WIP - My first map

[Gandwarf]

Wow, this is pretty cool! Have some rep.
I really like the style. Love the mountains, forests, little islands and the symbols you used for the town and keep (did you make those two yourself?). You might want to post a tutorial yourself... I am sure people would like to mimick this style. It's very painterly.

Labeling is still basic and uninspiring I think. There are better fonts out there... also, I wouldn't use a very obvious drop shadow.

[Coyotemax]

The icons are definitely working out better.

Everything else is progressing nicely One of the things you can do to offset dark text on a dark surface is to give it a bit of a glow.

I know there are some people who will comment on your use of red text against a green background. It can be made to work, but it takes a certain finesse, otherwise you can still lose it against the green, even with emphasis.

[Steel General]

I know there are some people who will comment on your use of red text against a green background. It can be made to work, but it takes a certain finesse, otherwise you can still lose it against the green, even with emphasis.

I am one of those people

But in this case, the red is so dark (nearly black) that it doesn't suffer from the 'bleed-in' problem that a more typical shade of red would create. Though I think this could still use a bit of a glow to set it off.

[Juggernaut1981]

Jax> Will Illustrator allow you to "Save Visible"? If you can, then you just show each layer as visible, save them, then open them as new layers in GIMP.

[RobA]

Sorry I could have been more clear (I have explained my workflow a couple times in other threads and forget some people may not have read EVERY post here )

I make my entire map (or as much as I can) without labels, icons, etc in gimp.
I then do a save as to a jpg.
I import that jpg into inkscape, select the image, then size the canvas to fit the jpg. I lock the background layer (where the image is), and create new layers for things like city labels, rivers, titles, etc. I use layer visibility to reveal only the layer I want, and export it from inkscape as a png.
In gimp I use Open as Layer to bring in that png for final compositing (drop shadows/glows, etc.)

If I want to change text, I flip to my inkscape file and modify it there then delete the existing layer and again us Open as Layer.

When I know I'll do this a lot (like in my recent woodcut map) I used a linked layer set of scripts for gimp I reference here.

If there is interest, I can make a quick tut on it.

-Rob A>

[rdanhenry]

If there is interest, I can make a quick tut on it.

I, for one, would love to see a tutorial covering labeling a map with GIMP/Inkscape.

[a2area]

I like your mountains but I LOVE the waterline and water effects.. how'd you do that?

[Jaxilon]

Thanks RobA I will try this again.

I think I was on the right track - I created a jpg, used it in inkscape, then kicked out a PNG and was able to open that in Gimp. Now I see that I can open my .xcf in Gimp and bring back the .png from Inkscape as a layer and use it with my original. <-- That's the part I was missing.

Well that and I didn't know to lock the layers in Inkscape, believe me I was getting ****ed about having to redo stuff because it kept flipping back to my background layer when i wasn't paying attention

a2area> Being a noob I will have to see if I can recreate that effect. I do know that I worked it over pretty good. I used a brush that either came with Gimp or I got from here called Pencil Sketch (1,2,3) and stomped tracks all over both dark and light and then blurred things. Most likely the ocean started as a fall out project going through one of RobA's tutorials. For some reason I never get exactly what folks intend from those things so I end up going through the forest swinging my machete manually. The upside is it's possible I will discover something new.

For anyone who cares, I will say that I use the Burn tool like a fiend to darken and lighten up areas. I used the burn tool on 'dodge' setting to lighten up around the coasts. I probably do things the hard way but so long as I get closer and closer to what I want to see I'm happy.

The other most used tool for me is 'smudge'. It's almost like sculpting you just keep pushing the paint around. I love it.

[Diamond]

The water-color look of this is awesome, man. I love the subtle cross-hatching look on the grassy areas, and your beaches look fantastic. (Why does it always sound so suggestive to compliment someone's geography? ((See, even that sounded wrong.))?)

The only thing that looks a bit off to me is the forests. There is some sharp pixellation going on there that makes those areas stand out too much from the rest of the map; kind of a jarring effect.

[Jaxilon]

Thanks for the nice comments.

The only thing that looks a bit off to me is the forests. There is some sharp pixellation going on there that makes those areas stand out too much from the rest of the map; kind of a jarring effect.

I know what you mean about the forest areas. It kind of bothers me as well but for the moment I haven't really come up with a solution. I'm still trying to get my mountains down and make sure I can duplicate the ocean look again.

Eventually I will start tweaking on the forests but tend to agree it is a little off from the rest.