Archipelago Experiment/1st Time Up

[Pilgrim]

So I've been playing around with GIMP for the first time recently, and I stumbled across RobA's GIMP tutorial (the pdf, not the thread). Since I've been trying to make a decent archipelago map for some time, I thought it would be worth giving it a go. I'm not sure I've really done the mountains right, I couldn't figure out deserts (not that they would really be appropriate at this scale), and I'm not enthralled with the color/density of forests or the color of the rivers. But otherwise, I think it turned out good for a first time!
Archipelago Experiment.png

I have little to no experience with GIMP or PS, so pretty much everything here was done by following the tutorial to the letter. I'm not a huge fan of the text tool in GIMP, and I gave up pretty quickly there, since I have plenty of other things to work on. So any explanation of actual software processes might have to be dumbed down a bit so I can understand them

[Rabin Arius]

Looks nice. Although I think it would look better in a more zoomed in scale. I wish I could see a larger version.

[Pilgrim]

Archipelago Experiment 1000.png

Your wish is my command. Though I'm not sure resizing it has done much for the quality. Perhaps there is a better way to go about it?

[Domino44]

I like this map... for a first map I think you did a great job, my first map did not look half as good as yours. I would encourage you to keep working and adding character and depth into your maps. The Guild is a great place to learn so it's good that you found your way here! I use photoshop so I can't give you any pointers for GIMP, sorry. I can't wait to see more of your work.

[Rabin Arius]

Yeah, the image quality is borderline on that larger size, and you can see nearly all the same details in the smaller, tighter version. So I think the smaller one is probably sufficient.

[Pilgrim]

Thanks Domino!

What's interesting about the sizing is that it was originally a 2000x2000px file, which I resized to 500x500 for it's original upload. The quality stayed good, but then when I tried to blow that back up, it didn't work. Unfortunately, I don't have the original large version (silly of me to not save it), but hopefully the next time round it'll make things better to keep it.

[Coriolis]

Bitmap programs like GIMP scale down fine, but they look blurry and pixelated when you try to expand your size. It can be done, and done well, if you use a finishing tool like bumpmaping or WILBUR to add some texture, but even that has its limits. If you want a map you can truly scale up or down with impunity, try a vector program like Inkspace.

If you're motivated and have some time, Arsheesh's Eriond tutorial is one of the best out there for a realistic, quality map made in GIMP. If you look through my profile, you'll see several maps I've made using that approach.