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Ever wondered how it feels like to be a cartographer? Wonder no more! With this tutorial you’ll be able to make a unique customizable map quickly. Starting from scratch, you’ll make an old-looking map fit for a treasure hunter! Now lets begin. Arghhhh!
Step 1
Open Photoshop, and create a new document. Then making sure your brush’s foreground is black and the background is white, create a Cloud Render (Filter > Render > Clouds).
Step 2
Then Posterize the image (Image > Adjustments > Posterize), and choose a level of 2. Congratulations! You’ve just created your landmass in 2 easy steps. I’ve also renamed this layer “landmass” for tidiness.
Step 3
Then using the Magic Wand Tool (W), click on a white area and delete it. Make sure that you’ve unchecked Contiguous in the wand’s option and set the Tolerance to 0 so that it will select everything white.
Step 4
Now to create the background. I began by hiding the landmass for an easier view and creating a layer below it. Then I chose the Paint Bucket Tool (K) and filled it with a dark brown. Here I chose #5C4D2B.
Step 5
Now to add some life into the background. With the Gradient Tool (G) and light brown (#AB9E67), I created a light spot in the canvas. Don’t forget to set your Gradient Tool to a Radial Gradient.
Step 6
Now that we are done with the basic background, turn back on the landmass layer. I’ve also changed the landmass from black to a dark brown (#2A2415). To do so, just Ctrl-click the picture of the layer in the layer palette and fill it (Edit > Fill).
Step 7
Using Photoshop’s built-in shapes, I then created a compass in the corner with a grayish brown (#7E735B) in a new layer. To find this shape, choose the Custom Shape Tool (U) and find the compass. If you can’t find it try clicking the small arrow on the right of the box and choosing All Elements and Shapes. Don’t forget to press Shift when you are drawing it so that it will expand to scale.
Step 8
Create another new layer above the compass layer. Now make some white stripes across your canvas. To do this use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and create a long rectangle stretching from the top to the bottom. Then fill it with white (#FFFFFF) (Edit > Fill). Do as many as needed until the end of the canvas. Try to space them as evenly as possible.
Step 9
Now distort (Image > Transform > Distort) the stripes into a ray of light. To distort, move the corner “nodes” of the box into something close to a triangle (it should still have 4 points). Then rotate the stripes into the corner. Make sure to bleed it out. Then using a big fat soft round Eraser (E), erase the end of the stripes to make the light fade.
Step 10
Now to blend it in with the picture, change the layer style to Soft Light and the Opacity to around 5%.
Step 11
Create a layer above the light layer and create another cloud. This time instead of using black and white, use a dark and a light brown.
Step 12
Next set the new cloud layer you’ve just created to Color Dodge with a 42% Opacity to make some texture and light.
Step 13
Now we’ll create the grid. First minimize your map document and create a new document. Make sure that you select transparent for the background (Under Contents, tick Transparent). For this tutorial, I created a big grid with 100×100px, but whatever size you want will work. Now using the Pencil Tool (N) set at 1px, draw a line on the right and bottom side. Then select everything (Ctrl+A) and turn it into a pattern (Edit > Define Pattern).
Step 14
Now with the new pattern you’ve created, paint a grid on a new layer. To do so, choose the Paint Bucket Tool (K) then for the fill choose Pattern rather than the foreground. Then when you open the dialog box for the pattern, your pattern should be there. Then to make the grid more subtle, change the opacity to 10%.
Step 15
We can now add more of an Old-World feel by darkening the corners. To do this, create a new layer then use a big fat black Brush (B) and brush evenly across the corner. Remember to only paint on the opposite side of our ray of light. Then change the opacity of the new layer to somewhere around 80% to make it more subtle. You may choose to stop here to gain this kind of map effect. Or you can follow the next step to intensify the effect.
Step 16
Now for the optional final step. Merge all layers (Ctrl+Shift+E) and apply a Grain Filter (Filter > Texture > Grain). Choose Speckle for the type of grain. You may modify the grain’s intensity and contract as you wish. Here I chose 35 for the intensity and 68 for the contrast. Congratulations! You have just finished your first map from scratch.
Step 17
Results of the tutorial may vary, and you can alter it to suit your needs or preference. I hope you’ve found this tutorial useful. Good luck and happy shopping.
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By Jonathan
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I totally agree with the comments made by Greg, smear & Don, and in my opinion, this tutorial doesn’t belong on PSDTuts.
I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but there should be a stricter quality control.
I like it until step 15 tbh
You naysayers: wow, get over yourselves. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. As for the “quality” of the tutorial, and whether or not it belongs on this site, who are you to judge? If it’s not up to your standards, make your own site where you can decide what is worthy for people to see, and what’s beneath them.
For myself, as someone who is just starting to become a little more affluent with PhotoShop, I found this tutorial easy to implement, with very cool results. While I agree with those who stated that it would not have any use in a cartography field, I wouldn’t write the technique off as useless. The result, even up to and including the last step, is very similar to the effects I have seen in role-playing and adventure video games. So the technique does have it’s uses. Also, many of the steps could be implemented in other ways on other projects.
Guess it’s true what they say: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, criticize.”
This rocks! For those of us still learning Photoshop, tutorials like this are just what we need. I learned several new things following this. Thanks!
http://www.andystewart-design.com
Nice one
Haha, instant landmass….that’s awesome, I love it.
This is an awesome tutorial…does anyone have suggestions for more tutorials that use those rays of light…and a better explanation of how to use them!?!
really cool i tried out and it work perfectly
ty bro
Hey guys, this tutorial got ripped by Tutorial Zone. Check it out! – http://www.tutorialzone.org/how-to-create-an-old-world-map-in-photoshop/
Any reactions?
Definitely been ripped by them. I left a comment, asking if they had permission to post it, and apparently they changed it, making it say “Really Cool Tutorial, Man. Thanks!”
They also submitted their “version” to P2L. I’ve alerted Faken [the Admin] to it already
so what about this one http://techworlds.org/forum/index.php?s=b8fbacbbc74141d1295692bf5d3bf6e6&showtopic=4000
Nice Tut! I was reading previous comments and some of the negs just have no inspiration! You keep uop the GREAT work my friend. I often cruise these sites for inspiration, and your’s is just awe inspiring. This is coming from a successful artist with 30 years of hard experience too. Kudos to you young man.
Do old maps have gloss?
Thanks for tutorial! Result is very nice. I would be only interested more in real world shape.
Helpful tutorial, appreciate your effort. Thanks.
Thanks guys, appreciate it.
@Kritik Haha, good point.
Nice tutorial! I was wondering if there is a way to prevent (or fix) the step effect when creating Gradients in Photoshop? I never noticed it on my old monitor but since I have a new one (a very good one) I can see that Photoshop’s Gradients are not really smooth (even with Dither checked). Gaussian blur doesn’t seem to cut it either.
A lot of people forget what tutorials like these are for. Tutorials are for learning skills to APPLY to works of your own. The final image here may look amatuerish, but the concepts are very well founded and illustrated. Go further with them and create something that isn’t so “amatuerish” of your own.
Nice tut.
Very cool and so easy.
Very inspiring too.
Thank You
Also..I found it fun to do as one can create a map of their own world.
And to whomever made this “we designers” remark..not all of us feel the same way.
Sometimes I like to dinker around creating my own world..the tutorial gives me a base to work from.
I like simple tutorials…being “professional” isn’t synonymous with being complicated with millions of steps.
Anyways..it is nice to see that one can make some nifty stuff with simple filters.
Now that I know how to do this..I might try doing a selection of the map, expand the borders and fill with a color and texture to create shoreline…so many possibilities.
Nice tutorial, Jonathan. Getting Photoshop to quickly spit out a random coastal outline is something I, for one, *do* find useful. I’m posting a link at the Cartographers’ Guild, a community of fantasy cartographers. If fictional maps are something you have a more than passing interest in, you should come by and check it out. We’d be glad to trade tips with you!
http://www.cartographersguild.com
Thank’s, very usefull!
Hey im a super noob to photoshop and I have a problem: When I fill the picture with the bucket tool with brown and then after try to fill it with a gradient tool to make that lighter spot, it replaces the filled brown spot all together e.g All i see is a bright brown spot and everything else is white. How do I fix this? thx
I hate to break it to you but this is just not very good. Looks amateur. You didn’t even anti-alias the edges of the map.
Looks pretty cool but has anybody even tried to reproduce this?
I did and unfortunately I have to say this tutorial skips a lot of important steps and does not give sufficient information about how to do some things.
But still it is a start
Bad tutorial. Instead of using a smart object, you just merge layers. Instead of using a gradient overlay, you use improvement…
good tutorial
thank you.
Oh wow, I remember this tutorial. It’s the first tutorial I read that got me into the whole Photoshop + Web-design craze… I love you psdtuts
Hi, I tried your tutorial and really liked it. I will be doing a bit of tweaking to get the effect I want. Overall your tutorial was quite easy to follow. I learned how to use a couple of PS techniques that I hadn’t used before so that was nice. Thanks so much for posting it. I gave a link back on my blog so my readers can enjoy the tutorial as well.
great picture but how to create a account plz reply me on this Email:s.khizarfarhat@yahoo.com plz reply me ok.
Re Smart Objects and such.. Not everyone has or can afford the latest greatest version of photoshop, so it’s nice to see tutorials that can still use the capabilities of the older versions.
And it would be nice if people put as much effort into improving on things rather than tearing things down – if this tutorial is so horrible, write your own.
The point of it is to teach techniques that might otherwise be overlooked. It’s a springboard, not an end result.
That having been said, I had fun with this one, learned a few new tricks (i’d never worked with the grain filter before, and unlike some people commenting previously, I DO have use for non-realworld coastlines), and made my own version (using tips I’d learned from other tutorials over the last few days off this site).
This tutorial inspired me, and that’s exactly what it’s meant to do – i’ll be working and tweaking this one for awhile, i have a feeling, but it’s got a great foundation.. http://home.cogeco.ca/~coyote/sigils/map3.jpg
Thank you Jonathan!
Thanks, this was very usefull.
I made one too. Check URL
thanx! it’s really wonderful and super easy! I love this website and all the people who make such a good job here!
loved it n so easy thanks man
Woo! nice one.. helped me get a cool looking map right away! Lots of thanks!
Nice… I used a few techniques from this tut in a three year old’s birthday party invitation. (The theme was Tinkerbell… hello, Neverland!)
Thanks!