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Thread: Semi-Procedural Marshy Coastline

  1. #1

    Wip Semi-Procedural Marshy Coastline

    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.

    Marshy Coast.jpg

  2. #2

    Default Update 1

    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.
    Attached Images Attached Images

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