Thanks, Redrobes. I agree those look better than Goggle Maps. It's good to know what the real thing looks like and at the high resolution, they should be good for grabbing textures.
Thanks to torstan's outstanding tutorial, below is the map update with water. I'm getting to experiment and following the tutorials allows me to see what the tools do. The irony of the map is I think it looks better the closer you get. The next and final step is the forests.
Whew, I'm done! And not a moment too soon. The game is this Wednesday and I still have to stock the swamp.
I certainly learned a lot about GIMP working on this map. The advice and tutorials on these boards are truly top notch. I probably won't revisit this map again (like I said, game is this Wednesday) but I'd still appreciate any constructive criticism for my future maps.
The only thing that I would add are some dead logs but you don't really have time for that. Looks pretty cool. Nice job.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Thanks, Ascension. I considered throwing in more details, but I wondered how much would be visible from that altitude. Still, I know I took many liberties in showing stuff.
As a novice, I am realizing map making is a juggling act with three pins in the air. There is the aesthetic: a map should make someone want to examine it further. Then there is realism: we should be able to identify with objects because we immediately recognize them at the appropriate scale. The final pin is utility: we need to draw meaningful information for our task. It seems we can make some compromises, but we can never let a pin fall to the floor. I know you know this -- your maps are incredible. I'm just getting to know it and exploring how to balance all three.
The fourth juggling pin is text and the fifth is extraneous graphics (compass, title, scalebar, grids, nice little pictures around the edges) and I always drop those
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
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