Westcrown - After-the-Fact WIP

[Ashenvale]

I next played with the water. I copied the existing water level into a new file, expanded the new file's height and width with Image/Canvas Size to be about 25% taller and wider, and painted in more water to fill the new, empty ocean space. I filled the empty area where the land would be with my palest blue, so the whole picture plane was filled with color.

I duplicated the layer. I then broadened the contrast with Image/Adjust/Brightness-Contrast. I then applied a filter using Filter/Distort/Ocean Ripple. I usually reserve the Ocean Ripple filter for larger scale maps like flooded buildings or dock wharves, but thought I'd see how it looked at the regional level. I found the result too dramatic, but copied it over and dropped it under the land layer in the original map file. The result is the first image below (06).

I next clicked in the opacity box of the Layers Palette of my new, overly dramatic water layer and reduced the dramatic layer's opacity to 40%. This allows the unfiltered water layer below it to show through, reducing the visual effect of the Ocean Ripple swirls and the high contrast. I merged the two layers and blurred its sharpness down with Filter/Blur/Gausian Blur. This created the second image below (07).

One could certainly argue that this result would feel more appropriate in a larger scale, more close-up map. But I liked it.