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[Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

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[Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby Poposhka on Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:09 pm

How to make stunning CC maps in Photoshop
NOTE:DOWNLOADABLE PDF VERSION OF THIS GUIDE



(PS: All the images in this guide are thumbnails, you can click them to view a bigger resolution)

== Tools ==
- Adobe Photoshop
- A nice stock map drawing or photo
- Mouse skills


== Preface ==
Before I begin, let me just tell you that I am a very casual user of Photoshop, and have figured these techniques out by pure experimentation. There may be tools or tricks that I am oblivious too, and probably should be using. If you see anything of such nature in this guide, please let me know.

This guide uses very basic tools in Photoshop, and is based on Layers, Eraser, and simple Layer Blending effects.


== Let's do this thing ==
First off, get hold of a nice looking map to start with. It can be either hand drawn, a photo, a google maps screen capture or whatever. The trick here is: the better looking the map, the better the result.


After I open the map in Photoshop, the first thing I do is decide what area I will be working with. In this guide, I will be working with the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). When I have decided on my area, I go ahead and select the RECTANGULAR MARQUEE TOOL, then make a generous cut around the area I'm working on.

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Then, I cut and paste the selection. CTRL+C, followed by CTRL+V. I now get a new layer in the LAYERS box. This layer will end up being our background and working surface. I now hide the big map from view by clicking the eyeball next to its layer. What you will notice is that a checkered surface appears - this is Photoshops way of indicating "nothing".

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In the picture you can see I have renamed the layer (right click the layer - select rename) to something sensible like in this case "iberian peninsula", I have also zoomed in on the piece i'm working on. The next step is crucial: I now right click the "iberian peninsula" layer and select BLENDING OPTIONS.

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This opens a message box, and in here I first (1) click INNER GLOW (make sure the checkbox is checked as well as the background highlighted) then (2) I select HARD LIGHT in the drop down box, and lastly change the color to black (3) - this color can be anything you want, really, i pick black because it's nice and crisp.

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I OK out from the box, and now you can see that our layer has a nice black border on its inside. Now it's time to start cutting up the zones that will divide our iberian peninsula. I have decided beforehand that I'm gonna make 4 zones: Portugal, Southern Spain, Eastern Spain, and Northern Spain. Eastern Spain is also going to contain the islands off the coast: Mallorca, Ibiza and all those.

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Let's begin with Portugal: I right click the "Iberian Peninsula" layer, and select DUPLICATE LAYER. I name the layer "Portugal" in the box that pops up. Note that the layer "Portugal" is 'above' the 'Iberian Peninsula' layer. that means it is physically on top of that layer.

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Now select the ERASER TOOL in photoshop. And make sure you got a nice big eraser to work with, and that the OPACITY and FLOW is set to 100% - we are going to cut out the basic shape of our zone.

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Make sure the "Portugal" layer is highlighted, then cut in on the image! Here you can see how I just cut right in on the middle of the image, and the black INNER GLOW has adjusted around the big eraser we just pulled across the screen. You might notice that the map seems intact.. the eraser only wiped out the "Portugal" layer, the "Iberian peninsula" layer underneath is intact, as we only have the "Portugal" layer selected.

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Let's try something! Shall We? Go ahead and hide the "iberian peninsula" layer by clicking the eye next to its layer, just like we did with the background layer. Look at that! we can see the checkered "nothing" now.

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Go ahead and un-hide the "iberian peninsula" layer again by clicking the eye... and lets continue carving out portugal. You can see in the next image that i have erased a very simple rectangle around portugal.

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Since we are only interested in keeping the picture that actually represents the zone here, we will delete all the outlying areas, we do this in the following fashion:

Click the QUICK SELECTION TOOL
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Click the area representing portugal, note how Photoshop selects the erased-out area.
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Then right click the screen and select SELECT INVERSE.
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Then press your DELETE KEY... voila! everything except our portugal chunk is gone.
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Right click and select DESELECT
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NOw, click the ERASER TOOL again and adjust your eraser size to something smaller, and start cleaning up the borders.
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Zoom in, adjust eraser size again and clean up more... jagged edges look nice.
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Zoom out and .... nice nice! look at that! we got our first zone done
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Now the trick with this layer is that we can manipulate it independently of other layers, say I wanted to make it greenish in hue. Make sure I have the "Portugal" layer selected, then go to IMAGE->ADJUSTMENTS->COLOR BALANCE. then adjust the color balance towards green.

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Color balance stays forever on the layer though, so be careful if you apply it - you will have hard time to change it back. Another way is to go into the BLENDING OPTIONS again.

Here, i've selected EMBOSS.. giving portugal a cool raised effect.
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Here is COLOR OVERLAY with 43% blending (transparency), I don't think it looks as good as adjusting the overall color balance, but color overlay is more convenient since you can go in and change it whenever you want.
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I won't apply any effects right now, and you can play around with them to find cool combinations. Instead I will move on and add our next zone: Southern Spain. As we did before, select the "Iberian Peninsula" layer, then right click and select DUPLICATE LAYER. I name this layer "Southern Spain".

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Assure that the "southern spain" layer is selected then carve out a basic shape I like. As you can see, the eraser goes "underneath" the portugal layer we created earlier.

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Now do the whole QUICK SELECT, SELECT INVERSE, DELETE motion again, then up the borders as before.

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As you can see, I still have the border to portugal left, this is the "tricky" (not really) part. I now erase along the portugal border (on the portugal side of it) - I know this is happening because i can see the dark inner glow creeping in on the southern spain side.


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Now, I can hide the "portugal" layer to see how it worked out.

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You can see the "cut" along the border, I now go ahead and erase the unwanted rightmost parts that got separated from my zone. Then show the "portugal" layer again. Two zones down! Here I have added color overlays to the zones.. Green for portugal, and yellow for southern spain.

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In a similar fashion, I now carve out northern spain.
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Ta Daa
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Lastly, eastern spain. I carve this out as before, but as you might have guessed, i leave the balearic islands in ..
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tidying up the borders
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The 4 zones side by side.
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It's really that simple, and Photoshop is an amazing product which only your imagination is the limit.

Good luck and hopefully this guide helped you a little bit!

-- Poposhka
Last edited by Poposhka on Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Postby gimil on Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:17 pm

Ive moved this to foundry discussions.

This looks like a neat little guide, ill get to reading it in a little while :)
What do you know about map making, bitch?

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Postby Poposhka on Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:17 pm

drats, sorry about that, i was in the wrong forum when I eventually posted.


thanks for moving it. :oops:
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Postby gimil on Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:18 pm

Poposhka wrote:drats, sorry about that, i was in the wrong forum when I eventually posted.


thanks for moving it. :oops:


No problem 8)
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Postby InkL0sed on Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:58 am

I haven't even read the whole thing, and I'm still learning tons!

Thanks! :D
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Postby bryguy on Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:56 am

i cant see the pictures!! ah!
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Postby Ogrecrusher on Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:03 am

Is there anyway you could put this is a form that I could download? My problem is that I don't have access to any computers with both Photoshop AND internet, it's one or the other... :(
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Postby Lone.prophet on Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:16 am

nice job on the tutorial it has some nice tricks. in the start instead of inner glow maybe you can better use stroke and set it to inner that will give a clearer line.

thought for what ur using it now its not the fastest/easiest or cleanest way, but it will get the job done.
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Postby Poposhka on Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:16 pm

@Lone.prophet
Stroke is fine as well, I tried to illustrate that the Blending Options dialog has several tools that you can use to make nice borders. There is no one technique, I'm simply just showing a way of doing it. I would encourage everyone to play around with the settings in Blending Options and see what results they can come up with.

@Ogrecrusher
I'll put this all into a PDF and clean it up and see if i can upload it somewhere.


-- edit: OK I have a PDF hosted here: http://laurenstephens.net/uploads/2624b8a9ed.pdf
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Postby Ogrecrusher on Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:21 am

Cheers! I'll have a look at that over the weekend!
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Postby Kaplowitz on Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:56 pm

If you erase things in Photoshop it has a shadow? :? THat's weird but probably useful.
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby RjBeals on Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:55 am

Wow... This is so opposite to how I make maps! But good work putting something like this together. It should help some new users learn a thing or two about layers and blending options (the 2 most important things to making maps).
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby InkL0sed on Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:34 am

RjBeals wrote:Wow... This is so opposite to how I make maps! But good work putting something like this together. It should help some new users learn a thing or two about layers and blending options (the 2 most important things to making maps).


How do you make maps then? It's always good to hear alternative methods.
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby DiM on Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:46 am

never use images found on the web, create your own.
i mean no disrespect to the OP but this is the worst way to create a map.
if you want to make such abominations go to landgrab or something.

putting some colour overlays on somebody else's work is not only poor sportsmanship but also a horrible piece of crap.
“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby RjBeals on Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:50 am

DiM wrote:never use images found on the web, create your own.
i mean no disrespect to the OP but this is the worst way to create a map.
if you want to make such abominations go to landgrab or something.

putting some colour overlays on somebody else's work is not only poor sportsmanship but also a horrible piece of crap.


Amen Brother.
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby bryguy on Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:47 pm

RjBeals wrote:
DiM wrote:never use images found on the web, create your own.
i mean no disrespect to the OP but this is the worst way to create a map.
if you want to make such abominations go to landgrab or something.

putting some colour overlays on somebody else's work is not only poor sportsmanship but also a horrible piece of crap.


Amen Brother.



yea and the result 90% of the time is quite ugly
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby Kaplowitz on Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:40 pm

DiM wrote:never use images found on the web, create your own.
i mean no disrespect to the OP but this is the worst way to create a map.
if you want to make such abominations go to landgrab or something.

putting some colour overlays on somebody else's work is not only poor sportsmanship but also a horrible piece of crap.


I think thats fine if you use that to make your borders, i mean i dont understand how else people do it...

And DiM, easier said than done when all of your maps are made up :roll: :lol:
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby DiM on Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:31 pm

Kaplowitz wrote:
DiM wrote:never use images found on the web, create your own.
i mean no disrespect to the OP but this is the worst way to create a map.
if you want to make such abominations go to landgrab or something.

putting some colour overlays on somebody else's work is not only poor sportsmanship but also a horrible piece of crap.


I think thats fine if you use that to make your borders, i mean i dont understand how else people do it...

And DiM, easier said than done when all of your maps are made up :roll: :lol:


it's one thing to take an image trace the borders and then delete that image and start filling the terits with colour, and it's a whole different thing when you keep that image and just add some overlays. ;)

and my maps are REAL just BELIEVE in them and have FAITH because they are MAGICAL
“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby bryguy on Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:58 pm

DiM wrote:
Kaplowitz wrote:
DiM wrote:never use images found on the web, create your own.
i mean no disrespect to the OP but this is the worst way to create a map.
if you want to make such abominations go to landgrab or something.

putting some colour overlays on somebody else's work is not only poor sportsmanship but also a horrible piece of crap.


I think thats fine if you use that to make your borders, i mean i dont understand how else people do it...

And DiM, easier said than done when all of your maps are made up :roll: :lol:


it's one thing to take an image trace the borders and then delete that image and start filling the terits with colour, and it's a whole different thing when you keep that image and just add some overlays. ;)

and my maps are REAL just BELIEVE in them and have FAITH because they are MAGICAL


u sound like walt disney :lol:

are u?!?! :shock:
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby RjBeals on Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:26 pm

InkL0sed wrote:How do you make maps then? It's always good to hear alternative methods.


viewtopic.php?p=1087840#p1087840

Check out this post. It was a simple map example I did for someone who asked if it was hard to make a map. There is a psd file there you can take a look at if you're ever bored one day. I kinda liked the look of the map also ;)
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby Kaplowitz on Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:37 pm

RjBeals wrote:
InkL0sed wrote:How do you make maps then? It's always good to hear alternative methods.


viewtopic.php?p=1087840#p1087840

Check out this post. It was a simple map example I did for someone who asked if it was hard to make a map. There is a psd file there you can take a look at if you're ever bored one day. I kinda liked the look of the map also ;)

Wow! That is genius to use color overlay for everything! And i didnt know you could make folders :oops:
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby pepperonibread on Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:43 pm

Kaplowitz wrote:
RjBeals wrote:
InkL0sed wrote:How do you make maps then? It's always good to hear alternative methods.


viewtopic.php?p=1087840#p1087840

Check out this post. It was a simple map example I did for someone who asked if it was hard to make a map. There is a psd file there you can take a look at if you're ever bored one day. I kinda liked the look of the map also ;)

Wow! That is genius to use color overlay for everything! And i didnt know you could make folders :oops:


I love folders... sometimes I even use sub-folders.
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby RjBeals on Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:46 pm

pepperonibread wrote:I love folders... sometimes I even use sub-folders.

I do also. It keeps thing really organized that way.

Mibi taught me about the benefits of color overlays.
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby DiM on Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:27 am

RjBeals wrote:
pepperonibread wrote:I love folders... sometimes I even use sub-folders.

I do also. It keeps thing really organized that way.

Mibi taught me about the benefits of color overlays.



not to mention with the use of folders you can easily have back-ups. then if something goes wrong just duplicate the layers in a previous back up.

as for the colour overlays their main advantage is the ease of switching colours around in case the public doesn't like them.

one disadvantage of colour overlays is that if you copy paste a layer style around you'll have to manually readjust the colours in each overlay. if you're not a blending options abuser you can get away easy with-out pasting the layer style but if you are you'll see this is a big problem unless you note down the colour codes.
so what i do is make special overlay layers. so i have the main layer with effects and all then on top of that the overlay layer (which can be done with clipping masks or by simply creating a new layer with the same shape ctrl+click and setting it to overlay or what ever suits you). the advantage is that you can leave the overlays alone and then simply copy paste the effects in the main layer onto other layers
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Re: [Guide] Create stunning maps in Photoshop!

Postby RjBeals on Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:31 am

DiM wrote:colour


:roll: Come on now.
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