Riverproblems (map-making)

[Kaigon]

How do I create this "flowing-effect"?

MyMap compared to my try.
And while we're at it, what's the best way to create the borders on rivers, selection-tricks or by hand?

Further on, where can I get hold of the shading style the agung pasha/MKJ/XieChengnuo used? (Since I use one of the first that XieChengnuo presented: link )
Some delicate action?

 

[Kasperus]

On border on rivers: selection in id-map can work well if your rivers have not too sharp corners, and a somewhat consistent thinkness. Personally I mostly draw them by hand as multiple straight lines with shift-clicking though.

 

[Kaigon]

Ah, I was hoping there was some nice and quick way to do this, I guess it'll be by hand. Thanks anyway.

 

[Inferis]

Ah, I was hoping there was some nice and quick way to do this, I guess it'll be by hand. Thanks anyway.

Just create a selection that combines the river and the ocean provinces. Fill that selection on a separate layer with a gradient (either a linear gradient or a radial one, depending on the size of the river or how larger you want it to spread out). Make sure that the destination colour of the gradient has opacity 0. Remove (using the eraser tool) as much of the unneeded fill as necessary. Merge layer with shading layer, and you're done.

At least, that's how I did it (long time ago).

 

[Mad King James]

These are all the hard way, the EASY way is this: (this is how I made my rivers)

Make a layer above all the other layers
Select the same shade of grey as your rivers
Paint above where the river meets the sea until the black line is covered
Select the smudge tool and smudge the edge of the blob you just made in motions the way the river would flow out to sea (in this way you can even go around corners and flow out into a cone)

 

[Mad King James]

As to how I did my shading, my shading is all in my borders. My borders have a large outer glow property that uses linear burn blending mode and black colour with about 40% opacity, and then a reversed bevel to get the edge right.

I chose the opposite method to Xie.