[Award Winner] How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool

[jfrazierjr]

Note that for the hills, I have very small bits of shadows with lot's of "smudge" so that there are a lot less "lines" of shadow and just slight hints. Also, anywhere that the lines end, either on mountains (note the left and right top mountains where the line just ends), you want to continue pulling down the color with the smudge tool.


One you have all the inner body of the mountains smudged down, switch over to the outline layer and smudge down a bit of the outlines for any lines which are hanging loose. You may want to lower the rate a bit or if using a tablet, lighten up on the pressure. For these lines, don't just pull straight down in the same direction, but begin pulling down in the same direction as the original line and then "curl" the line a bit as the smudging begins to "fade".


After a few more touch-ups, here is the final with all the smudging done


Optionally, if you feel like it, you can select the outline layer and reduce the opacity to make the outlines much fainter. In this case, I went down to around 30% or so:


I hope this helps anyone who would like some nice ISO mountains, but is a bit hesitant to give it a try. Please remember to rate the thread and post any comments, questions, or examples of your work.

[Vandy]

Hi, Mr. Frazier.

I am THOROUGHLY IMPRESSED with this tutorial and eagerly await your continuing it. This is EXACTLY the type of material I've been looking for and it will be of IMMENSE HELP to me as I continue my journey into "Real World Fantasy Map-Making" (my term).

I have a newbie (I assume) question for you. In the context for which you are using it, what does ISO stand for?

Again, Mr. Frazier, thank you for this very informative and very useful tutorial.

Regards,

Gary

[jfrazierjr]

Hi, Mr. Frazier.

I am THOROUGHLY IMPRESSED with this tutorial and eagerly await your continuing it. This is EXACTLY the type of material I've been looking for and it will be of IMMENSE HELP to me as I continue my journey into "Real World Fantasy Map-Making" (my term).

I have a newbie (I assume) question for you. In the context for which you are using it, what does ISO stand for?

Again, Mr. Frazier, thank you for this very informative and very useful tutorial.

Regards,

Gary

Thanks for the great praise! Is there anything specific you would like me to do to continue this tutorial? I know I could probably work a bit more on the shape since the bottom edge is rather artificially "flat" across the horizon, but I had not planned to add more to this unless someone has any specific request (other than what I note here, but that's a whole other topic...)

The general goal of the tutorial was to show GIMP(and PS users since the same tools exist in PS) users how to take two colors (or perhaps more), and using the smudge tool to create interesting (and unique!!!) mountains with a bit of work. Of course... I forgot to mention that this IS WORK.... not something you can sit down and bang out in 5 minutes, however, if you really want "hand drawn" ISO mountains and want them to look individually hand painted, this is the technique to use. I also want to repeat that the colors are not so much as important as using the smudge tool to drag the various colors around to make for interesting looking "ridges" on the mountain slopes.

[Granfalloon]

this IS WORK.... not something you can sit down and bang out in 5 minutes

I dunno man, I admit they ain't perfect, but I was able to whip out a few mountains wicked fast. Of course, a whole mountain chain is gonna take quite a bit longer...

Thanks for the tutorial. I just found this place the other day, and I'm digging it.

[jfrazierjr]

I dunno man, I admit they ain't perfect, but I was able to whip out a few mountains wicked fast. Of course, a whole mountain chain is gonna take quite a bit longer...

Thanks for the tutorial. I just found this place the other day, and I'm digging it.

Thanks! I am glad you like my tutorial as well as the Guild and hope you stick around and participate a long time. Please remember to rate every tutorial thread you use with 1 to 5 stars so a) new people have an idea of what others think about how well written a tutorial is(rating only shows after 5 people have rated it) and b) the author gets recognition if he can get a 5 start rating(of course, please rate the tuts as you see them!)

[Vandy]

Hello, All.

For anyone who is interested, here is Mr. Frazier's excellent ISO Mountain tutorial as a PDF document.

Regards,

Gary

[jfrazierjr]

Thanks Gary! I had meant to get around to this.. but sadly, time is sparse right now..