# Mapping Resources > How Do I ??? >  Looking for help on making a cliff

## arxhon

I'm putting together a battlemap in Photoshop, and i'm having trouble making a cliff over a stream. Could somebody help me out?
Please see attached image.


Thanks!

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## Ascension

I'd do this with a few layers.  First you have your land layer.  Then you have a rock layer, put a soft chisel bevel on that with a big size so that it covers the rock and creates striations.  Copy the land layer, put it on top, and erase out the middle where the cliff and river are leaving the rock layer to show through.

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## arxhon

Ok, i gave it a shot. How's this (it's at 50% scale; the map is 20 inches on a side)?

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## Ascension

Not too shabby if you ask me.  It doesn't look like a big cliff - for that just increase the size of the bevel and erase a bit more on that side on the top layer...you get the idea.  Also the bridge looks to be really big compared to the trees - reduce the size, split it in the middle, spread it out, copy chunks out of the middle, and then piece it back together.  Overall looks good.

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## arxhon

Hmm...more like the trees are too small. One square is 5 feet.

Thanks for pointing it out, though! :Cool:

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## Gamerprinter

Bear in mind that though I use Photoshop/GIMP for some design functions, I mostly create maps using a Vector drawing program, in my case, Xara Xtreme Pro 4.0. However the technique should end up with the same results.

I create cliffs by creating various beveled layers each with its own texture, beveling, and shadow properties, then create the next layer and stack it on top, repeating this process, until I achieve what I am after.

Though I have several cliff designs made in this style, here's one from April of last year...

Note the last map towards the bottom of the page - entry with two other maps in it...

Cliff map

You should be able to emulate that in PS or GIMP as well.

GP

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## RobA

I recognized that bridge from the DJ forums.

Later in that post I posted the same bridge with the shadows/highlights foxed and a perspective sag added.

The scale doesn't work on your map, however, so I adjusted the scale, widened the boards and rotated the bridge to match your scenery a bit better, also adding a bit of shadow in the gorge to show the difference a bit of touch-up effort makes when working with stock objects.

For your convenience here is the widened,  rotated version if you wish to replace yours:


-Rob A>

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## TheMarcus7

n0oB question here, but how does one perform a "chisel bevel" in GIMP?

.TM7

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## Joel Fagin

A little late to the party but I was messing with a automated Photoshop map file thingie I have and made me a new cliff...

Cliffs and craters

Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll post it here.

 - Joel Fagin

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## Midgardsormr

Of course we do! And here's some rep in expectation.

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## Joel Fagin

Rep? 

Okay, this recipe creates a cliff effect which is transparent so it sits on top of whatever texture you like. In the example above, it was sitting on top of my "dirt" layer but I could have just as easily had a cliff made of grass (and did before I took to the grass layer with an eraser).

- Make a new layer and set its mode to "Multiply"
- Head into your layer effects and give it an outer bevel with the following numbers...



- Make the gloss contour on the bevel something close to this...



- Give it a texture bevel like this...



- Now simply draw on your new layer in white and a cliff will appear beneath your brush. It works best with a raggedy, bumpy edge to the cliff so I suggest a small brush and enough coffee to make your hands shake.

If anyone tweaks the numbers and comes up with something better or just usefully different, let me know.

 - Joel Fagin

PS. I do believe I've worked out your attachment system!

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## TheMarcus7

I may just have to invest in Photoshop. Or steal my wife's copy. I don't think GIMP does that kinda stuff. At least not the sophisticated bevel function.

So looking at your example, you have a grass layer, a dirt layer, a water layer, a rock (?) layer? Does the "outer bevel" function chew up the face of the cliff?

.TM7

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## Joel Fagin

> So looking at your example, you have a grass layer, a dirt layer, a water layer, a rock (?) layer?


Grass, dirt, water, solid rock, boulders, cobbles, bushes, sand, broken earth, craters (I do some Mech Warrior), cliff and dirt path. I have another couple of examples I'm using in another thread if you want a peek...

Creek crossing.
Gully entrance with an older version of the cliff effect.




> Does the "outer bevel" function chew up the face of the cliff?


The outer bevel just makes it look raised. The texture bevel gives it the broken cliff effect. Texture bevel is _really_ good. It's the powerhouse behind the craters, boulders, bushes and water reflections too. You'll need Photoshop CS3 or better, though.

 - Joel Fagin

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## TheMarcus7

I've been messing around with this in GIMP, but the best I've been able to do is with shadows and transparent overlays. I did this today, just messing around trying to recreate the effect of an overlay I found in the CSUAC collection. I might write it up as a tutorial, since I hadn't seen anything like it there (although I haven't scanned all of them.)



.TM7

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## RobA

> I may just have to invest in Photoshop. Or steal my wife's copy. I don't think GIMP does that kinda stuff. At least not the sophisticated bevel function.


Bevels are just lit up bump maps.  Gimp certainly can do similar looking things, but not as layer effects.

There is a gimp layer effect plugin/script that can do similar things, but it needs to be rerun whenever a layer changes, rather than the dynamic layer effect.

-Rob A>

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## TheMarcus7

Thanks Rob, thats the kind of thing I was looking for. I think I'm still going to see if I can get PS up and running. She got a package with Illustrator, PS and some other tools. No reason not to use it.

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## RobA

> Thanks Rob, thats the kind of thing I was looking for. I think I'm still going to see if I can get PS up and running. She got a package with Illustrator, PS and some other tools. No reason not to use it.


If you can afford it, you might as well use it!

-Rob A>

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## TheMarcus7

Hello Learning Curve. I was just figuring out how to do things in GIMP...  :Frown:

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