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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 100x100px, 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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Nice tut…Its like a real world map…
Thanks for sharing
wow this is nice.. Ill try to use this later… cool tuts bro..nice job.
Looks really professional! Thanks for sharing.
Nice Tutorial Johnathan!
I personally like it without the addition step (16) more, but I guess to each his own.
Also, I have a tip to make the edges a bit more soft since they seem a bit jagged in the final result. If you create the original Landmass on a larger canvas than the intended size, and then size down the landmass after deleting the white areas, it will turn up a lot less jagged.
I like the step 15 version. The land mass trick is wild. I like that. Thanks for the tutorial.
Thanks for pioneering such a great website. Absolutely the best photoshop tutorial/inspirational site available.
Thank you!
Simple, but will come in very useful. Thanks!
Hmmm, not to be ‘Mr. Raincloud’ over here, but this one doesn’t seem real useful to me. The first two steps are pretty nifty though! :)
just take the things u learn and appreciate..
Beautiful outcome as usual! Good use of filters in this one too, people are too scared to use filters these days.
Boring.
dumbass
This is a really great tutorial, I gotta try this out.
I kinda like the result better actually before the last step where you puton the grain filter.
Ãt´s very fresh and nice like that!
Great job Jonathan!
Sorry for double comment: One thing I would suggest though is you make the land texture in a larger document, then size it down so the edges aren’t so sharp. Know what I mean?
dope tutorial!
And it seems as if you tried to make it a bit easier to follow then the previous ones, good
I ‘wow’ed out-loud at the first two steps… So simple but so clever! Nice tutorial.
I found it useful to apply a slight blur to the landmass layer to get rid of some of the jagged edges that make it look unnatural.
Nice Tutorial!
I will not need a treasure map every day but the techniques used can be useful in a wide variety of projects.
Maybe I just found my inspiration for the Christmas cards I am due to make :)
It’s okay, but I’ve seen better on this site.
comparing to other tuts here, its kinda on low lvl.
Nice but The Grain Filter shouldnt be on the compass.
I do effects like this all the time to create maps and the parchment paper texture. There’s actually a rally nice way to do the grain that requires quite a few more effects.
For the landmass, when the white is still there, I would apple a Gaussian Blur, zoom in and adjust the blur just after you lose the pixelated edge. Now go to Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast and bring the contrast way up to sharpen the edge back up. You’ll now have a nice clean edge.
At the end, the grain filter is nice. but there’s better ways to go about it. Play around with a combo of Filter>Render>Clouds and applying Filter>Artistic>Watercolor.
Thanks for your tutorial, It´s a good one.
It’s amusing to me to see a tutorial that I needed a while back. Great tut :)
Considering these are fake land masses, I don’t see this being much real use. It’s kind of “hoakey” in fact. :(
Very cool! The rays in the last optional step look a bit out of place though.
I would lose the last “optional” step. Otherwise an easy to follow tut.
looks kinda useless… :(
The map idea might be useless but it’s all about the process. You can always pick up something useful. Thank you very much.
@ jens: The grain filter should be on the compass because its printed on the paper
@ joe: they might not be real landmasses but you could use the same effects on a real map, but thats besides the point, it doesnt have to be real for most purposes you could make an MMO bassed around that map and use it in gameplay to show your position, or you could make it to learn photoshop,burt monroy quote ” its not about the end product, its about how you get there.”
Check out the map i made on. [link] http://doeff.deviantart.com/art/Old-Sea-Map-71721501 [link/]
Greetz Doeff
The first 2 steps were interesting, then it got rather amateur. Especially the last step. The very “filtery” look of the map doesn’t make it look old-world, but more cheaply done in this tutorial.
I would suggest teaching people how to do a paper texture, then overlaying the map, adding grid lines, and the compass.
No offense, but I’ve come to expect more professional tutorials from this site. Little things, like in step 8, it says “Try to space them as evenly as possible.” about the white bars. Isn’t that what Distribute is for? It reads as very amateur.
Thanks to a very useful tutorials. It´s simple to follow your steps, even for a swedish guy.
/Michael
Collis…your tutorials rule. I actually send people from my newsletter here because it is what the internet should be all about.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the tips on blurring out the edges guys. Well if you don’t think it’s useful feel free not to use it. I mean there is nothing to lose here right? and remember sharing is caring!
@Jens Thanks for the idea, can’t believe I didn’t think of the idea.
The screenshot for Step 7 has the stripes that you introduce several step later. Minor issue though. Pretty good tutorial overall. Can easily be manipulated to achieve other effects.
Hi there,
really nice and very useful for header graphics with a map inside. :D
This one could be better.
The final effect is real cool. I like the most how did you create the stripes, i saw everywhere, people using in their designs.
I would disagree with blurring the edges, I’m sure it boils down to personal opinion but seeing as this is an old style ‘hand-drawn’ map, looking natural isn’t really a big deal.
One suggestion I can think of, if you go into Google maps and use the new terrain view to look at a remote area you can get a screen-cap . Past that layer above your land-mass then de-saturate the layer. Mask it with a soft brush around the cost-lines and other features then play with the layer styles an opacity to taste. Depending on the area of the map you choose and your zoom level, you will get some nice terrain and even some city marks.
Guys, dont be so harsh. The tutorial is good. Not because of the map effect but because of the technique in the first two steps. I really like the combining of clouds with posterize. If not for drawing maps use it for tons of ideas…… eg. Put the result of Cloud + posterize on a background wall to have flaky paint. Put it on background paper for wet – dry paper, put it as grunge beckground….
It’s alright. I expect better from this site, lol.
Not really a fan of this one. Seems like just a random assortment of filters, and high contrast. Really noobish compared with the outcomes f other tutorails on this site. Especially considering how bad the compass looks in the last image.
Well, like shadowfax said, step 1 and 2 is really the meat of the tutorial. The rest are basically extras to make a basic map for your average Joe. When I was making this tutorial I thought, who would be interested in a bunch of jagged lines in the preview image. So I decided to make it prettier by adding some basic effects to it. I’m sorry if you didn’t like the extras, I tried my best.
On another note, you can apply a basic dot or scanline pattern on your map to make a more futuristic look if you don’t like the “sepia” like map here.
Nice! A little bit too shiny perhaps. Great design of tutorials! Tutorials 2.0 :) Congrats, websites like this one make the web a better place.
Nice, except I think you should have stopped at Step 15. That’s a nice look. Step 16 is a little to much. :) though!
I think is a good tutorial until step 14. I guess you could make it more interesting if you add more old realistic paper texture to it, but again you showed the meat of this tutorial and is up to us to keep playing with it and change it to our needs.
Keep up the good work…
In my humble opinion, this tutorial could be better.
The creation of “landmass” is, somehow, useless as:
1. we, designers, always need the real replication of the continents,
2. the line and the edges of it are not smooth.
Here’s something I made using some of the techniques found in this tutorial. Awesome Blog btw. keep up the good work.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50515724@N00/2113936526/
last step is terrible…
It’s true that you may not use this in your everyday design career, but you never know. So I thought I would just throw this out there and see what people think. Remember that you want to create your own identity. Don’t copy every step as shown, just learn how it’s done. Maybe one day, the effect you learn will come into use. Maybe not in the exact shape or form. For example, if one day you feel like designing an MMORPG flash game, then making a map for it would be as easy as pie =D. (not saying pie is easy to make)
@Timofey Nice, I really like how you took the tutorial and made it your own =D