My first map, WIP

[DanChops]

Here's the results of my efforts masking away the forest edges. I think it went well...I like the way it looks now better than before, but I'm not 100% happy with how the rivers look. Maybe I ought to try to bevel the rivers a bit anyway, just to give them definition?

Anyway, the way I ended up getting this to work for me was by selecting the alpha in the river layer, inverting the selection, growing the selection by about 5 pixels, and then feathering by about 15 pixels. I found that the resulting path meandered a bit around the rivers.

I think I'll tackle making the upper-rightmost mountain next. I plan to add a layer mask for just that mountain and duplicated the bump map. Hopefully, that'll give the effect I'm looking for without affecting the rest of the mountains.

By the way, a few questions about the map generally. What do you all think of the color scheme? Two of my goals were to have large swaths of clearly differentiated grass and desert, and to have distinct looking sandstone and granite mountains. What do you think? Also, any thoughts on the forests? I spent a fair bit of time trying to get them to look "foresty", and am interested in your thoughts.

[elemental_elf]

I like the map, it looks very neat and clean

[jfrazierjr]

Here's the results of my efforts masking away the forest edges. I think it went well...I like the way it looks now better than before, but I'm not 100% happy with how the rivers look. Maybe I ought to try to bevel the rivers a bit anyway, just to give them definition?

Agreed, much nicer. The bevel makes not on the rivers look nice, but I thing it tends to make the river end where it empties into sea/lake look a bit better also. If you can get access to a tablet, from what I have seen from others, the rivers will look so much better as the pressure sensitivity will allow them to start as a small line and get bigger as they go down stream instead of staying a constant width. I hope to get my tablet in the next few weeks. Another possible thing that I have been playing with a bit, though not sure how good it looks yet is to add a fade out to the brush and start the river away from the mountains and draw to the mountains as the brush fades. Not perfect, but it is a cheap way to get somewhat of a fad as you enter the mountains.

By the way, a few questions about the map generally.

Still need work blending the hard line of the mountains.

Two of my goals were to have large swaths of clearly differentiated grass and desert, and to have distinct looking sandstone and granite mountains. What do you think?

The blending between grass and desert is superb!

Also, any thoughts on the forests? I spent a fair bit of time trying to get them to look "foresty", and am interested in your thoughts.

You nailed it. Great look

[DanChops]

Agreed, much nicer. The bevel makes not on the rivers look nice, but I thing it tends to make the river end where it empties into sea/lake look a bit better also. If you can get access to a tablet, from what I have seen from others, the rivers will look so much better as the pressure sensitivity will allow them to start as a small line and get bigger as they go down stream instead of staying a constant width. I hope to get my tablet in the next few weeks. Another possible thing that I have been playing with a bit, though not sure how good it looks yet is to add a fade out to the brush and start the river away from the mountains and draw to the mountains as the brush fades. Not perfect, but it is a cheap way to get somewhat of a fad as you enter the mountains.

Yeah, I would love a tablet. Unfortunately, one's not really in the picture at the moment, so I'm going to have to make do with what I've got. And drool over maps people draw with tablets of course.

Still need work blending the hard line of the mountains.

Yeah, you're right. I have a few ideas on how to address this.

The blending between grass and desert is superb!

You nailed it. Great look

Thanks!

[DanChops]

Okay, new problem. My .xcf file got big. I mean really big. As in 1.5 GB big. Unfortunately, my antiquated PC just couldn't quite handle it very well - it was taking upwards of 5 minutes to simply show a layer. So, I've decided to chalk that map up as an educational experience and start afresh. This time, I'm going to try to post the steps I take along the way here, in the theory that by explaining what I'm doing, I'll learn it better.

So, here's the basic coast outline of the new map. I decided to make it about 1/4 the size of the first map (5.5"x4" instead of approx 11.5"x8.5") in order to keep the size from getting out of hand.

One of the problems I noticed toward the end of the earlier map was that in areas my coast was too right-angle-y (if that's even a word). I think the problem may have been that my initial coast outline was too detailed, preventing RobA's TLS from producing maximum effect. So, this time, I've made the coastlines quite a bit less detailed.

[DanChops]

And here is the coastline after applying RobA's TLS. I'm already liking the coastlines much better this time around. Not sure how that island got into the lake in the middle, but I think it has potential, so I'm going to keep it.

[GM's Apprentice]

Thanks for posting this, and for the series of in-progress images. I'll take a good look through this thread tonight.

[DanChops]

Thanks for posting this, and for the series of in-progress images. I'll take a good look through this thread tonight.

Not a problem. I hope you get some use out of the thread, although I suspect that it will be more helpful to me than to anyone else.