My style

[loogie]

It's been awhile since I posted, but I was wondering what you guys thought of a process I have been thinking up...

Basically its coming from my recent playing in inkscape, if you remember I made a bunch of mt's and some forests for people to use if they wished, and this is a general step forward in my process of using such images

All in all its designed with those in mind, but there is no reason similar processes wouldn't work for pretty much any "stamp" based mapping (I say stamp, because it is utilizing one or more images packed together to form a feature, like a mountain or a forest).

I've attached my example, and I think it looks quite good for a forest... The interesting thing is (if you can't already tell) I've created this significantly varied forest with a single "stamp", copied multiple times of course, and using my process to give it some varying as far as shadows/shading... I think it looks great as-is but would look even better with even 1 or 2 more "stamps" to give it some flavour.

What I'm asking is if you guys think it'd be something people would be interested in learning as far as a tutorial? The process is fairly simple, something I don't think will surprize anyone, but something I don't think anyone has outlined in a tutorial as of yet..

The process in a nutshell is basically copying and pasting said stamp, randomy selecting them, rotating and resizing as a group (repeating this step a number of times so the whole mass has significant randomization) creating bigger groupings with those images, copy/paste it, resize/rotate the different groups, and fit together in the shape you want... for some added "depth" I simply trace around some of the "back" layer stamps in a black polygon, make it black, and change its alpha so that the area looks darker then the other... I like the idea cause its very modifiable, quick, and gives you a high ammount of control over the end product.

So do you guys think a more fleshed out tutorial would be of value to the group?

[Jaxilon]

Kind of reminds me of the forests I made on Kurvantium which reminds me, I need to get back to and finish it. Yours have a bit more individual depth to them so I would be interested in seeing how it was done. Might be able to pick up a trick or two. So, I guess that's one vote FOR.

[Steel General]

New tutorials are always welcome (even if most of the time I never get around to trying them out )

[Hai-Etlik]

You might want to use Clone rather than Copy. It keeps file size down and allows you to update all the clones by editing the original.

[loogie]

Clone sounds like a good idea, tho using multiple stamps may alter that plausability... a bit.. even with just one stamp it seems I can get quite the random look.

Now however I have another quandry, and I'd like to ask for help with this one... I've played around with my semi-side view mountains made in inkscape, and they do work quite well, but since these tree's are top down, I was wondering if i could make plausible top-down mountains in inkscape or a similar project... My first thought is a bevel, thinking of XARA i believe, and the gradient-bevel it allows i've seen some people here use (gameprinter i believe?).. is there any way to replicate something similar in inkscape? basically i'd be looking for a way to make a plausible looking slope, with sufficient jaggedness that it fit's in with the rest of the map style (aka cell-shady, caroonish) If anyone has any suggestions I would love to try them out!