WIP- Vhode Icelands

[jfrazierjr]

Well heres What I've done so far, I attempted to do the smudging thing on the mountains, It looks alright but it still didn't give it much definition.

This is where using a Bump map with the layer itself comes into play. The smudges get turned into "wrinkles" which simulates various rocky outcrops on a mountain. Also, using the dodge/burn (or even just a pencil with opposite colors) and then using the smudge tool to soften these hard lines and then using the bump map really makes for a nice effect once you get the settings dialed in correctly(which can take a while I will admit).

I realized something that would bring it out more is to smudge the mask of the hill/shorter mountain layer that I added around the mountains, and that turned out really well. I also adjusted the colors of the mountains to be more realistic.

I LOVE the mountains now for the most part. The blending with the terrain is great! They really seem to fade into the underlying snow ground cover. The only thing you might have to worry about is "white flare" where your white is so smooth that no underlying texture can be seen. This is especially the case on the south east side of the Frozen Crater bowl and a few other places. This is where a tiny bit of manual "painting" with a darker color in random directions and smudging can give you some texture definition back to the area without making it look to fake.


Joe