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

[Remko1981]

Before reading your tutorial i couldnt do anything with Gimp. This is my result after a few(5) hours of hard work.



Only things which i couldnt do are those beautiful rivers of yours. And i cant get the color like youve gotten for the forests.

Any more advice? (your map still looks way better!)

My next step will be loading this map into viewingdale and start adding villages, ruines, etc as my players will discover them.

Thanks a lot for the great tutorial!

[RobA]

Remko-

Did you use the "turbulent" check box when generating the forest? I find it makes for a nicer bump map. Also, when applying the bump map, try the other options (linear, spherical, sinusoidal) as they have very different results.

As for the colour, I just tend to keep playing with the HSV, as well as had painting on the colours layer with different shades until I get something I like.

Is there something specific about the rivers (generating the emboss?) that is giving you problems?


And you're welcome!

-Rob A>

[Remko1981]

My rivers are a bit blocky. But my biggest problem is there height map. They just dont look like they are going down. Tried a lot of settings but cant seem to get it to work.

[RobA]

My rivers are a bit blocky. But my biggest problem is there height map. They just dont look like they are going down. Tried a lot of settings but cant seem to get it to work.

I think I explained it a bit better in this posting:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...8&postcount=19

See if that clarifies things.

-Rob A>

[Kasim]

Just a quick post as I work on this. I'm embarrased to say how long it took me to get past step 8 but here I am so far. These layers and masks are kicking my butt pretty well. But atleast I'm learning.

Note: the 4 circular shapes on the coastline were by design, not an error or oversight. (Old meteor impacts.. there will be two inland on the peninsula as well.) Next iteration I'm going to cut these down to 1 or 2 on the coastline as the chances of 4 out of 6 impacts landing in the exact spots to create neat little bays are pretty slim.

This isn't anywhere near where I want it but I'm going to complete the tutorial before restarting to do it right.. I'm in a hotel atm with no scanner so it was hand drawn via laser mouse on a crappy surface in GIMP. I plan on using a map quite close to this as the beginnings from a remap of my campaign in ViewingDale.

We'll see how well I can mold mountains, input a desert and direct rivers tomorrow evening.

And yes, I've repped the author for his tutorial, without it I wouldn't even dare using this method.

[Remko1981]

Thanks, the link you send helped indeed.

[Kasim]

Having some issues with the mountains. I did use "sinusoidal" like the sceen shots had set up.

[Kasim]

Anyone else see off hand what I'm doing wrong just from the images?

[Midgardsormr]

I was kind of hoping that someone who knew what they were talking about would speak up, but I'll give it a shot. Your mountains look a bit like my early experiments with bump maps. They leap up out of the ground and then plateau suddenly, which suggests that you need to reduce the brightness of your alpha channel quite a bit.

That flat top you're seeing is the result of very high whites in the center of the "blob." I would guarantee that if you sampled any point in that plateau in your alpha channel, the luminosity would read 255, which means the height there is maxed out.

Now, this is just guess-work because I am a beginner at this process, myself. I'll bet, though, that if you go back to your alpha, select the white areas, put some clouds in it, then play with the levels a bit, you'll get the results you're after.

If anyone who's actually done this before would like to chime in and correct any of my misconceptions, I'd welcome it!

[Remko1981]

Kasim: It looks like you used your normal black on white layer for the bump map.



Instead of one which has a bit of fuzzyness in it.



See the difference in the selection box called bumpprojectie.