How to Make a Fantasy Map in Photoshop
Introduction: How to Make a Fantasy Map in Photoshop
This is a tutorial to make a random continent map that you can use for anything that you want! This tutorial will help create nice looking maps that can range from all over the world!
Step 1: Setting Up the Canvas
I generally start mine as 1920x1080 so then I can be able to use the map as a desktop background as I want, and also it is just a good size to use.
Step 2: The Ocean
After you have your canvas, open the color picker, and choose a blue to use for the ocean, this is the color that I used, and then fill up the background with the blue.
Step 3: Step One in Making a Continent
To get the continent shapes, first create a new layer, and make sure your color pallet is black and white. With the new layer selected, go to Filter -> Render -> Clouds. This should give a misty cloud image on your canvas.
Step 4: Step Two in Making a Continent
To get the hard continent outlines, go to Filter -> Artistic -> Cutout. Use the settings that I use, and you should be able to get hard sided shapes which have outlines of good coastlines, and many shapes that you can use for continents. Press OK to apply the filter.
Step 5: Step Three in Making a Continent
Grab the lasso tool and select figures that you could use for continents. They could just be used for coastlines, or just whole shapes or islands. Just select shapes that you would want to use and possibly think of the kind of shape you want your continent to be. You can use ctrl+i to invert the colors of the map.
Step 6: Putting Them Together
After you have chosen your landmasses, hide or delete the old clouds layer and select the Wand selection tool and delete the gray parts around the lands.
Step 7: Form a Continent
Adjust however you'd like to fit them together, you can even draw in the middle of the continent to fill it up and just use the shapes as coast line. Just transform them using ctrl+t into whatever shape you'd like.
Step 8: Putting It Together
Merge the layers that make up the continent and then select the area of it by holding down ctrl and clicking in the box next to the layer name with the picture. It should automatically select the space it contains.
Step 9: Colorizing
Create a new layer with the outline still selected, and give it a nice grassy green color to fill it with, or with whatever biome type you'd like. 110
I kept the info for that color in the picture so you can use it if you'd like. Then get the fill bucket tool and fill the layer.
Step 10: Adding a Coast
With the outline still selected, add a new layer below the continent one, and go to Select -> Modify -> Expand, and make it expand by 10 pixels. On this new layer fill it with a light blue color so it looks like a simple coastline around your continent.
Step 11: Waves
To create a ripple effect in the water around the continent, take the brush I selected, or just a regular one with a small pixel size, I used 3.
Step 12: Ripples
You can use the same layer as the coastline, just add small lines around the continent. Generally big ones near and then smaller line waves further away.
Step 13: Adding the Moutains
Next add a new layer and select back to a black color for the brush. For the mountains I am using this brush set, which I will use for the mountains, hills, grasses, and trees. It is a very good brush set and it perfect for what we need. Here's a link on how to install brush sets. After you have it, place mountain ranges however you'd like, and mix them up to make it look nice.
Step 14: Starting the Rivers
Next we make a new layer to put the rivers on. Again select a small brush like the one we used for the ripples and use the eye dropper tool to select the color of the ocean.
Step 15: River Mechanics
Draw a couple of rivers spreading out from your mountain sides. Don't forget that generally rivers do not split. Here I just drew a couple main rivers, and in the next step I will be adding more smaller ones.
Step 16: River Systems
After having a main river canal/drainage basin pattern, get a slightly smaller brush size and add rivers that will flow into that one from different angles of the mountains.Like I said they generally don't split, but doesn't mean they can't, because this is your world and you can do whatever you want.
Step 17: Coloring the Biomes
For this step we will be coloring the boimes of the continent. 110