Basics of map drawing
Well I suppose we need a map to work with. I'm going to start out with a simple map and make it into a real map. Since this is mainly for exersize, this map isn't going to be incredibly fantastic. It will, however, have every single (working) feature of the Dragon mod. If you've not already gotten it, now is the time to do so.
Quick Recap:
Open Photoshop
Load the actions
Run the "Map Template (Ry mod 9)" action
Run the "Set Ocean and Dungeons" action
Load either the swatch file or the colortable.bmp for reference and color picking
Draw something
Here's what I've drawn:
Nothing much, but I've got a pretty good idea where I want to go with this. We've got a continent with some islands, some rivers, and some mountains. This pretty much makes up the basic map. I use grass 0 as a starting point for the land, water -5, and rock 10 for colors.
A Hill
I'll start out simple. Pick any brush and using the grass colors paint an area of grass 2. Then in that new area, paint an area of grass 5. continue as high as needed. Easy.
Using hills to make uneven terrain
This is one of the staples of my land. It's good for creating interesting landscapes without making it unwalkable or unusable.
This is just about as easy but is more useful since you've got more control over what gets painted. I'm going to create a semi-random terrian area with hills.
Using the lasso tool, draw an outline of an area:
Select a unique brush. Here's the one I've picked:
Start painting with grass 5, using a slightly overlapping method. Here's in progress:
Once finished, use the Magic Wand to de-select the grass 0 area in the selection, and Contract the selection by 3 and smooth the selection. (F2 and F4, with my actions)
Select a different brush:
Then paint the area the same as before, except with grass 10:
Repeat as desired, but eventually you'll reach the point where there's not much left to actualy select:
In this final selection I usually just use a regular brush and fill in the remaining areas completely:
Once finished, de-select it and you end up with almost a camo type pattern. I also go back and tweak anything that looks too odd or unnatural. Here's the final hill (closeup):
As you can see, this creates something to actually look at in game, but still leaves enough areas to where houses can be placed, if allowed.
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