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Thread: City Of Riverhewn WIP First map in GIMP

  1. #1
    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Wip City Of Riverhewn WIP First map in GIMP

    Now thanks to Pyrandon's awesome tutorial I think I am ready to post something for real I realized pretty quickly that CC3 is a little too "linear" for me. Meaning I also prefer the "artistic" style. After a few hours of reading (just about everything in the tutorial section which is just fantastic!!) and cozying up to my screen for the last few hours this is what I have so far. As you can see I've marked areas for the actual city as well as for Castle Shendenflar which predates the city hence the other wall. Here's a quick key

    Purple=City Walls
    Green=Primary Roads
    Black=Castle Walls

    I have a issue. 1.I like the way the basic shape of the rivers and the lake shore turned out however I am having a problem getting the delineation of the water depths right. The main river is fairly deep so the color is ok. The smaller river is shallow as is the water along the immediate lake shore. I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong tool but it looks to me like "something" is flowing into the lake like sediment. I'm sure that's not my ONLY issue but it's the one that's really bothering me at the moment. Any advice criticism or feedback would be GREATLY appreciated Thanks!!

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    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Wip Update On Riverhewn WIP

    *UPDATE*

    Well I can't leave this thing alone so I spent sometime trying to fix my water issue and this is what I came up with It's better and I can live with it for now. C&C and feedback still needed Thanks!!


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    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

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    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Wip Yet another Update...

    Ok here's the last one of the night...

    I added some shadowing and began work on the layout and streets of the city itself. As always let me know what you think..Thanks!!

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Name:	Riverhewn City Phase 1.jpg 
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    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

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    Guild Journeyer Avengeil's Avatar
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    Congratulations on your quick start on mapping.It took me up to post forty something to start a project.
    Well I can't pretty much comment on the technical side of the map but I can comment on how it looks.IMO the map ends a bit abruptly to the west, right after the city walls.If I were you I would make the image wider so it would include something of behind the city walls to the west.At the moment it seems to me like there is half a city waiting there.But it's just my opinion.

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    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    After having stared at this map for most of the night I never noticed how "off" the western part of the city looked. Thanks for the feedback I'll have to fix that tomorrow.
    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Looks like a good start.

    I used Pyrandon's tutorial several times when I was first getting started, and still use bits and pieces of his techniques.
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



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    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Wip Update Massive Magical Disaster destroys Riverhewn..(or Let's start over)...

    Ok..I spent the better part of 2 days staring at this thing and I just couldn't get my head around it. As I added things the scale just kept getting further and further out of control, as did my frustration. SO a few clicks here and a few "deletes" there and BAM! I present a "Pre-Civilization" Riverhewn...No?..Ok seriously There were too many issues with the old version so I'm starting over. This time I'm going to add in more time for just looking at the map to see if it fits what I have in my head. That's always something that I've done in hand drawn maps,step back and look,fiddle, fiddle,step back and look. I think with the advantages of digital cartography I assumed I would race through a map in a couple of days. NOPE...Most of my big hand drawn maps took months so why shouldn't this? I also realized that the city was just TOO small since I'm not looking for a building by building look the city needs to be bigger with wider streets and bigger blocks of buildings. All things to work on.


    Ok enough of that... here's where I stand now.. FINALLY got the water where I really like it. As always C&C and Feedback wanted and appreciated. Thanks!!

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Name:	Riverhewn City Phase 1.jpg 
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    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

  8. #8
    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Wip Update

    Well my "step back and look" system seems to be working. After messing around with the water even more I like it even better now. I feel like I learn something with every revison of this project. Now it's not much of an update but I added some texture to the land layer and finalized the water. Let me know what you think... Thanks!!

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Name:	New Riverhewn.jpg 
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    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

  9. #9

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    Your basic ground texture is looking pretty good, but some of your bump map is spreading into the water. I assume you have the bump map on it's on layer in which case it should be pretty easy to fix with a layer mask. With the city, the western side looks like it's been drawn to fit the edge of the paper (you're in great company here, old mapmakers did this a lot when paper was expensive!). In addition to the roads, try putting in some squares and think early what the scale of the city is going to be, what major buildings it will have and then make sure the roads work with the major buildings. Take a look at the tutorial in my sig regarding city building which may help with the process.
    best
    Ravs

  10. #10
    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Thanks for the advice. I actually am currently reading your excellent guide as we speak. I'm having a bit of an issue with scale. The original paper version of this map was HUGE and only showed the immediate city and some of the lake shore. Now believe it or not almost every one of Riverhewns 5000 buildings have at least a sentence or two in the way of detail ,but thats not what I'm going for in this version. I'm really just using this to learn some techniques. I want to depict the sheer size of the city but am only planning to actually depict a very few of the buildings with any level of detail. (the image size is 1500x1500px) I seem to be having a problem determining the size of the city blocks to convey what I'm after. *sit back and look..fiddle fiddle fiddle..sit back and look*...lol
    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

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