity at 100%.
I went to Pattern Overlay, set the blend mode to Multiply, left opacity set to 100% and reduced the scale to 35%. I selected a lighter stock texture that Photoshop came with.
I went to Blending Options and set the blend mode to Multiply.

Created a new layer, "Land mass". Turned on the layer mask and drew my basic shape:


I do not have access to the wonderful Jiggle filter from Alien Skin, and I want to see how much I can do using stock Photoshop filters.

I went to the Ripple filter and set the ripples to Large, and the amount to 475%:


Which produced this:


Then I went to the Ocean Ripple filter. Set the Ripple size to 13 and the Ripple Magnitude to 10:


Which produced this:

Now, since the red area indicates the area that is masked out, Image > Adjustements > Invert (ctrl-I or Cmd-I) will make this a proper selection:


Exiting the layer mask and filling the selection with white produces:

I selected the Layer Style and went to Outer Glow. Set Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 30%, Technique to Precise, Spread to 0% and Size to 24 pixels. Rather than hand-draw the contour from the tutorial, I selected a similar contour, set the Range to 50% and the Jitter to 2:


I went to Pattern Overlay and selected a simple green pattern I threw together for this exercise. I set the scale to 450%:


I went to Stroke and selected a 1-pixel stroke:


This image to date:

This frustrating...I was trying to find the original PS file for the tutorial, but all I can find are the screenshots. Never mind, perhaps if I explain the underlying idea behind the sea textures it will be become clearer. The idea is very simply that you want to have two or three textures which are broken up and which seague into each other so that any repeats are hidden and you end up with a more interesting overall texture. This technique is a very common one and easily achieved in a number of ways. The easiest way to get this form of blending is by using a layer mask with clouds. I've attached a zip of a PS file. Note the use of layerstyles in the top layer with a tiling pattern on it (I hope the tiling pattern exports with the PS file if not just use your own pattern fill in the layerstyles). You'll see that in the tutorial I've used the same method of blending for the land layers too.

With the coastlines - forget the jiggle filter and the ocean ripple filter (which is a poor substitute - and the jiggle filter was never brilliant anyway) - use instead Old Guy's tutorial on making crinkly coastlines - it gives you so much more control and a much more 'natural' look and it's fast.