Complete novice first map

[Tonquani]

Hello all,

So from downloading GIMP a few das ago and going through Ascension's wonderful Atlas Tutorial (the GIMP version obviousl), I have managed to get this far. Still loads to do, but overall, I'm fairly pleased with it as a start.

It wasn't really made with anthing in particular in mind, more just to work through the tutorial and try to get a handle on GIMP. I'm still rather confused about how Layers, masks and channels interact, but I'm sure that will come with time...First Attempt.png

Tonquani

[Mouse]

Hello Tonquani

If that's your first go with GIMP its a pretty excellent map. Well done!

I haven't done that particular tutorial myself just yet, but I have been using GIMP for a few months. You are already doing exceptionally well with it. Layers and masks are a bit of an illogical trial to start with, but the more you use them the easier it will get

Looking forward to more

[kacey]

Nice job on you're first map, like Mouse said just keep practicing it will all come in time. Layers and masks confused me at first too but once you get it you'll realize just how simple it is and the concepts will become natural. I found it helpful to look up masks and layers on you tube, there's tons of tutorials there, the videos don't need to be map related. Also you should familiarize yourself with all the different blend modes.... I don't use channels but layers, masks and blend modes are things you'll definitely want to know because if you're making maps, or any digital art you'll find them helpful most of the time.

[Tonquani]

Thanks for the comments Mouse and kacey, much appreciated.

It's not actually my first time with GIMP, however I last tried it (without any help from tutorials) and gave up fairly quickly. Never used PS or anything similar before, so it was all a mystery to me, but working through Ascension's tutorial really showed me what it is capable of.

I now have to decide whether to concentrate on the hand-drawn (paper and pen) map I am currently drawing of the Lake District, or try to get in more practice on GIMP..... .....with two small children vieing for my attention as well.....

Oh well...

[deaddmwalking]

How's it going? I'm just getting started myself and would be curious to know what type of progress you've made. I have a 10-year-old, 6-year-old and 2-year-old and am just trying to get back to this after a long hiatus and trying to learn to use digital tools.

[Tonquani]

How's it going? I'm just getting started myself and would be curious to know what type of progress you've made. I have a 10-year-old, 6-year-old and 2-year-old and am just trying to get back to this after a long hiatus and trying to learn to use digital tools.

Hi deaddmwalking,

Making reasonable progressNew Lake District Map.JPG. This is the latest of my Lake District map, but the part that I'm really struggling with now is how to put in all of the mountains... And yes, the kids do get in the way...

Until last month I had tried to use GIMP 2 or 3 times but had just given up as I didn't have any concept of what I was really trying to achieve. There are bits that are counterintuitive, but persistence pays off. ...and the folks on here are really helpful as well.

Cheers

[acrosome]

Heh, heh. "Cockermouth."

Sorry. I had an immature moment, there. Forgive me, I'm an American.

But, to help deaddmwalking:

I don't use channels, and still have no concept of what they are, actually. But layers and masks are indeed critical concepts, as others have said. Concentrate on those.

If you are familiar with the old "transparencies" that used to be used for giving presentations, layers are sort of like that. Imagine each layer as a transparent plastic film upon which you draw something. Then, when you stack one atop another the image on the top one covers some of the image on the bottom one, yes? That's how they work. They do get a bit more complicated in that you can set a layer to not be totally opaque, such that things do show through a bit from a layer underneath.

Masks are a bit more complex. Usually they are made as a grayscale image of some sort and applied to a layer. So, a mask is a characteristic of a layer. (Though you can use one layer to generate a mask for another, too.) Recall that I said that layers can be made partially transparent? Essentially, the mask makes parts of the layer transparent to varying degrees. The black part of a mask makes the corresponding part of it's layer totally invisible, whereas the white part of a mask makes the corresponding part of it's layer totally visible (or vice versa, depending upon the software settings). Varying shades of gray in the mask result in more or less visible (i.e. partially transparent) parts of the layer, depending upon the darkness of the gray.

There are other sorts of masks but this is the one that is used 99% of the time.

For instance, this is what a "sea mask" is. You paint an entire layer with a uniform blue that you like. Then, you go to your layer that has your landforms on it, and select all of the land. Then, apply that selection as a mask to the sea-blue layer, and set it to not show the blue where the land was. Stack the sea layer on top of your land layer and voila you have a map with land and sea. There are certainly other ways to do this, though. In a lot of ways it's actually better to apply the sea mask to make non-land parts of the land layer invisible so that a sea-blue layer underneath shows through.

These layers and masks are all helpful in that if you later decide to change the color of your sea, for instance, just bucket-fill the entire sea layer and you won't have to tediously re-draw the whole map. Likewise, you can have a "forests" layer with only the trees on it, so that if you decide to change the appearance of the trees you won't have to re-draw the whole map. And so on.

[deaddmwalking]

Thanks Acrosome. I am familiar with using layers but not most of the other tools. I know there are some pretty good guides that I intend to work through. The thing I'm trying to get better at is 'fractalizing' my landforms. I already have pretty good coast shapes (from hand-drawn maps) and I'd like to convert them to digital and 'rough' the edges even more. I'm hopeful that once I get that where I want it, things will go smoothly from there.