[Award Winner] Saderan – a tutorial

[ariellajem]

I can't recall ever posting on the forum, just lurking mostly. I am, however, starting a novel next month and wanted to do a little world building so here I am. This tutorial was incredibly helpful and I thought I would share my WIP that resulted from messing around using this tutorial as a basic guide. Thanks so much for helping out storytellers who need something more visually stimulating than bad pencil sketches.

[Viator]

Great tutorial
It really helped me out, and I got a nice, good looking result at the end.

[Tear]

Thanks to all who replied in this thread.
I'm not a regular these days, but I appreciate all of your comments nonetheless.

[arsheesh]

Good to see you again Tear, you are definitely missed.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Alex]

I hope I am allowed to post in this thread.

I just wanted to say that the tutorial is easy to follow and absolutely lovely. I rarely ever touch my Photoshop so its just a giant mess of commands to me, but the tutorial led me to each step easily (with the exception of the locating for the first time of course xD), so that's really great for the novices of PS. I'm gonna head off and try at the tutorial now

Thank you for sharing with us! Also, your map is absolutely gorgeous!

[ScotlandTom]

This tutorial is simply incredible. I think my only critique would be that it suggests an initial canvas size of 1000x1000 pixels and then it suggests that you halve the size later on. 500x500 pixels is almost completely useless as far as printing is concerned, especially if you want a final product that will print at a good poster size.

That said, I would like to reiterate how completely and utterly fantastic this tutorial is. It is easy to follow and understand and for anyone familiar with Photoshop it's also incredibly easy to tweak to one's own liking. I love the style of map this tutorial provides and plan on making more maps using what I've learned here in the future.

[Tadiera]

So I hope I'm not posting somewhere people... er, aren't anymore.

I should have read the thread before I started.
With the Group / Clipping Mask deal, I just made... groups in the layers area. I figured it was just for ease of organization and somehow I managed to stumble my whole way to the rivers step. *cough* I'm glad I've saved a lot of stages, because I'm afraid I know the answer to my own question.

Nothing happens when I select the Land Mask to use the brush to stroke the river path. I recall earlier times when erasing/adding on the Land Mask did nothing, but I kind of brute forced my way through. Is there any way to fix it now? I'm not a TOTAL PS newb, but a lot of this stuff is beyond what I usually do.

[Alex]

I was suggested to ask my question here, so I hope I did not break any rules or anything.

How does one go about getting the land's shape to come out like the shape/edges of the maps, for example, generated in Saderan's tutorial? I have run a scanned image in through Photoshop but I cannot figure out how to do the next steps on an existing image. Is there any way to do such a thing to drawn/etc etc maps?

@Tadiera:

I might be able to help. It happened to me a few times in CS5. First, let's see if this fixes it:

Nothing happens when I select the Land Mask to use the brush to stroke the river path. I recall earlier times when erasing/adding on the Land Mask did nothing, but I kind of brute forced my way through. Is there any way to fix it now? I'm not a TOTAL PS newb, but a lot of this stuff is beyond what I usually do.

Make sure you set the brush to 100% and have the proper settings for the brush. Click on the Paths layers > NEW PATH (little sheet of paper; will automatically be named) > Press [P]> DRAW RIVERS > GO TO LAYERS > LAND LAYER (make sure you get the mask selected) > PRESS [D] > PRESS [B] > SET BRUSH TO 100% (and the settings) > CLICK PATH TAB > RIGHT CLICK PATH 1 > SELECT STROKE PATH > UNCHECK SIMULATE PRESSURE > MAKE SURE "BRUSH" IS SELECTED FROM THE DROPDOWN BOX > PRESS OKAY > DONE.

[Jeff6016]

Hi everyone,

I am working my way through this fantastic tutorial, but I have run into a snag.

Page 5, second column instructs us to duplicate the "ocean shallow" layer and label it "ocean shallow variation". After doing so, we are instructed to lock the layer and set it to overlay. So far, so good. But then I try to follow the next instruction, which tells us to apply a cloud filter and PS7 tells me "Could not complete the Clouds command because the selected area is empty". I'm sure I missed something, but in going back over things I just can't see it.

Can anyone help?

-Jeff

[ScotlandTom]

Typically when using filters the "selected area is empty" error comes up when you've attempted to apply a filter to a layer that has not yet been painted on. When I'm working this is usually because I've created a brand new, completely empty layer and attempted to apply a filter. Check to ensure you have the correct layer selected, then make sure that layer actually has something on it before applying the filter. If your "ocean shallow variation" layer is empty it could mean that you accidentally created a new layer instead of copying the "ocean shallow" layer, either that or the "ocean shallow" layer you duplicated was also empty.

In the tutorial, pg 5, second column, under the [Layer > Duplicate Layer... > "ocean shallow variation"] instruction there is a graphic that shows what your layers palette should look like. Notice that both your "ocean shallow" and "ocean shallow variation" layer icons should appear to have a gray/white checkerboard pattern with white splotches on it. If all you see is the gray/white checkerboard then your layer is empty and needs to be filled with something in order to have the Render Clouds filter applied to it.

Hope that helps!