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

[wisemoon]

I'm stuck here (I got it up untill the "(!!!)").

My coast doesn't become "defined". It just stays blurry. Sample merge was checked and the threshold was zero, yet nothing happened when I clicked. =/

<snip>
This may be because of the blend mode applied to the "land noise" layer. You see, "overlay" made it invisible. Only when I changed the blend option to everything from "grain extract" to "multiply" did I get results simmilar to the ones above.

So, the main problem boils down to the layer blend options... =(

I had the same problems Rotherian did. When I tried to use the "Magic Wand" tool (which in 2.6.8, the version I have, is just the Fuzzy Select tool), it did not do what it apparently used to do in 2.4--either that, or I messed up some earlier step. I could not get it to select an edge close to the blurry randomized part--it just did a smooth outline at the outer edge of the blur. I'm not sure what I did the first time to get it to look right, I played around with a few different settings so I can't recall the exact thing that worked. Thus, when you repeated the technique later in the tutorial, I had no way to make it work (should have written down what I did!).

I think I got a reasonable result by changing the blend mode to "Divide" instead of what you called for int he tutorial; that seemed to make a rougher edge, and I *think* the fuzzy select tool worked with that. but I can't remember for sure. But when I got to the Mountains section, I couldn't find a work-around. Mostly because I have several separate areas of mountains, and I couldn't figure out how to get them all selected at once.
Here's a JPG of my image up to the step where you paint in the mountains in white and do the Gaussian Blur on them:


RobA, if you have updated your Gimp version, can you tell us how to do the steps in your tutorial that have to do with the TLC technique (particularly the Magic Wand steps)? I really like this style and would like to finish learning it, but I'm getting really frustrated. Thanks in advance.

[Gidde]

I'm not RobA, but he's my hero and I use his techniques a ton. This problem could be because the bigger your map gets (i.e. much over 2000x2000), gimp's native clouds aren't detailed enough to give a good coastline (or other random effect). Try downloading and playing around with Felimage Noise (for coasts I usually use a 10-15 size, and turn the lacunarity up and the Hurst exponent down). It's also pretty important to make sure your fuzzy select tool is set to "Select Merged" and a 0 threshold.

[Scotia]

Here's a quick shot of what your wand options should look like:





-----


And I'd like to add my thanks/kudos to RobA for a great tutorial. I learned a few things about GIMP that I didn't know before.

[wisemoon]

I'm not RobA, but he's my hero and I use his techniques a ton. This problem could be because the bigger your map gets (i.e. much over 2000x2000), gimp's native clouds aren't detailed enough to give a good coastline (or other random effect). Try downloading and playing around with Felimage Noise (for coasts I usually use a 10-15 size, and turn the lacunarity up and the Hurst exponent down). It's also pretty important to make sure your fuzzy select tool is set to "Select Merged" and a 0 threshold.

My picture is only about 800x1200, so I don't think size is the problem. And I had the "Select Merged" setting and 0 Threshold set, just like it said in the tutorial. My settings weren't the problem. Perhaps Rhotheria is right and it's a blending mode issue? Since changing the mode to Divide instead of Overlay seemed to change the outcome of the Fuzzy Select tool step, I think he may be on to something.

If I can recreate what I did for the first instance of the technique (creating the land, I think) perhaps I can use it for the rest. I'll try to write it down this time, so I can post it for the edification of others.

[Gidde]

Weird. I use that technique with Overlay all the time, with no issues. Maybe Rob can pinpoint where the problem is.

[wisemoon]

Well I don't know why it wasn't working before, but I deleted my previous layers and tried again, and this time I got it to work fairly well. Here's a sample of my mountain test:


So I guess I figured it out. I don't know what went wrong last time...maybe it was just far too late at night.

[wisemoon]

UPDATE: I found a more recent tutorial by RobA, a different method for making mountains. I liked the look of those mountains better, so I tried it out. Unfortunately, I think I did one or more of the steps wrong, since I'm getting a wierd inverted ridge around the mountains. Other than that, I think the mountains turned out well. But when I went back and tried to redo the forest layers after changing the mountains, something went wrong. I don't like the way they turned out.

So, closer, but still working on it:

[Rhotherian]

My picture is only about 800x1200, so I don't think size is the problem. And I had the "Select Merged" setting and 0 Threshold set, just like it said in the tutorial. My settings weren't the problem. Perhaps Rhotheria is right and it's a blending mode issue? Since changing the mode to Divide instead of Overlay seemed to change the outcome of the Fuzzy Select tool step, I think he may be on to something.

If I can recreate what I did for the first instance of the technique (creating the land, I think) perhaps I can use it for the rest. I'll try to write it down this time, so I can post it for the edification of others.

Yeah. I wonder if this overlay-mode thing has to do with the different versions of GIMP. Probably, as my situation was basically summed up by wisemoon.

I'll try devide and see if I get any different results.

[Gidde]

Could be, I suppose. I'm using 2.6.8 if that sheds any light.

[wisemoon]

So, I tried again with the alternate mountains technique. I posted it over in the Regional Map discussion forum, but thought I would also post it here in case anyone's been interested in seeing where I'm going with it.

I fixed the mountains (got rid of the inverted ridge), also sharpened them this time (no flat tops), and also fixed the forest. I put in three color layers for the forest (first one Normal mode, second one Grain Merge Mode, third Overlay--slightly different color definition in each layer), did one bumpmap for overall texture, and another bumpmap to bevel the forest (make it pop out more) around the mountains.

Here's the result, and it's what I'll be going forward with as I finish the tutorial: