OldGuy's Tutorial on Creating Realistic Coastlines

[RobA]

You can view the page at http://www.cartographersguild.com/co...tic-coastlines

[OldGuy]

WooHoo!

Thank you everyone that voted for me.

[Diamond]

That's a handy tut.

[kael.stormseeker]

OldGuy, this is Terrific!
Great effects, simple, easy and Fun!!!!

Pretty handy!

[peanut]

Thank you for the help. What version of Photoshop do you use also what type of tablet interface do use?

[JHazen]

Because I havent posted this before. Excellent tutorial

[Antonymph]

Good tutorial!

[mssandhu]

As you know, this tutorial has been nicely adapted for GIMP. See:- GIMP Method
RobA (at Cartographer’s Guild) converted this process to work with the GIMP, and I repeat the steps, as well as giving an additional step that some may find useful. RobA's steps are as follows:

•Filter | Noise | HSV Noise (Boldness 1, Hue 0, Sat 0, Value 255).
•Edit | Fade (Darken Only)
•Filter | Blur |Gaussian Blur (2 or adjust to taste). *(1 will create very fine distressing and the larger the blur, the larger the effect)
•Colors | Threshold (adjust to taste). *(I found 160 is a good start, up to 185 for a glacier coastline)
•Fuzzy Select Tool (Threshold 0), click in black surrounding area.
•Ctrl-I to invert the selection
•Fill with White.

MY MODIFICATION (in GIMP 2.:- In the last step, before filling in with white, I did SELECT > DISTORT so as to distress the shoreline even further.

[AtlasNerd]

This really helped me fix my shorelines. Thanks for the tip.

[Runninghead]

Used it, played with it, it's awesome.
It also plays very nicely with masking techniques that partially protect any designed areas you're precious about, allowing you to preserve less roughened bits here and there. Thanks OG!