Semi-Procedural Marshy Coastline

[m_Asher]

I'm a total neophyte when it comes to actual cartography, but I can usually figure out how to do things with math.

I've written this breakdown mostly for my own sake; summarizing things helps me understand them, and I'm in largely unfamiliar territory here. This process produces chromatic artefacts, and I'll probably end up using a different software suite for my procedural noise.

The Basic Layer Setup:

Color Group — Pass Through (100% Opacity)
│
├ Sold Green, Masked — Normal (64% Opacity)
│
├ Sold Green, Masked — Vivid Light (64% Opacity)
│
├ A Reflectivity Map for Smudged Glass, SO'd & SF'd — Soft Light (32% Opacity)
│
├ Solid Blue, Masked

Fine Terrain Group — Pass Through (75% Opacity)
│
├ Low-Opacity Scribbling w/Blurred Layer Mask
│
├ Brightness and Contrast Adjustment Layer
│
├ Cloud → Difference Cloud → Difference Cloud, SO'd & SF'd

Coarse Terrain Group — Darker Color (100% Opacity)
│
├ Greyscale Blurry Heightmap w/Mask — Vivid Light
│
├ Cloud → Difference Cloud, Converted Into a Smart Object and Murdered w/Smart Filters

Geometry Group — Not Visible
│
├ Black and White Outline of Primary Terrain, Processed w/Gaussian Blur & Tuned w/Dodge & Burn — Hard Mix
│
├ Cloud → Difference Cloud

The Smart Filters:

Coarse Terrain Group — Cloud Layer
│
├ Watercolor
│
├ Palette Knife
│
├ Cross Hatch

Fine Terrain Group — Cloud Layer
│
├ Cutout
│
├ Watercolor
│
├ Paint Daubs

Color Group — Smudge Layer
│
├ Cross Hatch
│
├ Watercolor

The Final Tweaks:

Merged Image — Lighten (100% Opacity)
│
├ Effects — Pattern Overlay
│
├ Smart Filters — Poster Edges | Crosshatch | Dark Strokes | Palette Knife

Merged Image — Normal (100% Opacity)
│
├ Effects — Pattern Overlay
│
├ Smart Filters — Poster Edges | Crosshatch | Dark Strokes | Palette Knife

Comments

This is essentially Dumont's coastline tutorial set on repeat, combined with some hacky edge tracing and posterization via Smart Filters, under a few texture overlays for "authenticity." The fake heightmap effect looks like a moon, and it isn't quite controllable enough for my tastes.

I think I can improve the fake heightmap by going one level deeper with my layer groups, but I haven't sussed out the most efficient way to do it. I've been experimenting with a system where I use gradients as elevation brushes, interjecting layers of soft topology between the higher frequency noise, but it isn't as controllable as I want it to be.

[m_Asher]

Turns out I do have a better way to control the topology.

With Apophysis.

Fractal flames aren't the best tools for terrain generation, but they make for decent blending brushes and stamps. In this case, I threw together a few linear transforms in order to create a ridgeline and used it (over a gradient underfill) to shape the details on the right side of the map.

I simplified my ludicrous Smart Filter stacks by duplicating the visible layers beneath the color group and edge-tracing the stack. By adjusting the levels and fiddling with the blending modes, I figured out how to cut out a good 15-20 minutes of work.

I didn't include the final filter group in this render, as I found that it didn't play nice with the more subtle topology.

The next step, I think, is to use a Selection to Path → Path to Shape workflow to create posterized underfills with edge geometry sampled from difference clouds.