Better Rivers?

[RonnyRulz]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I grateful appreciate the constructive criticism and honesty! I am glad to know I am not the only one who think my rivers suck, lol.

Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about.

Wow, your much darker river looks infinitely better and more cohesive for my map!

How did you achieve this? What drawing tool did you use, if you used an art program?

I might just try and create my own rivers and ignore the CC3 rivers.

Seeing this, I am going to first try to switch over to the darker water texture for my rivers. Reserve the brighter area for the ocean, possibly. Then replace the white border with a black one.
I will see if that looks any better.

I don't have a problem redrawing them to look more realistic and less uniform. I am thrilled that you all have helped me so much. And thank you so so so much Neyjour, for the example. Seeing that, makes me understand how well you know what you're talking about, and how advanced you on on the matter.

[Neyjour]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I grateful appreciate the constructive criticism and honesty! I am glad to know I am not the only one who think my rivers suck, lol.



Wow, your much darker river looks infinitely better and more cohesive for my map!

How did you achieve this? What drawing tool did you use, if you used an art program?

I might just try and create my own rivers and ignore the CC3 rivers.

Seeing this, I am going to first try to switch over to the darker water texture for my rivers. Reserve the brighter area for the ocean, possibly. Then replace the white border with a black one.
I will see if that looks any better.

I don't have a problem redrawing them to look more realistic and less uniform. I am thrilled that you all have helped me so much. And thank you so so so much Neyjour, for the example. Seeing that, makes me understand how well you know what you're talking about, and how advanced you on on the matter.

You're welcome! I'm glad you found that helpful.

In Paint Shop Pro 8 I used the Freehand Selection tool to draw the shape of the river. I then modified the selection with an Inside Feather of 2, and then deleted it. Then I duplicated the layer and applied a small black drop shadow (Opacity 100 / Blur 4.00) to the one underneath. The water texture went on a separate layer underneath both of those, and I just did some quick adjustments with Colorize and Curves to get the colour/darkness that I wanted.

Your latest version is looking tons better!

[RonnyRulz]

You're welcome! I'm glad you found that helpful.

In Paint Shop Pro 8 I used the Freehand Selection tool to draw the shape of the river. I then modified the selection with an Inside Feather of 2, and then deleted it. Then I duplicated the layer and applied a small black drop shadow (Opacity 100 / Blur 4.00) to the one underneath. The water texture went on a separate layer underneath both of those, and I just did some quick adjustments with Colorize and Curves to get the colour/darkness that I wanted.

Your latest version is looking tons better!

Awesome

I'll leave it alone then, at least for now. Spent all day yesterday on it, lol.
I'll resubmit the new rivers over at my WIP thread.

[RonnyRulz]

And here is my attempt at following all of the advice in the thread, from the color and effects, to the drawing of the rivers being more natural.

Tell me if it still needs to be improved significantly.