Playing with mountains

[Karro]

Okay, so I'm playing a little with mountains, trying to find the right method. Like Joe before me, I'll offer a few pics and see what people's thoughts are.

mountains new test4.jpg

The traditional version of RobA's overland map tutorial.

mountains new test1.jpg

RobA's mountain tutorial.

mountains new test2.jpg

One way of combining the two

mountains new test3-hue.jpg

And another...

[Karro]

And three more way of combining.

mountains new test3-lighten.jpg

mountains new test3-overlay.jpg

mountains new test3-value.jpg

[Sigurd]

They all look interesting, but none of the new methods break up the mountain ridges. Since the ridges are so isolated they look unique or unnatural. They'd make great mountains for something like the boarders of Mordor where some sort of magic threw them up They look like some sort of Ginormous Chinese character you could see from space.

What happens if you impose one image on the other after a rotation or flip? Something to spread out the ridges and make it seem more like an irregular mound.


Sigurd

[RobA]

OK-

Here is something I am working on.... The steps are all the same. The only difference is the start point. And this required NO "artistic ability" or hand painting/touch-up. There are still a few artifacts I am trying to figure out how to eliminate...

mtntest.png

-Rob A>

[dhalsimrocks]

OK-

Here is something I am working on.... The steps are all the same. The only difference is the start point. And this required NO "artistic ability" or hand painting/touch-up. There are still a few artifacts I am trying to figure out how to eliminate...

mtntest.png

-Rob A>

I'm liking that. Man, it's really inspiring to see how you guys work to develop these techniques.

[jfrazierjr]

OK-

Here is something I am working on.... The steps are all the same. The only difference is the start point. And this required NO "artistic ability" or hand painting/touch-up. There are still a few artifacts I am trying to figure out how to eliminate...

mtntest.png

-Rob A>

hmm.. how about this. Note that I did this in about 8 minutes after seeing Rob's results. Also, I did NOT spend a lot of time blending everything in as I should if I was doing a full on map for presentation.

Joe

[Karro]

They all look interesting, but none of the new methods break up the mountain ridges. Since the ridges are so isolated they look unique or unnatural. They'd make great mountains for something like the boarders of Mordor where some sort of magic threw them up They look like some sort of Ginormous Chinese character you could see from space.

What happens if you impose one image on the other after a rotation or flip? Something to spread out the ridges and make it seem more like an irregular mound.


Sigurd

Hmm. I'll have to keep working, it seems. I don't perfectly like any of the results, as yet. I guess it will just take more fiddling to find something that still looks good!

OK-

Here is something I am working on.... The steps are all the same. The only difference is the start point. And this required NO "artistic ability" or hand painting/touch-up. There are still a few artifacts I am trying to figure out how to eliminate...

mtntest.png

-Rob A>

Beautiful, naturally! You have real talent!

hmm.. how about this. Note that I did this in about 8 minutes after seeing Rob's results. Also, I did NOT spend a lot of time blending everything in as I should if I was doing a full on map for presentation.

Joe

I'm still not quite sure how you do those long snaking range ridgelines. They do bear somewhat of a resemblance to what they actually look like from sat-photos (although I also think sat photos of mountains look peculiar, but you capture that in a good way!)

[jfrazierjr]

I'm still not quite sure how you do those long snaking range ridgelines. They do bear somewhat of a resemblance to what they actually look like from sat-photos (although I also think sat photos of mountains look peculiar, but you capture that in a good way!)

Hmm.. well, in this case, I just used the same technique you used based on RobA's tutorial. I am currently working on another variation of the samething, but in this one, I just(going off of memory):

1. create a transparent layer
2. filled a random selection with a 50% gray
3. using a med brush set to high jitter, draw some white very squiggly lines (these are going to be the valleys in the picture)
4. Noise around 20-30px
5. Blur perhaps 10-20 px. You want to maintain a small bit of the pixelation but not too much.
6. new transparent layer
7. using the same technique you used draw your mountains on the new layer in the mostly empty areas between the blurred white/gray lines of the layer below.
8. use the smudge tool to clean up some of the hard lines on the edges of your mountains will help it blend in below.
9. merge down and bump map the whole thing.

I am also working a lot with the smudge/airbrush tool to try to get some vertical ridgelines, clefts, etc. while maintaining the "point" of most of the ridges. In a few places, I intentionally smudge the white of the ridge line to make not all of the mountain tops pointy.

Joe

[jfrazierjr]

hmm.. how about this. Note that I did this in about 8 minutes after seeing Rob's results. Also, I did NOT spend a lot of time blending everything in as I should if I was doing a full on map for presentation.

Joe

Ok, here is an example with a slightly different technique and a bit more blending along with some terrain. Not a full map, but close enough to get an idea of how the mountains might look.

Joe

[RobA]

That definitely looks like satellite mountains to me!

-Rob A>