[Award Winner] Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map

[RobA]

Edit: Ok, it looks like the five might be a typo, and meant give instead. I only applied the bump once, and it turned out nice so far. I'll post current status in the WIP forum (just before the mountains stuff).

Thanks matrixm! Fixed the typo!

rep for your help

-Rob A>

[Kerghan]

Hi Dear Cartographers,

I have got a problem for the Cities.

I create my city layer, i create all the symbols, i merge all the text layers in to the city layer, i create the city outline, i use the "alpha to selection" option, i enlarge the selection, i turn on the "lock alpha channel". but now i want to change the color in the city outline (by dragging another color). Problem ... nothing happened... The color does not fill the selection. What's wrong?

(sorry, i'm a foreigner, it's hard to talk in your strange language)


Edit : I have solve my problem. The Lock Alpha Channel was checked on the City outline layer ...

[modernhamlet]

Hi, I'm working on learning some basic techniques and am running into trouble early on in this tutorial, specifically getting my TLS to look like the example given.

I'm attaching 3 images (if I can): before, gauss, and after.

The 1st image is what my land drawing looks like in GIMP before doing anything to it.

The 2nd is after a 50px gaussian blur.

The 3rd is after completing the Land Noise and Land Clip parts.

So... why is my land turning out so lame? It has LESS going on than the original. I've redone it at least a half dozen times, so I hope I'm not missing something obvious.

Thanks in advance for the help...

[Notsonoble]

The Clip is designed for really really smooth land areas... where there's hardly any detail at all... if you've already got well defined (which I'd call your base) coastlines... it's an unneeded step.

It's not so much doing something wrong as the problem I had with my first attempt to use this tut... My coastline was already fairly well defined, and the TLS part just seemed to smooth it out. Later when I had a really basic coastline on a larger map... the TLS steps brought me to something very similar to your base image.

I'd say in your case simply skip the first steps...

[RobA]

The Clip is designed for really really smooth land areas... where there's hardly any detail at all... if you've already got well defined (which I'd call your base) coastlines... it's an unneeded step.

Bingo, Notsonoble! the coast is nice and detailed already, no need for a roughening step.

-Rob A>

[ISGC]

please help, how do I set the blend mode when creating a layer?
I can tell it's something obvious that I'm missing, but I can't seem to find it.

[RobA]

After you create the menu, the layer blend mode it set by the mode dropdown on the layer dialog:


-Rob A>

[modernhamlet]

Thanks! That makes me feel much less incompetent. =)

I'm certainly not happy with the level of detail of just my rough sketch though.

And I do want to work with that technique in the future.

So I think I'll come up with a less detailed starting point and see if I can make it work.

Updates to follow...

[ISGC]

After you create the menu, the layer blend mode it set by the mode dropdown on the layer dialog:


-Rob A>

thanks I knew it was simple!

ok I'm on coloring the water now, what do you mean by "foreground" and "background" and how do I color them :/
also vista put the colors in a different place, do they need to be moved or am I just not seeing the palette?

[crackersncheese]

Could you please help me? I don't want to be a pain, but I was mapping so well until I hit this step. It seems like such a cool technique yet it won't work.

Firstly, great tutorial! I feel like I'm starting to see how mapmaking will work out. I have hit a snag, however:


Your instructions say "Grass Bumps" but the picture shows you applying the bump map to the "Grass Bump Map" layer, which has all the turbulence in it. No matter which one I apply it to, I don't get the same effect you get. It still looks like turbulence to me! Help would be appreciated.