Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 13

Thread: Capitol City of Turimor (GIMP)

  1. #1
    Guild Apprentice geoff_nunn's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    37

    Wip Capitol City of Turimor (GIMP)

    Okay, so I'm working on my second city map and attempting to use a similar technique to the last city I built. Right now, I've got a rough rendering of the land surrounding the city and have decided to switch to cleaning up and modifying the urban layout generated by the RPG city generator.

    I was not as pleased with the city generator's results (I think because I am working with a larger city this time.) While the city looks full, the city center is full of very small buildings that don't appear to be packed densely enough for an urban center. I spent almost an entire evening tweaking the settings on the generator but did not have much luck.

    Right now, I'm in the process of copying and pasting select bits of existing buildings into other parts of the city to fill them out. Is there an easier way to do this?

    Anyway, this is what I have so far...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	turimor5.jpg 
Views:	219 
Size:	550.8 KB 
ID:	15353  

  2. #2
    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    3,012

    Default

    Yep, you definitely need to dense things up
    Some people have tried to find easier ways to create realistic looking cities without a lot of work... I think Ravells is onto something at the moment with his "Lazy Man's Style":
    http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=5713

    Anyway, your map certainly isn't looking too shabby at the moment!
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

  3. #3
    Professional Artist Nomadic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    The great northwest
    Posts
    355

    Default

    There are most certainly faster ways (see gandwarfls post for example), but the best ways in my opinion still involve the manual placement of houses and other objects. That's just the way it is unfortunately. City maps can take me upwards of a week to create (compared to 2-10 hours for a regional map). I will say though that when you are done you will feel alot of pride in what you have accomplished.
    My Map Portfolio
    -----
    Unless otherwise stated, all my work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  4. #4

    Info Just play a game of connect the squares!

    I think the map generated by the City Generator can still be useful, its given you 'nodes', lots of them for creating a more believable city structure... all you have to do is a night or 2 of "connecting the squares" and making them more dense and larger 'implied' city blocks, etc...

  5. #5
    Guild Apprentice geoff_nunn's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    37

    Default

    Yeah, right now, I'm debating between hand-drawing/copy-pasting more densely populated city blocks or fiddling with one of the lazy-man techniques Gandwarf linked to above.

    I wonder if I can use the Roads layer in my Gimp file to select individual city blocks (well, I know I can select them... I wonder if it would be helpful), thus setting up some bounding edges for my work and just draw or filter one block at a time... depending on what works.

    I tend to be a bit ADD when mapping or working on any creative project, for that matter, and have spent the past several days distracted by a structure-mapping diversion that I hope to post soon... if I don't get distracted back the other direction before its done.

  6. #6
    Guild Apprentice geoff_nunn's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    37

    Post

    Okay, I finally got around to working on this thing some more. I reinstalled GIMP with the Python extension and downloaded the lazy man's city generator script. This is what I have so far after running the generator to create my city core and then adjusting the coloring to tone down the buildings' saturation.

    I haven't decided if I like it. I feel like it is a bit too messy... but then medieval cities were really freakin' messy! I think the biggest issue I have is that the city generator does not produce landmark looking buildings. I may need to go back in and attempt to add some places of interest and obvious city planning elements by hand.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	turimor7.jpg 
Views:	134 
Size:	377.6 KB 
ID:	15766  
    Last edited by geoff_nunn; 08-11-2009 at 04:18 AM. Reason: forgot to attach the image! D'oh!

  7. #7
    Professional Artist Facebook Connected Coyotemax's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    1,945

    Default

    I like the golf courses to the left of the city center

    Seriously, that's what I thought the one looked like at first. I say keep it

    My finished maps
    "...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."

  8. #8
    Guild Apprentice geoff_nunn's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    37

    Post

    Yeah, I haven't even touched the greenspaces yet, so the golf courses were all generated by the RPG city generator that I used to set up the original layout. I'll probably have to hand draw the little sand traps and flags.

  9. #9
    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Netherlands
    Posts
    3,012

    Default

    Hmm... I have to say I am not a big fan of this city style. The city blocks look too much like mosaics to me unfortunately
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

    Gandwarf has fallen into shadow...

  10. #10
    Guild Apprentice geoff_nunn's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    37

    Default

    Gandwarf: Yeah, I think that is part of my issue as well.

    I am tempted to actually scrap this particular style of map in favor of something that appears more hand drawn. I am thinking about changing to an ink on parchment look, doing away with individual building drawings all together and instead perhaps color-coding or grayscale coding the city blocks based on their district affiliations, and only drawing in the significant landmarks like the castle, guard barracks, temples and markets. After all, the purpose of maps is not necessarily to look realistic, but rather to help people figure out where the heck they are going!

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •