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Thread: Less pixellated coastlines?

  1. #1
    Guild Novice Facebook Connected
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    Question Less pixellated coastlines?

    Hi guys! I've been lurking for quite a long time while I make a map for my headworld. I'm trying to figure out how to get less pixelated coastlines since I used the cloudfilter/threshold layer to generate my landmasses, but now my coastlines are pretty jagged and weird looking when you look at it in full res. Which kind of goes against how I wanted it to look in the first place. Basically, I'm looking to see if I can fix them without needing to pen in the coasts myself. If not, then I guess that's okay, probably would go better with the style that I'm working with anyway.

    Here's my map so you can look at it.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	regional2-2.png 
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    Thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Use a "magic wand" tool to select the coast line. Expand the selection 1 pixel, expand it using feather by about 3 more pixels and then use a heavy blur like gaussian 2 or 3 or so. Worked pretty good for me on a test swatch of your map.

  3. #3
    Guild Grand Master Azélor's Avatar
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    What software are you using ? If your coasts are on a separate layer you could apply some blur effect and lower the opacity.

    Great map by the way !

  4. #4
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    Awesome! That helped a bunch! Thanks guys. c: And I'm using photoshop. I guess I should have mentioned that huh.

  5. #5
    Administrator waldronate's Avatar
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    THe artwork is very nice. Your rivers are running backwards from gravity-based expectations though (water starts as small streams and flows downhill, gathering together in rivers before getting to the oceans).

  6. #6
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    Thank you! Darn, didn't think about that. Thanks though, I'll definitely fix it. Now I need to figure out how to not get nit-picky with projections.

  7. #7

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    You can also do the initial coastline map in a higher resolution than the final desired one and then downsize the image when you're done the coasts, leading to a smooth appearance, although this does make adjusting the coast later a bit tricky.

  8. #8
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    Also, using a thinner stroke for coastlines would help in lessening the pixellated appearance.

  9. #9
    Guild Member WillyWombat's Avatar
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    I wonder if you might get a prettier result if you dropped the stroke and replaced it with an inner glow edge instead. Make it a really thin dark colored multiply that fades off as it gets more inland. It might match your coloring a bit better.

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