11 First things first; this tutorial is written mainly to remind myself of the steps I go

through when making a mapmuch of this will sound like a lecture but its how I
work and what Im thinking, my steps might not be perfect and my observations
might be incorrect. Next, look at a GLOBE of the earth not a flat map, this is
because a flat map will distort things near the poles to make them look larger than
they really are (Greenland looks huge on a flat map). Get the proportions of
landmass to ocean roughly in your mind (our earth is 70% water, I think) and take
some measurements if you want to by using a piece of string then holding the
string up to a ruler. For this tutorial Im going to do a small continent (2000 X
2000).
11 To get maximum detail I set my resolution way up there at 300-600. The size of
the image will give us 1 pixel = 1 mile thus 2000 miles high and wide and the
resolution is only for print purposes. I could do this at 100 dpi but if I printed the
map it would be larger and then most printers cannot handle much beyond 300 dpi
so if you intend to print your map then go with 300 dpi. If your system cannot
handle these dimensions without chugging its guts out then cut the size in half,
this will give you 1 pixel = 2 miles, still not too shabby, eh? If your system can
handle this then try a higher image size, this will give you 1 pixel = mile, or
mile or whatever. Or try doing a full earth (the earth is roughly 25,000 miles in
circumference around the equator and slightly less from pole to pole so it
wouldnt roll very well due to this beer-belly but for simplicitys sake I use 12,500
so use 25,000 X 12,500). This image size really makes my pc chug so I just make
a bunch of continents and at the end make one big composition.
11 Background information: look at some topography maps or Google earth maps of
mountain ranges, swamps, beaches, deserts, rivers, lakes, forests, canyons, arctic
poles, or any other geologic phenomena you want in your map so that you have an
idea of what to shoot for (take a look at those volcanoes in Hawaii). Personally, I
use FlashEarth.com because the Google maps are too distorted, splotchy, and
incomplete and it takes up a huge amount of memory on my computer.
11 Initial thoughts: cold near the poles, hot around the equator so I plan to
eventually have a gradient from white at top to gray to brownish (tundra) to
ochre-green (plains) to green to dark green (tropics) to pale yellow-orange
(deserts). You could put your poles around the equator if your planet is tilted over
on its side but deviations too far from earth-like are too hard to wrap your brain
around, even for fantasythis is true for sunrise as well and what most people
dont realize is that by putting in more than one moon the tides get totally messed
up as well as how long a day is and a year (without our single moon our days
would be much shorter and our year so the life forms on our planet would be
totally different).
11 So lets get to work then Foreground black, background white, Filter > render >
clouds.

11
11 Duplicate this layer.
11 Create a new layer and Edit > fill = 50% gray. Set the layers mode to hard mix
and change the name to base.
11 The hard mix will change the look of things to straight black and white with no
grays. Click back on the background copy layer and grab a large brush (not
pencil) with an opacity of 10%. I use the various big airbrushes. With white I
brush in extra land and with black I brush in extra water. What you want to keep
in mind is that we do not want any land near any edge of the screen by at least 50100 pixels. Land that goes off the side will never get completed since the clouds
layer doesnt extend beyond the edge so if we were to make a new image with
new clouds they would never line up (unless you have certain third party plug-ins
that make tile-able clouds). If you want icecaps across the top or bottom then that
is fine but make sure to leave 50-100 pixels between the icecap and major
landmasses. If you have some islands somewhere you dont want them use the
black, if you want to put some in then use the white. Another thing to keep in
mind is to not have the islands and such create a square of landmasses so be
sure to try to make things random and irregular. Lastly, cover up some lakes since
at this scale not too many would really be visiblebut that is pure preference.
When happy, copy the background copy layer, click on the base layer and merge
down.

111
111 Select > Color range = black. Set the fuzziness slider up to 200. Create a new
layer. Select > Modify > Expand = 1. Use the paint bucket tool to fill in the
selection of the ocean. Deselect then merge down. What this step does is to
remove a whole boatload of extraneous white pixels around our landmasses that
can be very tedious and time consuming to paint over. However, it also puts some
regularity and blockiness into our coasts so lets fix that.
111 Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize = 6. Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize = 3. Image >
Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast = set the contrast up to 100. Now our coasts
are all irregular again.
111 Next zoom in to at least 200% and start checking our coastlines and islands to
make sure that there are not any lakes too close to the ocean because natural
erosion would have taken care of this and moved the ocean in to fill this area
creating a bay. Use a 5 pixel hard round pencil and blot out the lakes and tweak
the coast but avoid over-tweaking the coast or else you will lose bays and harbors
and hooks (like Massachusetts) and boot-heels (like Italy). Use white to add land
and black to add water. What I do is zoom to 200 or 300% and start in the top left
corner and scan across, making tweaks as I go, and when I get to the other side
move down and scan back across until I have reached the bottom. Also look for
long straight lines or large right angles and round these off. Be careful to make
sure you leave a few large lakes and dont cover over all of the little lakes,

111
111
111
111
111
111
111

especially if you want some place like Minnesota land of 10,000 lakes. Where
you know there will be desert or plains then go ahead and cover these areas pretty
well but not completely since lakes in the desert will act as oases and all lakes
visible at this resolution are at least 1 mile so there will likely be a village of some
sort nearby (if youre using some other resolution then use your judgment). This
process can take a while but if youre going to do it, you might as well do it right.
This is also the time to add any unique features like a skull island or an island in a
lake for which to place a magnificent castle. Dont do any major terra forming
but instead tweak what is already there.
Copy this layer (base copy) then go back and fill in all of the lakes.
Select > color range (use black with fuzziness 200), hit delete, then deselect and
hide the layer. Click on the base layer and repeat then hide the base layer as well.
Click on the Background copy layer and rename it to ocean.
Copy this layer then rename the new layer to reef.
Filter > render > difference clouds. Repeat.
Copy the layer and rename it hills.
Copy the hills layer and rename it to mountains.

111
111 You may think that now is the time to add any canyons, escarpments, meteor
craters, volcanoes, or other such phenomena but I do not. I do these things on

other layers so Ill cover this in a separate mini tutorial or tutlet as I call it. If
youve run through this tutorial numerous times and are comfortable with it then
go ahead and feel free to experiment. I use small pencils for cracks and canyons
and small brushes for adding erosion in the mountains.
111 Filter > render > lighting effects. What we have is one large spotlight covering
the whole image coming in from the lower right (in the northern hemisphere the
sun passes somewhat to the souththis is important to my main job as a stained
glass artist so we need to know where the sun is in relation to a window). Settings
are: intensity 25, focus 100, gloss 100, material 100, exposure 0, ambience 8,
texture channel is red, white is high is checked, and height is set to 100.
111

111 If we set the intensity, exposure, or ambience too high everything becomes
brighter and therefore higher and looks more like a plateau and if we set them too
low our mountains become more like hills. Here is what we have.

111
111 Lets do the hills now so hide the mountains layer and click on the hills layer.
Filter > noise > add noise = 5%, gaussian, monochromatic. We are going to run a
lighting effects filter in the next step and this added noise will give us lots and lots
of little hills (in French little hills translates to petite cotes or something like that
Im a lil rusty on my French but this is where we get the word petticoat).
111 Next we are going to do another lighting effects but for some reason Photoshop
randomly breaks during lighting effects so save your document nowjust in case.
111 Filter > render > lighting effects. What we have here are 5 omni lights, one in the
center and one in each corner, the settings are the same for all: intensity 6, gloss
100, material 100, exposure 0, ambience 8, texture channel is red, white is high is
checked and height is 100. This gives our land a little bumpiness and looks like
any other realistic stone tutorial out there.

111

111 Hide the hills layer and click on the ocean layer. Copy it and then rename the new
layer to land. Move the land layer up to just below the hills layer and then hit
ctrl-f. This runs the same lighting effects filter as in step 27.
111 Hide the land layer and click on the reef layer. Hit ctrl-f to run the same lighting
effects then click on the land layer.
111 Control-click on the base layer (in the layer palette) then Select > Inverse then hit
delete then deselect. We now have our main landmasses all textured up and ready
to live. NOTE: using Photoshop CS3 and later versions youll have to ctrl-click
on the thumbnail image in the layer palette rather than just the layer itself so
remember this for later on.
111 So lets bring this world to life. Add a layer style, this consists of a gradient
overlay reversed, mode is hard light, opacity is 100%, style is linear aligned with
layer, angle is 90, scale is 100%. The colors in the gradient are as follows: Color
1 at 5% is pure white FFFFFF (rgb 255, 255, 255), color 2 at 15% is a green
ochre - 555A41 (rgb 85, 90, 65), color 3 at 25% is a darker green ochre - 293415
(rgb 41, 52, 21), color 4 at 55% is a dark green - 242810 (rgb 36, 40, 16), color 5
at 65% is a darker green 121C03 (rgb 18, 28, 3), color 6 at 70% is a very dark
green 0D1501 (rgb 13, 21, 1), color 7 at 80% is a sage green - 383B17 (rgb 56,
59, 23), color 8 at 90% is a light taupe - DAC094 (rgb 218, 192, 148) and color 9
at 100% is a creamy - F0E6BE (rgb 240, 230, 190). There is also an outer glow:
mode is screen, opacity is 25%, noise is 0, color is light blue - 40C8FF (rgb 64,
200, 255), technique is softer, spread is 0, size is 35, contour is normal (linear),
range is 50%, jitter is 0. Much better now, eh?

111

111

111

111 Here is what I have so far.

111
111 If you want your desert at the top (when doing a southern hemisphere continent),
then unclick the reverse on the gradient on the land layer. Pay no attention to
that blue ring it will be useful later but for now lets give our whales a place to
swim.
111 Click on the ocean layer and hide the reef layer. Image > adjustments > gradient
map. Color 1 at 0% is a dark bluish-teal 000A32 (rgb 0, 10, 50), color 2 at 40%
is a grayish blue-teal - 32528C (rgb 50, 82, 140), color 3 at 60% is a grayish teal 4F809F (rgb 79, 128, 159), and color 4 at 80% is an aqua - 80BCCD (rgb 128,
188, 205). Depending on your monitors gamma, white point or color setup these
colors might seem awkward so change them to suit yourself. What we see here is
pretty cool. Thats why we paid no attention to that blue ring in the previous step,
it gives us a hint of shallow sea around the land.

111
111 Control-click on the base layer. Select > modify > expand = 40. Select > feather
= 40. Select > inverse. Create a new layer and change the foreground color to a
dark blue, I use 000A32 (rgb 0, 10, 50). Fill, deselect, and rename the layer to
cover. This covers up all of that light blue and restricts the light blue to coastal
regions.
111 Click on the mountains layer. Reset colors to foreground black. Select > color
range = black with a fuzziness of 200. Hit delete and deselect. Control-click on
the base layer. Select > modify > contract = 20. Select > feather = 20. Select >
inverse. Hit delete then deselect. This cuts our mountains back away from our
coasts. On the layers menu, where it says normal, change that to hard light then
apply a layer style by clicking that cursive f surrounded by a black circle. We will
have a color overlay of 5A461E (rgb 90, 70, 30), the mode is soft light at 100%.
We also have an inner bevel, chisel soft, size 3 and direction up. Our continent
has suddenly sprouted a million mountains but not to worry, well fix that later.
111 Hide the mountains layer and click on the hills layer. Select > color range, choose
black and set fuzziness to 150. Hit delete and deselect. Control-click on the base
layer, select > modify > contract = 10, select > feather = 10, select > inverse,
delete and deselect. The first part of this step deletes all the darker parts of the
layer and the second part deletes hills hovering over the ocean.

111 These are going to be our broad foothills leading up into the mountains. Add a
layer style. First, there is a color overlay: mode is soft light, opacity is 100%,
color is a brown with a hint of green - 5A461E (rgb 90, 70, 30). Second there is a
bevel and emboss: style is emboss, technique is chisel soft, depth is 100%,
direction is up, size is 3, soften is 0, shading angle is 120, shading altitude is 30,
gloss contour is linear, highlight mode is a white screen at 50%, and shadow
mode is a black multiply at 50%. Lastly, change the layers mode to soft light at
50% opacity.
111 Doesnt look like much unless you zoom in to 100% or more. Now those are
some awesome looking hills. If the hills are too pronounced in an area where you
want plains or deserts use a large eraser set to airbrush with a very low flow and
erase some hills but dont get carried away just yet.

111
111 Click on the lasso tool and up at the top where it says feather set that to 20 px.
Click back on the mountains layer. Now we have to decide where our mountain
ranges will finally be. If there is a place where I dont want mountains, I lasso
around the area (staying as much as possible in the green land area) then drag that
area to a place where I do want mountains then deselect. The feathering on the
lasso tool allows us to cut sections that are fuzzy and not crisp so that way we do
not have to go back and blur or erase the area where a selection was cut. Try to
only cut the taller mountains and leave some of the lower ones in place as they

add flavor. You can rotate your selections to fit if you want but not by a whole lot
(no more than 30 degrees or so) because the lighting effects will have put a
shadow on the backside of our mountains. You can also manipulate them a bit in
the edit > transform > scale menu but I almost never do. When done we need to
make sure that none of our mountains are floating in the ocean or over lakes so
ctrl-click the base layer, select > modify > contract = 20, select > feather = 20,
select > inverse, delete, then deselect. Erase some mountains with a large soft
eraser set to brush (I use airbrush 100 pixels with a flow of 10%) and erase some
bits you dont want. I always leave some mountains down in the desert to add
flavor (the brown color overlay really makes things pop).
111 Its okay to leave a few mountains around lakes but dont get crazy, I only know
of one Crater Lake (in Oregon I think). Keep in mind that mountains are formed
by plate tectonics. They are generally found in 3 places: a) near an edge of a
plate where a land plate is colliding with an ocean plate (Rockies and Andes), b)
as the spine of a continent where 2 land plates have collided (Himalayas and
Alps), or c) volcanic ridges formed by 2 ocean plates colliding (Hawaii) or
separating (Iceland). Leave some stray mountains to add flavor like the Black
Hills and the Smokey Mountains. If you cant see your mountains in the desert or
ice dont worry, the mountains add some texture but you could always erase em
if ya want. Pay special attention to erase mountains that seem too close to the
ocean unless you want some fjords. Zoom out and check your work often and
remember to erase in order to have some flat plains or swamp areas. Dont erase
anything on the hills layer just yet but do zoom in and have a closer look.
Because our mountains and hills come from the same cloud rendering our hills
stay near the original mountains, if we use different clouds for different layers
then our hills will be in areas nowhere near the mountains. If we have moved a
bunch of mountains around then we might need to lasso some hills and drag them
into place as well.

111
111 Click on the reef layer. Image > adjustments > gradient map. What we use here
is a 5 color gradient from ocean blue to surf whitecaps. Color 1 set at position 0
is 000A32 (rgb 0, 10, 50). Color 2 set at position 25 is 0C3219 (rgb 12, 50, 25).
Color 3 at position 50 is 7DC8AF (rgb 125, 200, 175). Color 4 at position 75 is
B4F0FA (rgb 180, 240, 250). Color 5 at position 100 is E6F0FA (rgb 230, 240,
250).
111 Kind of crazy looking so lets fix that; control-click on the base layer, select >
modify > expand 40, select > feather 40, select > inverse, delete then deselect. If
you have too much of the bright aqua, like in a bay, use a soft airbrush eraser

111
111 Very important, control-click on the base copy layer then delete and deselect.
This removes reefs from the inland lakes and lets the ocean layer show through
with its bluer blues. I like my lakes to be darker still so I create a new layer and
rename it to lakes. Put the lakes layer just above the land layer. Control-click
on the base copy layer and fill with the same blue then deselect. This fills the
entire landmass and lakes area with blue. Control-click on the base layer and hit
delete then deselect. This removes the blue from the land leaving only blue lakes.
The outer glow on the land layer would brighten our lakes if the lakes layer was
under the land layer so thats why we put it above. I dont like my lakes to look
so pristine blue so I will add a layer style of color overlay with a dark teal color
code 001D20 (rgb 0, 29, 32) and the mode is hard light. Then I add an inner glow
of a slightly lighter dark teal color code 004032 (rgb 0, 64, 50) and the mode is
normal. Then I reduce the fill to 0. The first of these 2 teals will be used for
rivers later on.
111 Were looking pretty good dont you think? But theres something missing, it all
looks too perfect. Lets add some splotchiness to break up all of that green. Click
on the land layer and make a new layer then rename it adjust 1. Control-click
on the base layer. Change the foreground color to black and change the
background color to something yellowish like F0DC82 (rgb 240, 220, 130). Filter
> render > clouds. Set the layer blending mode to soft light and opacity to around

50%. Ah, looks kind of mossy. I like it. You can experiment with the colors used
here but anything too light looks more like snow and anything too bright looks too
splotchy. This step adds some brown to our plains, amber to our deserts, and
darkens our tundra. Do not deselect yet.
111 Make a new layer and rename it to adjust 2. Here we can make all of the color
tweaks we want. I use a reddish-brown, dark green, ochre green, black, white,
gray, amber, and a light tan. Use a large airbrush with a flow of 10% and zoom
out. Use the black to darken in places where you want forests and around lakes
and really darken the areas where you want swamps (dont forget to darken the
valleys a little bit). Use a dark green to cover up some desert. Use the yellowish
to extend your deserts or lighten up the plains areas. Use a smaller airbrush with
gray or white and paint a little extra color to make your mountains extra cold or
use a dark green or black to make the mountains extra lush and tropical or use the
reddish-brown to make the mountains extra hostile (great in desert or tundra areas
for making Mordor). Use the airbrush with white to extend your permafrost areas
and a gray to extend the tundra. The jet stream on our earth flows west to east. It
frequently bends and dips going north to south or south to north and only rarely
east to west. These winds carry rain that will get blocked by mountains.
Therefore, rain tends to pile up on western sides of mountains so make these areas
a little extra greener with green or black. The eastern sides, therefore, miss out on
some rain so make these areas a little more arid with a yellow, light tan, light gray,
or reddish-brown. Dont forget to work on the islands, check for unwanted
mountains and deserts and I usually color them up with some green. When happy
deselect.

111
111 What I have done is lightened up the plains with an ochre green and with the
yellowish. Put some forests in around the western sides of my mountains as well
as a swamp with the black. Extended my permafrost a bit south, extended my
grass onto the desert a bit and put some white on my mountaintops. Then added a
bit of spot rust in my desert mountains with the reddish-brown. Nothing too
major just some minor tweaking of whats already there.
111 Next copy the background, rename it big hills, and move this layer to just below
the mountains layer. Reset colors to black and white. Filter > sketch > bas-relief.
Detail is 15 and smoothness is 1 and light is from bottom right. This gives us a
faux lighting effects but with more peaks and points and ridges and such, kind of
looks like the old Q-Bert game. Select > color range = use black with fuzziness
175, delete then deselect. This deletes the darker tones. Control-click on the base
layer, select > modify > contract = 20, select > feather = 20, select > inverse,
delete then deselect. This keeps the big hills just on land. Filter > blur > gaussian
blur = .5. Next, zoom in to 100% and look at an area where the mountains meet
the plains. Control-click on the mountains layer, select > modify > expand =
anything you want but I use 80, select > feather = same as the expansion so for
me its 80, select > inverse, delete then deselect. This keeps our big hills from
going anywhere except near mountains. Change the layers fill to 0. Add a layer
style of bevel and emboss. Emboss, up, smooth, size is 3, change the highlight

mode to screen 25% and shadow mode to color burn 25%. Use a large soft eraser
(I use airbrush 100 pixels with a flow of 10%) and erase some extra big hills if
you want. This gives us some bigger hills leading up into our mountains. Set this
layers opacity at 50%
111 Now, lets add some crunchiness to the mountains so click on the background
layer and copy it. Rename it to oh, I dunno, crunchIm working as I write .
Put this layer between the big hills and mountains layers. Filter > sketch > basrelief = same as last step. Select > color range = use black with fuzziness of 200,
delete then deselect. Control-click the mountains layer, select > modify > expand
= 40, select > feather = 40, select > inverse, delete, and deselect. Set the layers
blending mode to linear light. This step combines with our mountains hard light
mode and color overlay to really put more into Mordor or gives us a place to put
the Drow. This step also tends to mess up the desert mountains so I erase there.
Set the layer at 33% opacity. Lastly, add a layer style of bevel/emboss: emboss,
chisel soft, up, size of 3, highlight mode is color dodge at 50% opacity, and
shadow mode is color burn at 50% opacity.
111 If youre happy so far, its now time to erase on the hills layer. I usually just
follow the same process as in the previous step but this time I do the expansion 3
times. This results in small hills graduating into big hills, which then grow into
mountains. Our land layer did get a lighting effects filter so it should have some
texture as well. Now this looks much more natural with crunch than without.
You might want to play around with the layer blending mode, opacity, or layer
styles on the crunch layer.

111
111 Now were going to add in a continental shelf to tweak our green reefs. Click on
the reef layer and copy it. Rename it to shelf, set the blend mode back to
normal and change the opacity to 100%. Image > adjustments > desaturate.
Change the mode to color dodge and the opacity to 80%. Control-click on the
base copy layer and select > modify > expand = 10 then select > feather = 10.
Select > inverse then delete and deselect. This lightens up the heavy greenish feel
of the reef but for those who feel the need to micromanage you can go and erase
on the reef layer with small brushes. If you like you can add a layer style of
bevel/emboss with either an emboss or outer bevel that is set to chisel soft. This
will give you that sloping edge that you commonly see in some topographical
maps but in order to get that then make sure to not feather before deleting. I dont
use the bevel but I have experimented with it and got some fairly decent results
but nothing that knocked my socks off.

111
111 My skull lake in the desert looks kind of dark so lets fix that. Click on the lakes
layer and create a new layer and rename it to oh lake adjust. Control-click on
the base layer, then use the eyedropper tool to pick up some color from around
our reefs and airbrush some lighter color that makes the desert lake look more
suitable. This should also be done in permafrost areas.
111 Next we need to rough up our ocean a bit so copy the background layer and
rename it to waves. Move it to the very top of the stack and reset the colors to
black and white. Filter > sketch > bas-relief as before. Select > color range =
black with a fuzziness of 175 then delete and deselect. Control-click on the base
copy layer then select > modify > expand = 20, select > feather = 20, delete and
deselect. Set the fill to 0% and add a layer style of color overlay of a dark teal
color code 001420 (rgb 0, 20, 32). This gives us a hint of waves and a bit of
greenish tint to the oceans. Lastly, move this layer directly under the land layer.

111
111 We can call this done for now if we want and start putting in other things like
borders and cities. If youre going to forego the rivers then skip ahead to step 80.
The reason we leave the base layer is so that when we start drawing borders, we
dont want to draw them into the sea or cover up lakes so we can always ctrl-click
on the base layer to load its selection.
111 If youre going on with rivers let me warn ya. they are a huge, major, colossal
pain in the buttockal region.
111 Try to avoid the urge to start putting in every river as I will often put in way too
many and this will take hours upon hours. Keep in mind our image size/scale
here of 1 pixel = 1 mile. Most rivers would not even be visible (like 99% of
them). Only a handful of our rivers would be seen (Amazon, Nile, Mississippi,
Yangtze). Notice anything about these? One per continent roughly. You may
think that something like the Danube or the Missouri would be seen but I live in
St. Louis and the Missouri is only about mile wide thus not visible at this
resolution. As for most of the European rivers, I cant really tell from the pictures
Ive seen but accounting for the scale of buildings most seem about as wide as the
Missouri. Of course the Amazon is about 3 miles wide near the delta but the rest
of it isnt nearly as wide. Then again, floods happen and its your world so do
what you like but remember if you have a 5 mile wide river (5 pixels) then its
branches are going to be big as well, like 3 miles, and further branches are going

to be 1 mile so you will end up laying in rivers for days and days (trust me Ive
been there).
111 If you absolutely want some rivers, heres how we do it. First, click on the
mountains layer then control-click the base layer (this will keep us from drawing
out into the ocean), make a new layer and rename it layout. Use a fat pencil
(that you can see when zoomed out) to layout some basic shapes while trying to
follow the lay of the land. Use our same dark teal 001920 (rgb 0, 25, 32). For
this tutorial I am just going to do one river system as I dont want to sit here for
the next few hours drawing squiggly lines.

111
111 Create a new layer and rename it to rivers, then use a tiny pencil of 1 pixel (since
1 pixel = 1 mile you only need major rivers and make sure the brush tip spacing is
set as low as possibleits on the brushes tab in the first submenu there) and
zoom in to 200 or 300%. When you start drawing, hide the layout layer so it
doesnt block your view and unhide it if you get lost (erase the layout river as you
go along), try to follow the darker areas since these are lower and more lush. If
you want to make your job here easier then mark out some continental divides
that will force rivers on the east to all empty into an eastern sea (for example).
Start with the longest river first since other rivers will feed into it and use some
logic to figure out which rivers belong tied to the main river and which rivers
belong on their own with their own tributaries, start with the delta and work

upstream a ways then switch to the mountains and work downstream a ways
eventually tying them together, dont add too many tributaries up near the
mountains, since were working with 1 pixel = 1 mile most tributaries wouldnt be
visible as theyre usually just streams and creeks and such feeding down to the
plains where they merge to form larger and larger branches. Also try to tie in
some of the lakes, especially the large ones.
111 Try to follow the lay of the land because all of those awesome hills will have
rivers flow between them and not over them, try to think of the path of least
resistance cuz thats what water does from high to low. Try to make the rivers
meander a lot (think snake-like as straight rivers dont look real, the closer you
zoom in the better it will look but the longer it will take), put at least a fork or 2 in
the river, if you want something like the Amazon use a 2 or 3 pixel pencil from
the delta up to the first fork, rivers generally flow toward the equator due to the
earths spin but there are exceptions, just dont make too many exceptions unless
the coast is close, add deltas and swamp waters.

111
111 Hey, well whaddaya know, it sorta looks like my home town right there where all
those rivers meet (heh heh) with a big river that flows into a swampy delta just
waiting for a hurricane. When finally done, delete the layout layer.
111 To make the rivers pop and blend in with the ocean along the continental shelf and
lakes, zoom in and use the eyedropper to pick up a color along the shelf, use a
large airbrush with a flow of 100%, then control-click on the rivers layer. Make a
new layer named deltas then single click to spray the area around where the
river and ocean meet and do this around lakes and such too. Deselect when done.
If you dont like the color of your rivers then apply a layer style of color overlay,
gradient overlay, or change the blending options.

111
111 If you want some additional lakes then grab one of your favorite cloud brushes
but make sure you are in pencil mode and use the dark teal and make a new layer
and rename it more lakes. Make a click and you have a lake but now you have
to change to a new clouds brush for a new lake or else they all look the same. If
you dont have any clouds brushes then use the 1 pixel pencil and sketch some in
by hand.
111 As much as I warned you about avoiding rivers this next warning is ten times
more important. DO NOT try to put in some lush river valleys! I have yet to find
a way to do this that isnt absolutely hideous or absolutely invisible. You can try
playing with an outer glow, a drop shadow, a gradient stroke, bevel and emboss,
an airbrush, stroking a path, gaussian blurring, blending modes, or anything else.
The bottom line is this: what looks good at 100% zoom looks like a giant gash
when zoomed out and what looks good zoomed out is invisible at 100% zoom.
This why I told you to follow the lay of the land and go through dark areas. The
problem with layer styles is that they go out into the ocean as well.
111 If you forgot to add volcanoes or canyons or the like you can always delete
everything between the land layer and the base layer and start over by copying the
background and putting it above the land layer and repeating the necessary steps.
Yes, you do have to redo the rivers and lakes and deltas because when we render
the difference clouds the mountains will be in new places (remember what I said
about not putting in rivers?). The other option is to create a new document of any
size but with the same resolution, make your fancy geology (clouds, noise,
difference clouds, difference clouds, airbrush tweaks, delete the black colors),
render the lighting effects, cut it out and then paste above the mountains layer,
erase or smudge any sharp edges, then merge it down onto the mountains layer.
This is also handy if your mountain ranges look kind of skinny and wimpy, we
make more mountains and paste em in and therefore bulk up our ranges.
111 As far as beaches are concerned, dont try to put em in, it just outlines everything
and since 1 pixel = 1 mile any beach would be at least 1 mile wide which is

111
111

111

111

111

freakin huge, seriously, if you have never been to a beach the largest I have seen
are a few hundred yards at most at low tide, this is why we have the continental
shelf (to hint at beaches); if you are doing something where the scale of 1 pixel =
10 feet then it might be okay but at a scale of 1 pixel = 100 feet you get back to
that outlined look again, not to mention that you have to either erase the beaches
up in the cold areas or apply a gradient overlay of brown or gray.
For those of a mind to do some last minute terra forming by putting islands into
the lakes, use the 1 pixel pencil on the land layer.
Lastly, if you want some clouds, storms, or hurricanes then put a new layer on top
of everything, reset the foreground and background to black and white, filter >
render > clouds then select > color range use black and fuzziness 200 then delete
and deselect, erase parts you dont want and apply any sort of distortions you
want for hurricanes, jet streams, etc and erase a bunch of clouds so you can
actually see the map. I havent had any knock out results with adding clouds yet
so I dont have too many suggestions. You can also add whirlpools and currents
in the ocean this way as long as you change the blending mode to something like
overlay or soft light.
Its at this point where I usually change my mind about the color of my ocean,
rivers, or lakes. Click on the ocean layer and make a new layer. Control-click on
the base layer. Select > modify > expand = 50. Select > feather = 50. Select >
inverse. Pick a different color then fill and deselect. Ill probably change my
mind about this color at least 2 more times so I just add a layer style of color
overlay. At this point, you could have as many as 20 layers or as few as 5 (for this
tut I have 19) but it doesnt really matter as long as it looks right or good to you.
When finally done and happy, save the document as continent 1 or something
(this is so that we always have an original to come back to) then merge all of the
layers (except for the base layer and base copy layer) and save as something like
continent 1 flat. If you want to add things like borders and cities and trade
routes then make sure to work on the flat image and not the original because
every layer adds chunks of memory for the computer to handle. By keeping the
base layer we retain the ability to delete borders that run off into the ocean and
lakes.
This map looks pretty fantastic and I spend a lot of time just staring at my maps
and fantasizing about orc raiding parties coming down from the mountains and
Vikings raiding coastal towns and whats going on at the village fair and deciding
where I would place towns and roads. Then I get into economic systems and
socio-political factions and races and magic then suddenly Ive lost a month
somewhere. Heres my final.

111