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Thread: Brand New - Advice

  1. #1

    Default Brand New - Advice

    Brand new to the forum and this is my first map. I have drawn maps by hand since I was kid (Never been that good) and when I stumbled across this I decided I would give it a try. Never used gimp before or anything so here are my results. Any tips and pointers would be welcome!

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    Drawing...

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  2. #2
    Guild Apprentice
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Seattle-ish, Washington
    Posts
    41

    Default

    Great looking map, especially for the first go!
    The River Police will have something to say about that lake and the rivers flowing in with nothing flowing out.
    Portions of the map are really dark, making the map difficult to see in those areas. Lightening those colors may make the map more smooth from a color standpoint.
    The mountains don't appear to have any transition to the plains and thus look rather stark and somewhat unnatural. They look good, but that transition would make them look better and give the map a more cohesive appearance.
    It certainly captures the feel of the hand-drawn map and is a wonderful representation, so good job! I do believe a bit of rep is in order.

  3. #3

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kaelin View Post
    Great looking map, especially for the first go!
    The River Police will have something to say about that lake and the rivers flowing in with nothing flowing out.
    Portions of the map are really dark, making the map difficult to see in those areas. Lightening those colors may make the map more smooth from a color standpoint.
    The mountains don't appear to have any transition to the plains and thus look rather stark and somewhat unnatural. They look good, but that transition would make them look better and give the map a more cohesive appearance.
    It certainly captures the feel of the hand-drawn map and is a wonderful representation, so good job! I do believe a bit of rep is in order.
    I agree with the mountains! Now I just need to figure out how to do that...

  4. #4
    Guild Adept
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Sacramento, CA, USA
    Posts
    275

    Default

    Nice looking map. I even like the mountains, though I admit they look a little more like massive rock formations that abruptly jut from the ground. There could be a story there.

    Take a look at the Eriond tutorial. It shows a pretty exhaustive, but effective way of creating a gradual heightmap for your mountains. You don't need to worry about the Wilbur part of it, as I believe Wilbur was used primarily for the lakes and rivers on the map. The airbrushing from light to dark (high to low) is what I am referring to. Then you can create separate layers for hills and mountains and apply differing scale bump maps from the heightmap. I realize that you are new to Gimp, but none of that is terribly difficult. Mostly it requires patience.

    I would suggest the aforementioned Eriond tutorial by Arsheesh and Mountain Technique Using Wilbur and Gimp by Torq. They both use similar concepts but come at the finished product from different ends. Eriond is about controlling the result, while Torq's technique is randomized. Both cover the concept of grayscale heightmaps and how to use them to make mountains. Both tutorials are a mere search away. I hope those tips help.

    EDIT: One other thing, the overlayed clouds layer can be effective at grunging up the map, but you may want to tone down the opacity of that layer a little bit. Also try creating a layer with the Plasma filter, Desaturate that layer and overlay that instead of the Solid Noise. I have found that it tends (not always) to have less striking extremes in color. Again, you may want to play with the opacity of the layer a little bit. Just a suggestion for you to experiment with.
    Last edited by nolgroth; 06-03-2013 at 07:52 PM.

  5. #5

    Default

    I like it, I have some that I hope are as good.

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