[REQUEST] Anyone know how to make a professional looking world map?

[Shiroiyuki]

Here, since I am bored:

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HAPPY MAP TUTORIAL THINGY
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This is done in Photoshop!

Now, there are literally hundreds of combinations to choose from using the filters....but this is the way I've done it in this tutorial. If you find your own way from this, that’s awesome. Have fun, be unique. More power to you.



Open a new layer -- 640 x 480, transparency for background. Call this 'Water'.

Pick a pretty blue and fill it in with the paint bucket. Let this layer sit, we'll come back to it.


Make a new layer -- call this 'Land'. Land is on top of water so the layer should be ON TOP of the water layer, too.

Fill this in with any color. You heard me, any color. It doesn't matter because in the next step it's all going to be moot anyway.


Go up to the toolbar and find 'Filters'. Select 'Render -- Clouds'.

You will see some blurry clouds where your random color once was. See what I meant by any color will do? Doesn’t matter.



Go to filter and play around with the different options if you like at this step. I chose to give it a slight ripple effect here.


Go back up to Filter and select 'Brush Strokes -- Sumi-e'. Play with the stroke width and whatnot until you get something roughly like this:



Go to Filter and select 'Sketch -- Reticulation'. Play with these settings. If you want some specific land mass structures here (and not 'random' ones), make sure to use your paint brush before this step so everything gets that soft look to it.


Go to Filter and select 'Distort -- Ocean Ripple'. Play around until you get a map base that looks pleasing to your eye. Basically this one shifts the land masses slightly, depending on the settings. You can pinch them, too, and make some pop out more.



Go to the Layer Options for this Land layer and give it a color overlay so that the land looks like land.



Get your Magic Wand tool out and start selecting non-land areas. The darker of the two I choose to be 'non-land' in this case. Hit DELETE once you have a selection, then systematically go around and choose places to kill. Little bits of dark spots, islands you may not want, etc. Clean it up with the erase tool if necessary.



Go on up to Filter again and this time select 'Blur -- Gaussian Blur'. By default you'll probably have a horrible mess on your hands. We only want a SMALL AMOUNT OF BLUR here -- I went with 0.2.

This is only going to fuzz up the harsh lines.



Here is where you'll have variation. You can duplicate the Land layer and play around with layer properties/effects, textures, embossing, shadows, gradients, etc. until you like what you see. Aim for a realistic map or one that is more stylistic, it doesn't matter. Whatever suits your game.

Do the same thing with the Water layer to put in some shadows, ripples, details, etc.


This was my end result here:


You can see from this tutorial that with effort and a general ability to play with filters and be cool, you too can have beautiful maps for your game. Cheers!





Q&A:

Q: Damnit, Shiro! I wanted to see the layers at the end – how do you do all that?
A: I omitted this part because, a) I’m lazy, b) This is where the inner artist comes out to play and I didn’t want to stifle the creative beast you have hidden within your soul, yada yada yada, and c) I’m lazy. You, too, can have these results by playing with the built-in filters and layer options.

Don’t be like Shiro, children; laziness kills.

Q: Can you make me a map? Pretty please with cherries and everything?
A: No, why do you think I made this tutorial? Go be your own map-maker!

Q: I don’t have Photoshop....can you make a tutorial for GIMP?
A: I don’t have GIMP nor do I need it so...no. Most of the time photo-editing software share the same basic tools so you can most likely follow along if necessary. *shrugs*

[Shiroiyuki]

Ahhh, thank you! Hopefully it will be useful for someone ^_^.

Here's another couple I whipped up using the above techniques. Only took a few minutes or so...(although I copy/pasted the existing texture layer styles from the first one and tweaked them there after).

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4172/map10.png

Some green cartoonish-ness for you ^^

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3207/map11.png

No fancy paint work required. Optional, certainly, but not required.

[MagitekElite]

Wow! Thanks for the tutorial! It was great ^.^

[JayRay]

whether it's a 3d rendered heightmap drawing, a fractally generated world map, or an old parchment drawing, I can hook you up. I know this post is necro , but that's for anyone... I can put a map together.

[KasperKalamity]

i know it's two years later, but i made a really neat map once by drawing it in ps, then scanning a crumpled up sheet of paper to put as a transparent layer over the top. it gave the whole map a neat crinkled look.

[JayRay]

Again, the offer still stands. I can create any landmass, all sorts of map styles....