You know? I have a Photoshop actionscript that can convert pictures into planets for spacescapes that I made based on a tutorial I found somewhere. Works best on a elliptical (preferably a circular) selection. Getting the shadow expansion/selection is a bit process/time consuming however, but the export is clean because of it.
I think it would work great for rendering these as planets. Though the maps would be the only real hemisphere visible. I might try this program out, and make a second render of a planet with my action to show what it does.
EDIT:
You know? Add a good sepia tone, a bit of posterization, toss in a bit of intensity/contrast, and some formal writing, and we got ourselves a fancier drawn-looking map. I'll see if I can improvise some things to either optimize this process as well as make things fancier as post-processing.
EDIT EDIT:
My critique already, so far, is that there seems to be lacking some instructions as the actions are going to happen to instruct you which layer is next in the process. Like for example, my planet-making process tells you when it's okay to select a region, and then when it's time to glow, and then shadow casting is happening and etc..
I needed my layers window open to know what was next to be accessed, and I tend to have my tools hidden until used. Plus, some people may not be fully aware of what's going on unless they're experienced enough with Photoshop. So yeah, those are just about my notes so far. BTW, I noticed that this can handle PNG files just fine, and doesn't open a specific folder either, like I expected according to context. So I figure I might as well point that out.
Simply:
-BMP files aren't required, for lower processing time, compress the BMPs to PNGs first.
-The significant reduction in size should help with little to no quality loss.
-It isn't required to be in C:\ so you can place the files wherever convenient, just remember where you placed it.
-Keep an eye on your Layers window to know what layer you need to process next, just so you won't accidentally render a biome map in the elevation map or something (as silly as that sounds).
EDIT EDIT EDIT:
Turned out rather decently. Swift process working with all the layers. Now I'll need a moment to upload what I got.
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT:
Okay, here's what I got:
And my rapid-fire editing is to be expected. I tend to revise and add stuff post-posting.
The papyrus map took some tweaking to get the color overlay correct (layer style) and finding the right texture to use for embossing the papyrus effect in. No intensifying or washing out was really needed as it turns out. Just 2 (well, 3-4 if you include flattening the image first) steps as a layer style was all. Writing is optional, but Zephyr or Papyrus are decent ones to use for this type of print.
Oh yeah, it didn't automatically go to, and process, C:\ entirely, I had to select and everything on my machine. I had to load each layer individually. Just wanted to provide a heads-up for anyone that would fall into a similar case I did. Fortunately, the layer names and the fixes in the image titles match, so it wasn't too hard to line them up.
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Topic: Fantasy Map Maker (Photoshop Action Script) (Read 109703 times)