Random Village

[limetom]

Hello all,

Was bored over spring break an through together a quick and dirty map, completely in Inkscape (except, of course, rendering it as a JPG in GIMP).

I wouldn't say it's "done," but I've got enough to at least show someone. I think I've managed to get the style sort of stuck between a cartoon-y map and a realistic map; not sure how happy I am with that, but whatever.

One of the only real problems I've been having is that the paths I've used for the roads don't like to continue on outside of the actual image. They seem to end before the edge of the image. The rivers and the farm fields do not behave like this. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

[Ascension]

Not sure of how that happens but my first thought is something I do from time to time...start the drawing with a "frame" around it. Use a pencil with a 50-pixel wide tip on it and draw straight lines around the edges to make a faux frame...this dead space can later be worked over to make a nice frame. Looks like you nailed a perfect CC3 map without using CC3...and that alone is kind of cool.

[limetom]

Not sure of how that happens but my first thought is something I do from time to time...start the drawing with a "frame" around it. Use a pencil with a 50-pixel wide tip on it and draw straight lines around the edges to make a faux frame...this dead space can later be worked over to make a nice frame.

Thanks.

Didn't do quite what you said, but I made it work. I kept the giant rectangle I was using for the grass the same size, but just expanded the page to the edges of all the stuff that hangs over (the trees, the river paths, the road paths, the fields) and then just rendered it in GIMP and cropped it back down to the size of the grass-rectangle. That fixed it.

Looks like you nailed a perfect CC3 map without using CC3...and that alone is kind of cool.

Heh. I wasn't really going for anything in particular, and all I've seen of CC3 is from what you all have put up here.


You can disregard the labels for now, started doing them and never finished.

EDIT: Switched out the image for one that wasn't a GIMP-rendered hackjob.

[Gandwarf]

Looks like you nailed a perfect CC3 map without using CC3...and that alone is kind of cool.

This was my first thought exactly. It looks like a City Designer 3 map. Very nice!

[Feralspirit]

At the cost of the "cartoony" appearance (as you put it), the advantage to the CC3 style is that the maps are very clean and clear (easy to read). You have displayed your art/creativity in the city's design/layout, which, IMO, is very nice. To quote the rep header, "I approve."

Regarding the problems with the path (though you aptly solved it in this case), as you cannot drag the end of the path off the edge of the image, I wonder if adjusting the "cap style" might have solved the problem as well. (It may not have, just a matter of curiousity for me.)

[limetom]

Regarding the problems with the path (though you aptly solved it in this case), as you cannot drag the end of the path off the edge of the image, I wonder if adjusting the "cap style" might have solved the problem as well. (It may not have, just a matter of curiousity for me.)

Adjusting the cap style also fixed it.

Another thing I found in tinkering around with it is that if you manually set the page size to something smaller than the whole image, it also fixes it. Essentially, you're cropping the image natively in Inkscape (as opposed to exporting it and then cropping it in GIMP).

I've included an un-cropped version of the map, in case anyone was curious as to what I am doing.

[Joshua_101]

The simple clarity of this map would be welcomed by any RPG player...

I really enjoy how the "background stuff" (ie. farmer's fields, roads, etc) is subtly faded out while the buildings, rivers, and trees remain in focus. That gives me something to consider when making my own maps. I've often wondered how to affect the readability of my maps versus the overall illustrative look.

Nice job! Have some rep.

[Steel General]

Its a nice map, beautiful in its overall simplicity.

The colors are a little over saturated for my personal taste - but that's just preference.

Keep up the good work.

[limetom]

Its a nice map, beautiful in its overall simplicity.

The colors are a little over saturated for my personal taste - but that's just preference.

Keep up the good work.

I was intending to do a little post processing later on. I'll remember to take a look at that.

Thanks for sharing an inkscape map. I find it gets underutilized here in the forums!

P.S. you can zip the svg and upload it if you are willing.

Also, have some rep.

Huh. Didn't realize you could do that. I'll include the SVG, then.

Thanks.

oops - one more thing-

not sure how you did your forests, but I created an extension called re-stack, that I mention here:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/...ead.php?t=1257

and on my website here:

http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog/arc...k-Z-order.html

Though it was going to be included in the inkscape distribution, so you may already have it...

Inkscape's bug tracker says it'll be included in 0.47, which is the next release (0.46 is still the current version). I'll try it out.

By the way, I did the placement of the forests by hand. All by hand. Made a tree from a green-filled circle with a black stroke, then grouped it with a brown stroke for the trunk. I then copy-pasted and arranged every single one. Once I was done with a section of forest, I grouped all of the trees.


As per RobA's suggestion, I've included a zipped version of the SVG file in case anyone wants to mess around with it.

[RobA]

Thanks for sharing an inkscape map. I find it gets underutilized here in the forums!

P.S. you can zip the svg and upload it if you are willing.

Also, have some rep.

-Rob A>