With this tutorial we only scratched the surface of this technique. To be honest, this was just an example showing how to create a good looking map, but that’s all. There was no precision in the application of color, there was little care on how the topography was rendered, and the elevation data was totally modified to fit the needs of the tutorial. So, if you want to get serious in this subject, take a look at these resources:
» Shaded Relief, a web site with lots of information and tutorials about relief shading. I was inspired by this article to write this tutorial. Other great web site is Relief Shading, with lots of detailed information and great images. This post on the Carto Talk forums is illustrative about the steps of creating a map with shaded relief
» If you need to render a map from a specific location, free data can be obtained in the USCG seamless data distribution online application, just read this tutorial to know how to work with it.
» No serious cartographer can’t do Relief Shading only with Adobe Photoshop for this task. Take a look at these Relief Shading software comparison tables. It is was compiled in year 2002, but it is a good starting point.
» Feel like reading? Then these two books will keep you busy: Elements of Cartography and Mapping Hacks: Tips & Tools for Electronic Cartography. Also, take a look at this huge Cartography books listing.
» Some fonts and symbols: Linotype Carta and Pixymbols USmap.
» Are you artistically challenged or lazy? Take a look at these stock maps and maps posters.
That’s all. If you liked this tutorial or have any questions, please leave a comment and share it with others using the social bookmarks links below.
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[…] Die Relief-Shading-Technik wird verwendet, um Karten realitätsnah dreidimensional darzustellen, so dass Höhen wie Berge und Hügel auch erhöht wirken. Mit Photoshop können solche Karten dank den Kanälen, dem Filter Beleuchtungseffekte und einem Verlauf zur Graustufenersetzung, um die Karte einzufärben. Ein interessantes Tutorial dazu bietet photoshoproadmap.com an. Diese Technik kann natürlich auch für schöne Texturen eingesetzt werden. Schreibe einen Kommentar! […]
Posted by Photoshop Weblog » Relief-Shading-Technik on July 24th, 2006 at 5:37 am
[…] Dirk Metzmacher,mein (unbewusster) dauernder Antrieb immer mal wieder etwas in Photoshop zu machen hat mal wieder zugeschlagen. Gestern bloggte er über Relief-Shading-Landkarten - also Karten die mein Diercke-Atlas früher profan “Reliefkarten” nannte und verwies auf ein Tutorial bei photoshoproadmap.com. In den Kommentaren bei Dirk weist Wolfgang über weitere Techniken hin. Und nun sitz ich da und hab “Anfahrtsskizze erstellen” wieder in meine eh schon überfüllte 2-do-Liste aufgenommen. Schönen Dank auch, euch beiden. […]
Posted by Heiko Eckert :: Blog :: » Relief-Shading-Landkarten on July 25th, 2006 at 1:48 am
[..]
Many customers have asked us about maps for countries other than the U.S. Scroll down to see the complete list. Our mapping solutions with Roy…[..]
Posted by Digital Maps on July 26th, 2006 at 1:20 am
[…] PhotoshopRoadmap has a nice tutorial that shows how to create a relief map in Photoshop. […]
Posted by Lunacore Photoshop Blog » Rendering a map using relief shading technique on July 26th, 2006 at 9:04 am
[…] Die Relief-Shading-Technik wird verwendet, um Karten realitätsnah dreidimensional darzustellen, so dass Höhen wie Berge und Hügel auch erhöht wirken. Mit Photoshop können solche Karten dank den Kanälen, dem Filter Beleuchtungseffekte und einem Verlauf zur Graustufenersetzung (um die Karte einzufärben) erstellt werden. Ein interessantes Tutorial zum Thema bietet photoshoproadmap.com an. Diese Technik kann natürlich auch für schöne Texturen eingesetzt werden. […]
Posted by Photoshop Weblog » Blog Archiv » Relief-Shading-Technik on September 28th, 2006 at 3:36 am
Dont’ understand the german comments here but I’m impressed. That Gradient Map definately came in handy. Thank you!
Posted by mymessedupmind on November 15th, 2006 at 9:00 am
Don’t worry, neither do I. But comments in German look pretty good, don’t they? Have fun with the gradient!
Posted by Enrique Flouret on November 15th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
[…] Rendering a map using relief shading technique in Photoshop […]
Posted by MondoBlog » Blog » Photoshop Tutorials - Num 5 on January 27th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Thanks to this tutorial and some spare time on my hands I managed to start working on this island map picture:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/47390914/. Obviously using some tricks as it is a made up island so the effects arent quite as good but I dont think it looks bad for a modified Render Clouds based replacemeant. Great tutorial, and thank you very much, If ,by the way, you wish me to link to here in the desciption/comments on the image just e-mail or msg me.
Posted by TGN-Rogue on May 17th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
I’m interested in creating realistic terrain with Strata 3D software which has a diplacement map feature that requires a grayscale elevation map to create the geometry. The USCG Seamless Data site you reference on page 1 of your tutorial is not very user friendly. You should be more specific about what to ask for to be able to download a grayscale elevation map like the one you use.
Posted by Jack Butler on June 29th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Hi Jack,
Yes. the USCG site is not user friendly at all. I didn’t go much in depth into that site just because the tutorial was about making a map from any grayscale image. Just for the sake of reality I used a real one, but you can use any grayscale image (yes, even a face can be used) as a map.
Anyway, if you still want to create a map from real data, at the end of the article there is a link to a tutorial explaining how to use the USCG online application. Here’s the link:
http://gisdata.usgs.gov/Website/Seamless/tutorial.asp
Take a look at it and see if you can download the terrain data you need.
Please, come back again and leave message telling us about your experience with USCG and Strata 3D after reading that USCG tutorial.
Posted by Enrique Flouret on July 1st, 2007 at 3:16 pm
great stuff!!
yes, great blog overall, thanks!
unfortunately the USCG doesnt *seem* to have any info for European countries - I tried France, Germany, Ireland, Benelux region.. I guess it does call itself US…
Posted by Tom on October 28th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Hey - great tutorial. The gradient tool as a height gradient like that is really handy.
I was doing some fictional map making and using Difference clouds for the height information. Now I want to use the USCG data, as it’s much more realistic, but on the seamless.usgs.gov website nothing shows up in the viewer edespite my windows resolution being set to 1280x 1024.
I think it’s all working, everytime I click on the ‘empty’ space I get an animating world icon saying it’s retrieving data, but just not seeing an image. All I get is a load of text sitting on top of itself in the top left hand corner of the viewer.
is there any other places to find such height map DEM info?
cheers
Posted by Jeremy on July 12th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
actually checking out http://www.terrainmap.com/ seems to have some interesting stuff.
Posted by Jeremy on July 12th, 2008 at 12:07 pm