[Award Winner] Rising up the mountains in Photoshop

[Octavian]

Here is the texture I had used for the forest. You can scale it down if the treesize is too big for your map.

Thanks.
There's something I don't understand about the mountains. Maybe the tutorial is missing something or maybe my brain is missing something, I'm not sure which. Maybe both.
The thing is the mountains are done in 3 layers, yes? But the layers do not connect, right? When I did the moutnains in the Saderan tutorial, they connected, meaning what you did on one layer would bind and seep into the other layers below it. Though your mountains look good, but the layers do not connect? Right? It might just be my lack of artistic talent, but when I do it it looks like I'm just slapping layer on layer and they don't look very good, don't look like a single mountain. So do you connect the layers and if so how, or do you just try and draw it better so they look as one?

[Octavian]

Do you have the mountain texture too? I tried making my own texture, but it turns out you need software I don't have for it to be seamless. Besides, I don't have a helicopter.

[Octavian]

Something happened to my other post I made... cannot be bothered to write it again.
It's about the mountains, are the layers connected? The PDF does not say to. When I draw them, they don't look like a single mountain, but a bunch of layers on top one another. In the Saderan tutorial I did, the layers would morph into each other. Am I doing something wrong or just lacking in talent?

[Octavian]

Well, does anyone at least have some suggestions on how to make or obtain decent ground and mountain and water textures for this style of map?

I tried taking some photos the same size as the map to use as textures. It was a good idea, but mostly the grains of dirt and so on are too big. If I tile them, they won't be seemless. There are complex ways around it. But a push in the right direction might help a bit better.

[pasis]

@Octavian: Look for ready to use textures from Spiral Graphics and from CG textures.

[Veldehar]

Holy higgly piggly I love this tutorial! Just goofing around with PS trial for a few minutes and was floored by the effectiveness of these techniques. And that with textures I just plopped together.

[Mixail]

nice mountains

[aeronox]

If your mountain layers are appearing too distinct, make sure you're using a blurry brush and maybe tweak the layer opacity.

This is very similar to the tools I shared in 2007: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...hotoshop-tools

As far as I know, only 1 mapmaker has used it: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...orld-of-Charun

Combining the technique with a slightly random brush gives it a more natural look. I encourage people looking for quick, easy and reusable mountain tools to give it a try.

[Paramenides]

This is an excellent tutorial. I've been following along with this tutorial as well as Tears tutorial mostly because I like how much more defined the mountains are with this one. Not quite sure how I feel about the shapes of my mountains so I'll put up my furthest progress on this map so far. I do like it a lot though. Gave you rep for this tut. Again, thank you very much for making this tutorial.

[Veldehar]

Having seen Pasis' latest WIP, I had to track this down and bump it for an easier find, LOL. Still one of my favorites for this style of map.