Oasis WIP

[Ascension]

This is in PS: I copied the original clouds layer then moved it up above the pond. Then I did a sketch/bas-relief filter (gives me a stone-like texture with ridges). Selected the whites and deleted the grays and blacks. Color overlay layer style of white with a mode of dissolve at 10% (this gives me lil white dots where the remaining white base color is). Set the fill on the layer to zero so that only the white dots remain and the white bas-reliefed clouds are invisible. Merged the layer to a blank layer to flatten out the layer style. Copied this layer and set the opacity to 10% (so the white wasn't so harsh). On the original layer I ran a 10 pixel motion blur filter which lengthened the white dot out into a semi-transparent slash. Set the mode to color dodge at 25% (this turns the semi-white slash into an aqua-colored slash) then put a small low opacity outer bevel on it and viola. It sounds complicated but it isn't. I did the same thing for my Farpoint map in about 45 seconds. This method is probably way over-complicated but it was my first attempt so future methods might be simpler.

Doing this in GIMP would just be to render up some clouds, select only the white then run some noise, and blur...don't know if GIMP has a motion blur but in PS you can adjust the angle of it 360 degrees, which is nice for doing different parts of a coast.

I wrote a tutorial while doing the oasis (I always write one so that I can always look back at how I did something in case I forget) so I could put that up if ya want...although I just put that part all right here

I might also try something similar to add vegetation to my fields.