Thread: First Map

Originally Posted by megabyter5

I have been working on RobA's Artistic Regional RPG map tutorial for a while, and I think I have a suitable first map to post here. Please comment, but do not be too harsh as I am new to mapmaking.

Not bad. Two things, one major, one minor.

a) the mountains need work. There is no texture to them. It looks like you missed the bump map the mountain shape process over a cloud step. I would also suggest you take a look at RobA's other tutorial for drawing top down mountains as I think with some work this produces far superior results. Also, be on the lookout as Rob as posted some teasers for top town mountain techniques that are really cool and I assume he will share when his time permits.

b) You may also want to think about adding a bit more jaggedness to the coast line. As it stands now, it is pretty smooth. This is not a major thing, so you could live without doing this, but it would add a bit more to the map.

Joe

Originally Posted by jfrazierjr

Not bad. Two things, one major, one minor.

a) the mountains need work. There is no texture to them. It looks like you missed the bump map the mountain shape process over a cloud step. I would also suggest you take a look at RobA's other tutorial for drawing top down mountains as I think with some work this produces far superior results. Also, be on the lookout as Rob as posted some teasers for top town mountain techniques that are really cool and I assume he will share when his time permits.

b) You may also want to think about adding a bit more jaggedness to the coast line. As it stands now, it is pretty smooth. This is not a major thing, so you could live without doing this, but it would add a bit more to the map.

Joe

I would second everything Joe just said, plus add one minor inclusion: the yellow back-glow for the words looks a little less glowy and a little more like solid yellow. I believe it's the "feather" option that makes the glow work properly when expanding the selection. Assuming you did this, I'd also suggest a less bright color than the yellow, something a little earthier. Still, that's very minor - more-so than what Joe mentioned.

Other than those mentioned issues, I think it's a good start. I, too, am still learning the GIMP, so I think I know what you're going through.

Ok, instead of improving on the old one, I started over, using a different tutorial for the mountains. The names for this come from various languages for town, port, fort, and place.

Starting to look good. For me, before I can make any comments on the Map/Mountains, I would need a scale bar to put thins into perspective.

Originally Posted by megabyter5

Ok, instead of improving on the old one, I started over, using a different tutorial for the mountains. The names for this come from various languages for town, port, fort, and place.

Need more work on your mountains though. While a hugh improvement, as it is now, they look like you did a bit to much spread and not enough G blur (be careful! you can easily do to much blur.) If you get stuck, feel free to either throw up just the mountains here or in a new (or the aforementioned "playing with Mountains") thread and we can help just with that part specifically.


Joe