My first map, WIP

[DanChops]

And here are the forests. First, the rough sketch:



And the final product:



A few thoughts about the forests: I did a plasma noise render for the noise layer in the Forest TLS rather than a solid noise render. I found that this helped give it a more "foresty" border. I also used the same plasma noise layer as the map for a bump map layer, which I duplicated. Finally, the color variation was achieved through use of a solid noise render overlay layer. I used a "large galaxy" brush with varying degrees of gray directly on the noise layer to make the color variation more to my liking.

All four of the visible forest layers (color, the two bump maps, and the texture overlay) got the forest mask applied. I blurred the mask to help with blending. Then I copied each of the four layers, applied the forest mask, and applied the coast mask to keep the trees out of the water. Then I added the mountain mask and blurred that mask, to help the forests blend in with the mountains better.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the forests as yet, and I'm sure I'll come back and tweak them later on.