I like the vegetation a lot. The rocky shores and water look too "clipart" for me (especially compared with the vegetation - this is just not my taste). The overall layout of the creek is cool, it looks natural.
So.. I was just screwing around in GIMP working with Masks (and dodge/burn) and ended up making something I thought was kind of neat. Not really going to do much(I really mean any) more with this than what I have done, but hopefully, someone can find some use out of it.
Joe
EDIT: added a version without the grid....
EDIT 2: grrrrr... I am such a dufus. Contrary to what I say below, the textures used are NOT stock GIMP textures. Rather they are from the CSUAC. Sorry for any confusion!!!
Last edited by jfrazierjr; 10-14-2008 at 10:15 PM.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
I like the vegetation a lot. The rocky shores and water look too "clipart" for me (especially compared with the vegetation - this is just not my taste). The overall layout of the creek is cool, it looks natural.
Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.
Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...
I think the water and rocks are both standard Gimp textures. Zip over to one of the texture sites and replace with some nice photographed seamless textures and you have a winner!
-Rob A>
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It's ALL standard GIMP textures. Like I said, I was playing with a technique and just threw this down. The only thing I "painted" on this was the burn/dodge(which is by no means perfect) on a copy of the rock layer. Everything else is a texture layer with well sculpted layermask(which is the technique part I have been playing with in the first place). I just did not want to spend the time to find something a bit more pretty for the water part. I DO like the rocky part though... End result, not counting the burn/dodge, if I wanted to recreate this, the whole thing would take about 3 minutes, which is kind of the goal of the hour or so of playing around in trying to figure out best practices and such. I think I am going to do a short Layer Mask tutorial if there is not one already on the site.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
I know you said this was mostly an experiment in "masking", but except for the patterning on the water (I didn't notice it as much on the rocks) I think this is pretty cool. The vegetation is especially good.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Ok.. got rid of the bogus water texture. Made my own. Changed the shadows/highlights to be it's own layer in case I decide to swap out the rock texture at some later time. I guess positive feedback really helps motivate people, so I ended up deciding to tweak it.
Hope ya'll like the changes.
Joe
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Ooh, I like it! Now that you changed the water texture the rocky shore texture doesn't bother me anymore and it all looks really natural. Great job (especially because this map didn't take much time to create).
Last edited by Gandwarf; 10-10-2008 at 06:50 AM.
Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.
Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...
I was trying your technique out ... this of course is the first test run ... at least I can tell it's supposed to be a river.. lol
test.jpg
Cool.... a much more painterly style, but good example. I particularly like whatever you used for the reeds/cattails on the edge of the water. Very nice.
And the cool thing is that you can swap out a color or texture with something else and the picture remains the exact same except for the one element you changed. Masks are cool! Masks are fun! I love masks!
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
ok.. here's the other one I did...
yer right .. masks are fun
test.2jpg.jpg