Brimstone New Mexico Territory, 1873

[RevGunn]

After some time away from gaming, and mapping, and paper miniatures, my old group called me wanting to game. I said "Sure, if I can run a Western." I figured that would be the end of it. Nope, they said "Great..... Next Saturday?"

So here is the beginning map of the area the scenario takes place in. Brimstone, New Mexico Territory. I got it form an old Boot Hill "module".
I really really disliked their map, so here we go.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13307512/BrimstoneFinal.jpg

I studied several Town tutorials, and was REALLY inspired by mearrin69's Brushy, Kansas, and Sany Bowitz Maps. I ain't that good yet.
I am fairly happy with this one so far though. Any suggestions or criticism is appreciated. Gotta get rid of the gray patches around the trees... This is GIMP, btw.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

*shrugs* I like it.. I think its good.

[Coyotemax]

that's awesome! wish i had some suggestions but I don't know gimp that well

[mearrin69]

I dig it. Water and rocks look nice. The buildings look a little 'floaty'. Maybe if you ease up on the blur on the shadows and move them in closer to the buildings just a tad? Not sure what's with the grey you mentioned on the trees. They could benefit from a little tweaking to the drop shadow as well, I think. Maybe play with bevel on the tree layer to see if you can get them to pop up a little?

I don't know GIMP either so I can't be much help with specifics.

I think yours is looking pretty good! Glad you liked my maps. Have some rep for the flattery...erm, I mean, have some rep for the great map!
M

[RobA]

I'd guess the grey fringing around the trees is due to your mask opacity at the edges bleeding outside the noise of the trees. If so, play with the curves ion the layer mask to squeeze the grey out.

Also, I really like the south lake south shore with the broken up area.

-Rob A>

[Midgardsormr]

Regarding the shadows, there is a technique using a directional blur to keep the shadows attached to the corners of the buildings. Do a search for Ascension's Oasis map; I think it's described in there. It was quite a while ago, though. I may be mistaken about how much detail was posted there.

[RobA]

Regarding the shadows, there is a technique using a directional blur to keep the shadows attached to the corners of the buildings. Do a search for Ascension's Oasis map; I think it's described in there. It was quite a while ago, though. I may be mistaken about how much detail was posted there.

IN gimp I use motion blur then threshold then gauss blur as shown here : http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...blur#post93352

-Rob A>

[Steel General]

I think the heavy outline/stroke is also contributing to the 'floatiness'.

But that aside I like it.

[Moe]

A western - nice idea for a gaming round you had there and you came up with a nice map

The bevel mentioned by Mearrin is a good idea for the single trees and smaller areas to give some depth.
As I am not familiar with GIMP I can only give some general advice on the greyish glow around your trees.
If you can't erase the "fog" manually I would try to duplicate the layer (with the trees), select the top one, cut away 2-3px (depending on the file size) by reducing the selection, inverse it and delete the edges - after this, change the duplication (under the cut away layer) to multiplay - this, combined with the bevel and some harder drop shadow should result in a more smoothy junction between tree and ground.

Another way would be to select the colour range in a certain area enabling you to only kick the white out.
Hopefully this or the previous advices given by the other members help you a lil' bit.

Regards,
>Moe

[RevGunn]

Thanks for the encouragement and the advice folks. Oh, and the rep. Rob has hit the nail on the head re the gray area. I missed a step, maybe two. As soon as I read that post I went.. "oops". I'm off to read the other tutorials mentioned and take another hack at it tonight. I'll post results. Then, I gotta start on my regional map, which is gonna be a lot of fun. Again, thanks. That's part of why I love this forum. People aren't afraid to teach.