[Award Winner] Making a continent in photoshop

[eth]

sorry, it was point 18!

[Ascension]

There is no reverse cloud, it is Difference Cloud. It does not do the same thing as the first cloud. Each rendition of the cloud filter makes a totally new cloud. The Difference Cloud basically is just a new cloud but given a treatment that takes two colors and combines them but the output becomes opposite. Just try it.

[eth]

There is no reverse cloud, it is Difference Cloud. It does not do the same thing as the first cloud. Each rendition of the cloud filter makes a totally new cloud. The Difference Cloud basically is just a new cloud but given a treatment that takes two colors and combines them but the output becomes opposite. Just try it.

Sorry for the lapsus, of course, I meant "Difference Clouds"
Anyhow I tried it and with "difference clouds" I obtain nothing but a "negative" of the original clouds...and doing it again it just switch back to the previous config. I must say I am using PS CS5, but still is more likely I am doing something wrong. Also, I wander why we have no control over the clouds [as we have, for example, in Gimp, where we can fix the seed and "grain" of the clouds!]

[Ascension]

I think what you're doing is duplicating the clouds layer and setting the blend mode to difference...this, of course, will just make things the same if you duplicate it twice. You need the filter - render - difference clouds. As to no control, that's a Photoshop thing. There are some plugins that allow for a bit more control but not all that much, just different sizes and densities of "puffs".

[Kilgarra]

Hey, I'm new and just trying to get into mapping in Photoshop, but all I have is Elements 5. I'm getting stuck on step 15 because Elements doesn't seem to have a Select>Color Range option. Is there a workaround for this?

[ahriman667]

Awesome tut Ascension. I actually dll'd this a awhile a go and gave it a whirl, producing a decent looking map...until all my work went up in smoke

At any rate, i just wanted to bump this one, and say thanks again.

Cheers.

[stryker25b]

3 and a half years later and still kicking! Simply awesome tutorial, Ascension. If I was locked in a room for a month with Photoshop I wouldn't come out with nearly as detailed a map.

If anyone is having problems, one thing I did was create selections (Select > Save Selection) of the land areas. Then whenever the tutorial said "CTRL+Click the base layer", I instead loaded my land selection. I'm using a Windows PC with CS3 so I figured it was just a shortcut combination that wasn't working the same for me even if I clicked the layer thumbnail.

And if you are working on a map larger that the size specified in the tutorial SAVE EARLY and SAVE OFTEN if you have the room for it. My .psd files were over a gigabyte by the end, but a couple of times I messed something up and went back to a previous save.

[Kilgarra]

Never mind, I answered my own question. You just have to use the magic wand tool with "contiguous" unchecked and click on a black area.

[avalier]

OK, So I am following your tutorial, and in step 18 I can see the landmass outline through the difference clouds. Is this supposed to happen cause looking at the picture that follows I do not see the landmass through the clouds.

[elsewhere]

Hi. New to mapmaking with photoshop and the learning curve is pretty steep, but I'm getting better! Question about the tutorial. Is the base layer created in the beginning (after applying the Hard Mix w/50% gray) supposed to make it a solid gray? Because in order to play around with the background copy, I have to hide the base layer.

Thanks.