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Thread: WIP using RobA's GIMP Tutorial

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Redrobes View Post
    Even with Vista that ought to be easily enough to hold a large image. 7K x 3K is 80Mb or thereabouts in memory and even if you had 10 layers and some undo that would be only be about a 1Gb. Theres probably something else at play here like anti virus or something else thats thrashing your system. You should look at your processes and see how much CPU and memory they are all burning.
    Ah yes... antivirus... I didn't even think of that. Thanks!

    I'll bet if I shut that down, at least while working on maps, that ought to help at least some.

  2. #12
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Maybe - try it by all means but its better to just know. Press ctrl alt del and get the task manager button and use that and look it up. Better yet is to use the sys internals version :-

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

    which has a little more info. Actually the whole sys internals suite is excellent but its a power users set of tools. The process viewer is pretty easy tho. It should just tell you who is burning all of your resources.

    If it is an anti virus issue it will be with the file touched scan. Every time a file is read or written it scans it. Very slow - might not be worth it.

  3. #13
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    A few additional WIP images.

    Following RobA's technique as near as I can follow, I add the continent, improve the grass, and add dirt:


    First layer of grass
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-first grass.jpg 
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    Improved grass with textures
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-grass2.jpg 
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    Dirt
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Next up: I tackle mountains!

    Thoughts?

    One thing I notice: now that the land is down over the ocean, I see that the whispy white-blue coastal waters all moved to the right side. Is there any way to get it equally whispy on both sides?
    Last edited by Karro; 05-28-2008 at 12:18 AM. Reason: Added observation.

  4. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Karro View Post
    One thing I notice: now that the land is down over the ocean, I see that the whispy white-blue coastal waters all moved to the right side. Is there any way to get it equally whispy on both sides?
    Think you missed a second displacement map, use the same seed and negate both the x and y you used the first time.


    RE: virus scanning - you should be able to exclude real time scanning from the gimp.exe process, and the subdirectory that gimp used for caching. This should speed things up.

    -Rob A>

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by RobA View Post
    Think you missed a second displacement map, use the same seed and negate both the x and y you used the first time.


    RE: virus scanning - you should be able to exclude real time scanning from the gimp.exe process, and the subdirectory that gimp used for caching. This should speed things up.

    -Rob A>
    I think you're right. I don't recall doing a second displacement map. I'll have to go back and see what I can do!

    I'm going to need to develop some power user skills so I can better manage my antivirus and memory useage.

  6. #16
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    Post RobA's other mountain tutorial

    So... I once I figured out how to properly use the Gradient tool, RobA's mountain tutorial was a cinch, and produces what I think are very good looking results.

    My first try wasn't very great. It results from messing with the color curves a little too much on the B&W layer. Lesson learned.

    The second time came out better looking thanks to better practice fiddling with the color curves.

    Thoughts?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	4040   Click image for larger version. 

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  7. #17
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    Alright, so I tried out Mountains, Forests and Rivers on the second part of RobA's tutorial.

    The first time trying mountains was a disaster.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-ugly.jpg 
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    The forests didn't come out super great, either. When I Auto>Normalized the colors, it turned the lighter greens into a gaudy neon color. Applying the bumpmap did nothing to change that. I played with the color settings and opacity to try to tone down the neon. Another problem is that the forest loses definition and texture toward the center of the large areas. I used the same noise (via copying the layer) as the grass bumpmap with a higher depth, so not sure what I did wrong...

    Anyway, I deleted all the mountains, went back and tried again. I followed the basic tutorial as much as possible, but even by duplicating the mountain bumpmap layer, I couldn't get the same "pop" that RobA (and others) seem to get, nor the same variability in peak height.

    Here's the second try:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain1.jpg 
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    Then, I decided to try out RobA's other Mountain Tutorial in the context of this map:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain2.jpg 
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    Then, for kicks and giggles, I combined the two. I allowed one of the two identical bumpmaps to overlay on top of the second mountain style:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain3.jpg 
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    Then I tried it with both duplicate bumpmaps on the second style:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain4.jpg 
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    Overall, I think I like the two combined, with only one extra bumpmap overlay, the most.

    Didn't try redoing the forest yet, but started to try to carve out rivers. Issues: the forests completely cover the rivers in many places. I'll have to pick the brains of those who have figured out how to carve the rivers through the forests (and maybe later those who carve rivers through mountain canyons), and play with the rivers more to make them pop as well.

    Also: I corrected the coastal waters issue that I had previously. RobA was right, I hadn't applied the second displacement map.

  8. #18

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    I like those mountains; I think they're a big improvement over the standard tutorial results.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

  9. #19
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karro View Post
    Alright, so I tried out Mountains, Forests and Rivers on the second part of RobA's tutorial.

    The first time trying mountains was a disaster.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-ugly.jpg 
Views:	97 
Size:	53.9 KB 
ID:	4042
    Yea, my first couple of attempts came out crappy also. This is one of the reasons I started playing around with some other ways to do mountain fields. Think I finally have something I like....


    Quote Originally Posted by Karro View Post
    The forests didn't come out super great, either.
    Try DanChops mini tut on this thread: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2087 I really like the way this effect looks in the end. He needs to make a proper tutorial out of it.
    [/QUOTE]

    Quote Originally Posted by Karro View Post
    Anyway, I deleted all the mountains, went back and tried again. I followed the basic tutorial as much as possible, but even by duplicating the mountain bumpmap layer, I couldn't get the same "pop" that RobA (and others) seem to get, nor the same variability in peak height.

    Here's the second try:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain1.jpg 
Views:	103 
Size:	51.6 KB 
ID:	4043

    Then, I decided to try out RobA's other Mountain Tutorial in the context of this map:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain2.jpg 
Views:	90 
Size:	49.9 KB 
ID:	4044

    Then, for kicks and giggles, I combined the two. I allowed one of the two identical bumpmaps to overlay on top of the second mountain style:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain3.jpg 
Views:	116 
Size:	50.7 KB 
ID:	4045

    Then I tried it with both duplicate bumpmaps on the second style:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Practicing techniques 1-part2-complete-Mountain4.jpg 
Views:	131 
Size:	51.8 KB 
ID:	4046

    Overall, I think I like the two combined, with only one extra bumpmap overlay, the most.
    Yep, some of those look pretty good!


    Quote Originally Posted by Karro View Post
    Didn't try redoing the forest yet, but started to try to carve out rivers. Issues: the forests completely cover the rivers in many places. I'll have to pick the brains of those who have figured out how to carve the rivers through the forests (and maybe later those who carve rivers through mountain canyons), and play with the rivers more to make them pop as well.
    Select all your water (rivers and seas/oceans), create a layer mask (optional but recommended), run the bevel tool with 1-2 px. Make SURE you turn off the "make a copy" or whatever so you get it in the same layer. This will create that cut effect nicely. Then, apply the layer mask on whatever layers(forests, etc) and they all get cut out to make room for the river. Personally, I plan to play with adding ANOTHER forest layer with just a few small "bits" on top to cover the river in a few tiny places to better simulate real terrain.

    Joe
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  10. #20
    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    That's a great run through of the different mountain methods. The second o last is looking really nice.

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