Every roleplayer sooner or later finds him/herself in a situation that he wants to create his own fantasy map. Some of us are talented with the pencil while others are not. Endless Bag Of Games shows you a simple way to create fantasy maps with Photoshop and brushes. This tutorial is for the ones who are not so very talented. Now then, there are some preparations before we start.
Don’t reinvent the wheel.
I’ve seen many tutorials that begin with the creation of that old looking paper like we have used to see. I’ll say don’t bother, because there are huge amount of royalty free images to choose from if you just know where to look. Now http://www.sxc.hu is one such place, where you can easily find yourself a solid image for your fantasy map. We’ll be using the following image. You don’t have to pick the same, choose any you want. LINK FOR THE PICTURE
Now that you have the map, you are ready to go? No! Don’t start the software just yet because true slacker knows that there might be something useful yet to be found and that is: Brushes. There are many sites that are sharing useful brushes for your maps. So if you know that your drawing skills are not so awesome, I’ll tell you to go look for the brushes and you still might achieve the results that you want. So go i.e. to Devianart and search for some brushes. In this tutorial, were are using these brushes (nice Tolkien look). Thanks to cathyechild for these brushes.
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=tolkien+style+map#/d2amw36
http://calthyechild.deviantart.com/art/I-Want-More-Mountains-brushes-138817735
Now that you are ready to go, form an image in your mind what are about to create. A simple pencil sketch is enough, or a clear image in your mind will do. Actually, you can just go with the flow and see what happens (but I don’t recommend that)
Step 1: Results
Step 1: Open the image and create a duplicate of it.
Photoshop is all about layers and blending modes and using them effectively to achieve good results. So first, select file->open to open your base image and since we want to make sure that the original image stays intact, select your image from the layers palette and press ctrl+J so we will have a duplicate of the image. Then rename that layer to base map. After that, if you’re using the same image as I am, select image->image rotation->90′ to the direction you want.
Step 2: Create some new layers.
Next what you want to do is to create new layers by clicking an image at the bottom of the layers palette and rename those layers accordingly. Create a new layer for: mountains, forests, cities and roads and finally colors.
The reason we’re making so many layers is that if we make mistakes, it is easier to make adjustments and corrections to the layer where the correction affects only the desired objects.
Step 3: Create the continent.
Now what I want you to do is to select the base map layer, click Q (or choose from tool palette edit in Quick Mask) then hit B (or choose brush from the tool palette) and begin drawing the outlines of the continent you want to have. You should have something like the image below.
Now choose paintbucket and fill the drawn image until it is completely red. Now that you have the continent you want selected, press Q again to exit Quick Mask mode and you have made a selection that is going to be your landmass. Now you actually have now selected everything around the landmass so press Ctrl+Shift+I (or select->inverse). Now you simply copy the selected area so press Ctrl+C to copy the selected area and then Ctrl+V to paste it. As a result, you should have new layer which is your landmass. Rename this new layer as continent. Now right-click the continent layer and select blending modes->stroke and set size to 2px.
Step 4: Alter the base map to create sea.
Now make base map layer active again and hold down alt and click create new adjustment layer (in the layers palette) and selected Hue and Saturation. Remember put mark to use previous layer to create clipping mask. Now a slider should pop up and you
just move the slider until you have the color what you want the sea to have. After that, rename the layer to sea.
Results so far
So far, you should something like in the image above.
Step 5: Load your brushes
Now it is time to load the brushes you downloaded before we started this tutorial. Select brushes (B) then right-click your mouse and a window pops up. Then push the button in the upright corner of the window and select load brushes. Ok, now we can begin the actual creation.
Step 6: Create the content
Now it is time be creative. Select the layer you wish to begin with. I decided to go with the mountains so I select the mountain layer we created in step 2. Now choose brushes again, right click on the image and scroll down to the bottom to select the brush we loaded. Now choose size and color and go ahead. Do the same with other layers, except the colors layer.
Step 7: Colors
Now that you have your map you can leave it as it is, I personally like maps that look simple, but you can go on, if you wish to add colors i.e for mountains and forests. Now choose colors layer and from the top of the layers palette set the blending mode to multiply (a dropdown menu which states “normal”). Now select a brush that is suitable and go ahead and give the image some color. As you can see, the multiply blending mode doesn’t affect the layers below so strongly which gives us freedom with colors.
If you don’t like the rough change in colors between i.e. desert and plains you can try the following trick. Go to filters->blur->gaussian blur and put it to 1-4px. This softens the results a bit.
Step 8: Names and finishing touches.
Now once you have fantasy a map you’re satisfied with, use the type tool to add names to the places. You can play with fonts and try to find one that suits you and remember: don’t reinvent the wheel, since there are nice fonts just waiting you in the internets.
There you have it. You could try and tinker more with the filters and effects that photoshop offers, but this tutorials purpose is to give a good base for creating a basic fantasy map. Maybe you’ll be seeing another tutorial soon if such is needed. This concludes the Fantasy Map tutorial. Hope you enjoyed.
MkaY | Marko Kari | Editor-in-chief. Review Coordinator, Webmaster, Founder…
I have always been captivated with games, be it console, board, card or any types of games. It is only fair that I share my honest thoughts and reviews about them.
For a bit more colorful/realistic maps I recommend trying out Tear’s Map-tutorial, which is real easy to follow and results in very high-quality color-maps. Gotta also try those Tolkien-brushes and your tutorial for some close-up maps.
With Photoshop you can do pretty amazing job quite easily, once you get more familiar with the software and are ready to dedicate some time. In this tutorial I tried to include only the simple stuff. In the Tear’s map tutorial, it is beneficial to be used to use the software. Good looking results still.
There are good amount of other rpg-related brushes available in the internets and with such tools, map-making is made really easy
Really hardcore mappers use only Microsoft Paint…
My goodness, my brushes do get around. ^_^ I thought the map looked eerily familiar!
It is only reasonable when someone creates such a fine set of brushes
They’re quite awesome.
What version of photoshop was this done in? And can you recommend a version for the poor that might be availile as freeware?
I believe it was Photoshop CS4 if my memory serves me right. The same can be accomplished with older versions though. Those features I’ve used in this tutorial are not new.
Well I only know some online editors that can be useful such as: http://www.sumopaint.com/ but the problem is that you should be able to use the brushes provided which will really do a lot of the visual work for you…