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

[RobA]

Post 8:Let there be Land.

Now that the ocean is completed, the land can be build up. Create a cop of the “Sea Shape” layer and name it “Grass”. Create a layer mask using the “Land Mask”channel. Click on the layer icon so we now edit the layer, not the mask.


Ctrl-Click on the dark green (Ditch) colour to make it the background and click on the light green (high ground) to make it the foreground colours, then Colour->Map->Gradient Map.


This is bland, so lets spice it up a bit…create a new layer called Grass Texture, and fill it with clouds noise (Filters->Render->Clouds->Solid Noise), detail 15, size 3, and new seed.
Again, add a layer mask using the “Land Mask” channel, and set the blend mode of the layer to overlay.


Looking better, but it could use some texture.
Create a new layer called “Grass Bump Map”. Fill it with rendered cloud noise again, this time setting the size and detail to the max, and selecting Turbulent.


Hide this new layer (by clicking off the eye icon). Create a new layer called “Grass Bumps” and fill it with 50% grey. Set its layer mode to overlay. It will appear to be gone now. That is how overlay works. 50% grey doesn’t change the underlying image, while darker shades darken the image and lighter shades lighten the image.
Now apply a bump map to this “Grass Bumps” layer using Filters->Map->Bump Map.


Lastly, apply the “Land Mask” channel as a layer mask like before.

[RobA]

Post 9:Finishing the Land.

After the bump map we now have this. You can adjust the opacity of the bump map to make it less noticeable if desired:


This is OK, but it is a little two green for me. One option is to change the overall colour by adjusting the hue, and that would be that. Instead, we’ll add a dirt layer. This will be a combination of a filter generated mask layer, and hand painting the mask.

Create a new layer called “Dirt” and fill it with the “med dirt” colour. Add some noise (Filters->Noise->HSV Noise):


Now bump map this layer on itself to give a bit of lighting texture:


Duplicate the “Land Mask” layer, bring it up to the top of the layer stack.


and blur it by 50px or so:

[RobA]

Post 10:Finishing the Land (cont.)

Create a new layer on top of the blurry one, and fill it with rendered clouds, maximum detail and maximum size, then set its layer mode to Difference. This gives a noisy blaxck outline of the coast. (This is also a nice technique to make a light water effect along shores…)


Merge down the difference layer, invert it, then bring up the layers dialog and adjust it to be a wider band of white on black. This will be used as the layer mask for the dirt….


Go back to the Dirt Layer and add a layer mask, using the “Land Mask” channel. Now right click on the layer mask and select “Apply layer”. This will erase everything that is not above the land.

Go back to the noisy blended layer you had created in the last stop (called land mask copy). Select all and copy this layer (ctrl+a, ctrl-c), Then select the “Dirt: layer, and add a layer mask and just select “White”. Now with the dirt layer mask active, paste the copy (ctrl-v). This will create a floating layer. Just hit the anchor icon to drop it down into the dirt layer mask. Now you can delete the temporary “land mask copy” layer:


This can be improved by applying a Gaussian blur (Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur, 10 px) and some pixel spread (Filters->Noise->Spread 10 px) to the mask. I also took a soft white brush with 60% opacity and coloured in the areas I want to be desert. To make this easier, I moved my original sketch up to the top and set its blend mode to burn. This let me see where I needed to fill in deserts. Lastly, I reduced the opacity of the Dirt level down to get a nice looking blend.


Here is where we are so far:


Coming soon... Mountains.

[RobA]

Post 11:Let There be Mountains

Before you continue, there is a better way I found to make mountains located over here. It works well with the rest of this tutorial, and seems much easier and predictable than what follows here...


The technique for making the mountains is very similar to that of making the land. Because we have an idea for a map, we will start in this case by sketching a blurred representation of where they should be. Otherwise, just use one of the random techniques:

Create a new layer “Mountains”. Fill in white for the general areas of the mountain ranges, and apply a 50 px (or so) Gaussian blur. It is helpful to keep the original sketch on top with reduced opacity to act as a guide. Don’t worry about going in to the sea, because we can we can erase those areas later:


Now the noise layer (I used detail 8 and size of and set the blend mode to multiply. Then add a third layer (remember the TLS) as a clipping layer, and use the levels dialog to bring it down to show the mountains you want Here is the screen showing the three layers


Use the magic wand again to select the non-mountain area (like with the land) and create a new layer called “Mountains Mask” with a white on black. (Also the white colour selection as a new selection mask using Select->Save to Channel).

Now we want to create a heightfield from this. The easiest way I have found to do this is to copy the current visible image (Edit->Copy Visible) then paste it (CTRL-V) to a floating selection. Click the New Layer button to get it on its own layer rather than a floating layer. Now stretch the colour range out (Color->Auto->Normalize):


Rename this layer to “mountain colour”. Make a duplicate and call it “mountain bump map”. Now set the foreground colour to “lowest dirt” and the background colour to “highest dirt”, and on the “mountain colour” layer, do a Color->Map->Gradient Map.


Normalize the colours (Colors->Auto->Normalize) and add a layer mask, using the mountain mask channel. (Note, the Dirt layer was turned of in this image by accident).

[RobA]

Post 12: Let There be Mountains – continued

Similar to the dirt, apply a Gaussian blur and noise spread to the layer mask blend the mountains in a bit better. (Note, the Dirt layer was turned of in this image by accident)


Create a new layer called “Mountains Bump” and fill it with 50% grey, and set its mode to overlay. Now run a bump map filter, using the “mountain bump map” layer you had made a duplicate of a while back. Play with the elevation and depth to get something that look good.


To make the mountains pop a bit more, you may want to duplicate the “mountains bump layer.


This is another useful technique. Make bumpmaps on a 50% grey layer and they can be overlayed on colour below. That lets you go back and edit the colour layer without affecting the bumpmap. Since GIMP doesn't support layer effects this is one of the ways I have come up with to to keep the image editing flexible.

[RobA]

Post 13:Finishing the land up.

Forests are done the exact same way. EDIT - A Good Tutorial to making nice forests in this style in Gimp is here (Thanks arsheeshA). I used the same bump map as for the grass but increased the depth effect. I also put all the forest stuff below the mountain layers, so the mountains would appear to come out through the forest. You could do it the other way, and the forests would appear to run on the mountains. (as long as you make the forest colour layer slightly transparent. Here I duplicated the forest layer colour layer and set the mode to Grain Merge to emphasize the colours a bit.


This is where you can start playing with colours to get them balances, adjusting the hue and saturation, etc….Here I also added a new bump map hinting at under-water features. I also added a layer of low detail , small scale cloud noise over the whole map in overlay mode, and toned down the dirt bumpiness.


The last thing is to stroke the shoreline to give it a less jaggy edge. Go to the Chanels tab and right click on the Land Mask channel, and go Channel to Selection. Set the foreground colour to the High Dirt colour (or a colour that complements the piece), and stroke the selection (Edit->Stroke Selection) with a 3 px fuzzy paintbrush:


Rivers can be added by drawing with a fine fuzzy black brush on the “Grass” layer mask.
It helps to apply a small blur and then sharpen to clean up the lines:


For additional effect, this mask can be turned into a bump map and applied to give the rivers a bit of a bevel:


End of Part 2.

[Michael J. Parry]

Hi I get to this point and all I see is the mountians.. I am not sure why I can't see the rest of the map.

I don't suppose you would know what I am missing?

[Absinth]

Post 11:Let There be Mountains
Now the noise layer (I used detail 8 and size of and set the blend mode to multiply. Then add a third layer (remember the TLS) as a clipping layer, and use the levels dialog to bring it down to show the mountains you want Here is the screen showing the three layers

Okay, it's working up to this point, but then I'm experiencing problems.

Use the magic wand again to select the non-mountain area (like with the land) and create a new layer called “Mountains Mask” with a white on black. (Also the white colour selection as a new selection mask using Select->Save to Channel).

Does something happen to the three Mountain layers inbetween, that you didn't mention because it was explained in a previous step?

Now we want to create a heightfield from this. The easiest way I have found to do this is to copy the current visible image (Edit->Copy Visible) then paste it (CTRL-V) to a floating selection. Click the New Layer button to get it on its own layer rather than a floating layer. Now stretch the colour range out (Color->Auto->Normalize):


Rename this layer to “mountain colour”. Make a duplicate and call it “mountain bump map”. Now set the foreground colour to “lowest dirt” and the background colour to “highest dirt”, and on the “mountain colour” layer, do a Color->Map->Gradient Map.

Is it correct, that we, by now, have 6 mountain layers (from top: Mountain Bump Map, Mountain Colour, Mountain Mask, Mountain Clip, Mountain Noise and Mountain)? And is it right, that we Gradient Map the Mountain Colour layer?

Normalize the colours (Colors->Auto->Normalize) and add a layer mask, using the mountain mask channel. (Note, the Dirt layer was turned of in this image by accident).

Again, on which layer? When I have all my layers visible, the top layer is Mountain Bump Map and the current image is identical to Mountain Mask. What am I doing wrong here?

[Jallorn]

Post 11:Let There be Mountains

Before you continue, there is a better way I found to make mountains located over here. It works well with the rest of this tutorial, and seems much easier and predictable than what follows here...


The technique for making the mountains is very similar to that of making the land. Because we have an idea for a map, we will start in this case by sketching a blurred representation of where they should be. Otherwise, just use one of the random techniques:

Create a new layer “Mountains”. Fill in white for the general areas of the mountain ranges, and apply a 50 px (or so) Gaussian blur. It is helpful to keep the original sketch on top with reduced opacity to act as a guide. Don’t worry about going in to the sea, because we can we can erase those areas later:


Now the noise layer (I used detail 8 and size of and set the blend mode to multiply. Then add a third layer (remember the TLS) as a clipping layer, and use the levels dialog to bring it down to show the mountains you want Here is the screen showing the three layers


Use the magic wand again to select the non-mountain area (like with the land) and create a new layer called “Mountains Mask” with a white on black. (Also the white colour selection as a new selection mask using Select->Save to Channel).

Now we want to create a heightfield from this. The easiest way I have found to do this is to copy the current visible image (Edit->Copy Visible) then paste it (CTRL-V) to a floating selection. Click the New Layer button to get it on its own layer rather than a floating layer. Now stretch the colour range out (Color->Auto->Normalize):


Rename this layer to “mountain colour”. Make a duplicate and call it “mountain bump map”. Now set the foreground colour to “lowest dirt” and the background colour to “highest dirt”, and on the “mountain colour” layer, do a Color->Map->Gradient Map.


Normalize the colours (Colors->Auto->Normalize) and add a layer mask, using the mountain mask channel. (Note, the Dirt layer was turned of in this image by accident).

I dunno, I'm pretty sure I've gotten everything before that step. I mostly just don't understand what to do there.

[Warder]

Post 11:Let There be Mountains

Before you continue, there is a better way I found to make mountains located over here. It works well with the rest of this tutorial, and seems much easier and predictable than what follows here...

I love the look of this tutorial and I plan on starting it here in a few minutes, but I've got one problem. I see there are two posts that you have linked to other peoples tutorials on how to do mountains, and forests, and the links do not work. Do we know how long it's going to be before the forum is fixed? Or another suggestion on how I can find those particular posts, so I can use those methods over the ones you suggested?
Thanks
Mars