[Dthclaw]

Interesting. I'll have to try that sometime. I picked up Photoshop CS3, so I'll see if there's any other handy tricks to try in there.

[Axel]

Ok, another possibility. It looks a little fake, but that's compensated for later on. To modify the elevation to suit your own purposes run over the clouds filter with an airbrush, high flow, low opacity, large brush size. The idea is to slowly raise or lower the elevation with short passes. If you don't like it, hit Undo and try again. If you do it with the gradient visible you can see the effect.
Also on the background: Filter -> Distort -> Ocean Ripple, both settings quite low, about 10 and 1 respectively. Makes your water look a little more like water.
I'm still working on a way to get weather patterns. And does anyone knos how to automatically change all of one color to another?

[Dthclaw]

I know it's possible to select a single color in a layer, but I can't recall exactly how at the moment, it's late, etc. I'll see if I can find it sometime tomorrow.

[Sweitir]

An easy way of selecting colors you want is to either use the magical wand tool, or the color selection tool; they both have their advantages and disadvantages. To use the color selection tool click Selection in the toolbar and click Color Selection. Then use the eyedropper to choose the color you want to select. In the popup window the "white" is the selection.

[blacxthornE]

(well i can see that this is kind of an old thread, but since it's been dug, i may as well contribute...)

you can also use Image > Adjustments > Replace Color...
when you do this you see a popup window much like the one you see when you use Selection > Color Range, but also there are Hue/Saturation/Lightness bars so you can select a color range, change the color and preview at the same time. this is effectively Color Range & Hue/Saturation/Lightness combined in one tool.

and if you find something useful, you may assign shortcuts so you don't go through all those menus. press Alt+Shift+Ctrl+K. now you can see the Keyboard Shortcuts window. select "Application Menus" in the "Shortcuts For:" box, then find any menu item you like and assign a shortcut to it. if there's a conflict, the program will warn you and you can choose to undo or override.

[Prior Gunnar]

I know this is quite an old thread, but I'm hoping someone can help me

I'm having an issue with the below quote, I select the land layer OK, I apply the clouds filter OK, I add the gradient map OK, but I have no idea how to "Use the following colours: (feel free to tweak the colors as you see fit!)

I just don't see where in Photoshop CS/3 you can change the colours of the gradient map to the 8 listed colours.

I know I'm missing something trivial here. Can anyone help out?


STEP 2 - Imitating the Topography

Now select the land layer (ctrl+click on the layer in the layers palette). With it selected, do a clouds filter (with default colors again). Now add a gradient map (at the bottom of the layers palette click the circle with half dark and half light, then select Gradient Map). Use the following colors: (feel free to tweak the colors as you see fit!)

495746 | 3F473A | 4F6340 | 43513A | 5F7252 | 7C8449 | E5D5C5 | FFFFFF

You may have to move the sliders around to get the desired effect.

[Axel]

In spite of how long it's been, I have another useful piece to add. You can make your finished map look like an old style fantasy map. Save your map through File - Save for Web. Save it as a JPEG at maximum quality with little blur. Find a drawn fantasy map you like (or scan your own). Select a symbol on the map (for example a single mountain in a chain), and through Edit - Set Pattern. If that doesn't work copy paste that small piece into a new image and then try again. Now magic wand select the color of your mountains, Layer - New Fill Layer, Pattern, and select the pattern you just created. A new layer will be created in which all mountains are covered by the mountain symbol. Now repeat for hills, forests, grasslands, and any other terrain types you want visible on your map. Anything you can't find an appropriate symbol for (say, the ocean?) simply delete using the Magic Wand and replace with a flat color you think is appropriate for parchment. To put a line around your coast (a coastline?) magic wand select the deleted (or pre-deletion) ocean, replace it all with black or dark brown, Selection - Modify - Contract by 1 or 2 pixels, then delete the rest. You can improve the look of the deleted portion by using adding noise through the filter menu. Note that much of this part is very subjective.