Lines Off set - Parallel in Photoshop

[artearth]

A technique for parallel lines that I've been playing with involves using Illustrator, and works really well if you want to put in the time. This is a quick version, I can do a longer one with images if folks think it would be useful.

1) cmd-click the layer with your land masses, bringing up a selection. Create a new layer and fill the selection with black. You should now have a silhouette of your land. Fill the remainder with white, then select all and copy.
2) paste into Illustrator and trace image. Your aim is to get as accurate a reproduction as possible. Expand and delete the white bits so you have just the black left. Select all and mark the fill and stroke to none. If you have multiple land masses, you need to create a compound path: while everything is selected, click through to Object/Compound Path/Make (or Cmd+. (which for some reason keeps showing up as the "cool" emoticon. ???)
3) while still selected, open the appearance panel and click "add new stroke." I made a 1pt in dark blue, which just outlines the edge of the land.
4) keep going: select "add new stroke" and this time make it white, which will give you the space between strokes to create the effect. In this case I made it 2 strokes. This layer should go UNDER the previous layer or else it will cover it.
5) black stroke, 2.5 pt; white, 3.5 pt; black, 4 pt; white; 5 pt. and on and on until you give up or are happy. When you're done and you love it, open the "Graphic Styles" window and create new graphic style. This will keep it forever so you don't have to rebuild it all the time.
6) keep the land mass as no fill. Select all and copy. Paste into PS as pixels, make sure it's aligned with your original land mass, and then you can control the opacity and blending options to make it awesome. Multiply will work well. (There are likely other good ways to transfer the image, this may not be the best. I'd like to hear other ideas).

Here is an image of a huge coastline effect and the stroke values that made it. I'd be happy to post the graphic style so others can use it, but I don't know how to attach non-image files.

This is probably confusing. It's late and I'm done for the day. I'll check back and if y'all want more on this tutorial I'll spend some time on it.

[ravells]

The 'create layers' command looks really cool, but it's a CS5 and above only. I've got CS4 and it's not there (boo hoo). I did find the 'scale effects' command though, which. I never knew existed. I don't use illustrator (although I might get it as the later versions of Drawplus are getting quite buggy) but the method I use in Drawplus to get multiple outlines is to make a black landmass, use the stroke command to make it bigger by say, 1 point, convert it into a raster and trace it, give the new shape a transparent fill and a thin stroke 0.5 point away from the landmass. (More complicated to explain then to do!)

[vorropohaiah]

an action for this would be nice... i'll try experiment with it later on, looks interesting

[aquarits]

it is nice, but guess cant edit the style of the line, right?

[Chashio]

an action for this would be nice... i'll try experiment with it later on, looks interesting

I'll upload a bunch of photoshop actions for this later tonight.
No offense to your great tutorial, artearth, I just don't use Illustrator.

[aquarits]

Yeah artearth, i am just checking you tuto in Ilustrator ( thing that i got right now ) i see a lots of sources to do it in Ilustrator, but the question was specific to Photoshop.

[Chashio]

Here you go: Photoshop Actions: Fading parallel Coastal Lines for Oceans and Lakes

[Chashio]

it is nice, but guess cant edit the style of the line, right?

You can always use a grungy brush on a layer mask to scuff the lines up. Use an adjustment layer to change the hue and whatnot. The smudge tool is pretty nifty for a wreaking-havoc-on-ink look, with the proper settings. You could try one of the distort filters to make the lines less even, if they're not floating on a transparent layer. But, no, layer strokes are rather stubborn in and of themselves.

[lostatsea]

Here is a technique using layers styles in Photoshop. It has the advantage of being reusable by saving the style and can be tweaked on the fly. It is however limited to a max of 5 rings. It is usable by any of the cs versions. If anyone is interested I'll post the process ! It is easy but not as flexible as some techniques !

[Chashio]

Here is a technique using layers styles in Photoshop. ... If anyone is interested I'll post the process !

I'm interested.