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Thread: Nothing but layers quick map...(FTPro/PS)

  1. #1

    Post Nothing but layers quick map...(FTPro/PS)

    Whilst in the midst of working on the different components of my map, I decided to take a break and fiddle. I liked the feel for what cam out of this fiddling, and decided to share what I did.

    Software:

    Fractal Terrains Pro
    Photoshop

    Steps:

    1. Create your map in FTPro.

    2. Export a grayscale (I used 16 levels) image of the land, only, in altitude mode. To do this, I set the water colours to red.

    3. Export a grayscale image of the water, only, in altitude mode. You can adjust the grayscale , of course, to suit. I used near white to near black, though I think it may look better as mid gray to dark gray.

    4. Export an image of the texture only. This is produced by setting all altitude colours to white, and setting the Intensity to, well, whatever you prefer. I used the default in this example.

    5. Export your rivers against, again, a white background.

    6. Load all layers in Photoshop, with the Rivers and Texture on the top. Switching those two around differs in the end result slightly.

    7. Remove the RED backgrounds of the land and water layers. I use the magic wand, set to 0 for tolerance.

    8. Remove the white backgrounds of the river and texture layers.

    9. On the river layer, select all the rivers - either by colour or with the magic wand and "contiguous" unchecked.

    10. Under Select, modify the selection layer to expand it by a few pixels to taste. This will depend on the resolution of your image greatly.

    11. Fill that selection with the river colour of your choice. I hit delete, and then fill it with the painbucket with contiguous unchecked.

    12. Under the Hue/Saturation, choose "colourize" and colourize your water layer to a blue tone you like.

    13. Under the Hue/Saturation, choose "colourize" and colourize your land to a green tone you like.

    14. Set the texture layer to multiply or darken as your prefer.

    That was it for this quick map. Perhaps someone can use the effect somewhere. It's nice and easy to do.

    You may consider putting a climate layer above the land layer and set it to hue/colour and see how that turns out as well.

    Note: This was part of a work in progress, so rivers, etc, don't always work.
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    Last edited by guyanonymous; 04-08-2009 at 10:50 PM.

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Pretty darn nifty...nice job. I might think about not making the river valleys blue and just draw the rivers in by hand but the results, nonetheless, are pretty cool and worthy of experimenting with and learning from.
    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

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Default

    relatively simple and straitforward - cool beans!
    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.



  4. #4

    Post

    I added 4 more layers - each a different climate-map for my planet.

    To each layer I tweaked the layering style (e.g., overlay, colour, saturation, soft light). These are just a few combinations while changing the lower contrast layer setting only. I've now got all these, and more, to combine and manipulate to achieve the toning I want.

    p.s., I realize I'm more excited by this than I should be, but darnit, I'm ok with that.
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  5. #5
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    I am digging the 3 right most maps, with the middle(mid right that is) one being the one I would like to see closer....
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  6. #6

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    I decided to play more with the texture of the planet today. Again, in a non-destructive way. One of the reasons I'm doing things this way is to be able to reproduce the final effects and appearance of future planets I may create - if I like the end result.

    Today I added:

    1. Copy land layer and paste into new file.
    2. Fill transparent areas in black.
    3. Make a pattern of it (if you need to scale, as I did, remember your scaling factor to correct it later)
    4. Apply Bevel and Emboss to each of the climate, river, and texture layers.
    5. Set the pattern used to that you just created. Check for the direction (up/down) and adjust the scaling to compensate for #3 adjustments above.
    6. Adjust the other Bevel/Emboss settings as well, to suit. I used these:

    Bevel: Inner/Smooth/Depth 72%/Up/Size 8px/Soften 9px
    Shading: the bumpy one for closs contour was all I changed from default
    Texture: Depth 1000%

    I'm still playing with different Layer positions, opacities, etc. based on the last post.
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  7. #7

    Post

    I'm creating this with some end treatment similar to this sample (actually top left is one sample, bottom right another).
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    Last edited by guyanonymous; 04-12-2009 at 01:34 PM.

  8. #8
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    I like it, no crits from me, just a compliment.
    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

  9. #9

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    Thanks! I appreciate that.

  10. #10

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    Excellent stuff, oddly enough I'm writing a tut at the moment about non-destructive map making in Photoshop using just layerstyles and masks, but not with FT. We should compare notes when we're done!

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