If you have your shading on a separate layer then duplicate it and maybe that will help. Personally, I think it looks fine...just like a topo map should.
Ok Here is an island just off the coast. I'm still not sure of the shading. One of the problems, in my eyes, is that the mountains look fuzzy and not well defined. Next up will be rivers . As the island is not that big and lots of rough areas I'm thinking of short to the coast rivers with a few interior rivers and lakes. At this scale I'm only going to show main rivers.
If you have your shading on a separate layer then duplicate it and maybe that will help. Personally, I think it looks fine...just like a topo map should.
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
For my maps I'm using a mix of HansonRob's and Creating Mountains and other terrains in Photoshop by Pasi. Using my own settings to create the mountains at this scale. The one thing I have had problems with is getting the map to show proper erosion. So I experimented and came up with an alteration to Pasi's idea. I make a new layer to go above all the mountain layers then go to Bevel and Emboss and alter the gloss contour. I go into the contour and just reverse the settings (see pic #1). Then change the direction setting from up to down. Then go into the contour sub-setting and do the same (see pic #2).
I then did a test on my map. Here it is for your consideration. I need to experiment a bit on my technique and look at a few more real world topo maps to get it just right.
Last edited by Nexis; 10-13-2009 at 11:57 PM.
Thatsh pretty attractive ak-shly.
Astrographer - My blog.
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-How to Fit a Map to a Globe
-Regina, Jewel of the Spinward Main(uvmapping to apply icosahedral projection worldmaps to 3d globes)
-Building a Ridge Heightmap in PS
-Faking Morphological Dilate and Contract with PS
-Editing Noise Into Terrain the Burpwallow Way
-Wilbur is Waldronate's. I'm just a fan.
Yup, yup, yup...you're definitely on to something there.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
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Wow, that is some of the best mountains that I have seen done with PS!
Alright lets try it this way. I went for a more subtle approach. A much lighter hand on the erosion.
Hmm, I think I liked the first version better. The erosion level on this one's good, but they seem to have lost their edge a bit.