Very confused- Very angry! :( About to give up completely.

[RPMiller]

I would recommend that you take a look in the WIP and Final forums to see what others have done with mountains. There are so many possibilities and techniques that it might be easier to find one that you like and then we can help you actually put it together.

I would recommend that each element in the map be a separate layer. This will make it easier to apply effects, move things around and make changes to the various elements going forward.

[Sacred.Stone]

I like the maps here:

http://cartographersguild.com/forum/download.php?id=127

However to fit with the style of my map, they would have to be less "plastic" looking.

These mountain are also cool:

http://www.truenorthcartography.com/files/WIP.pdf

I like the whole lack of perspective... the mountains are just viewed from above, like my forests. I don't like a lot of the perspective mountains that use shading and light angles... it messed up my eyes when I look at a map.

[Istarlome]

one thing to remember when doing anything in the Gimp. save as an xcf file early on. then save often. Gimp will do an unrecoverable freeze at times so saving is important.

xcf files save your layers so you can work on them later. if you save in another file formate you will lose the layers.

don't save in jpg unless you're sure you'll not modify the image later. you should save as png. so have an xcf copy and a png of the final.

the reason is that jpg is "lossy" meaning that everytime you save in jpg some quality is lost. sometimes its not perceivable but after a few saves you will notice. now if you just open a jpg and then close with no modifications there is no loss. it's only when you save.


btw, does anyone like the sig?

I've been doing them for a couple weeks. there are some good tutorials at gimpdome and gimptalk. i've learned a lot about the Gimp by doing sigs.

lastly, the colors in the gimp are just as good as any other program. you could open a map ot graphic with colors you like and simply pick he color using the "pick color from image" tool. it looks like a little eve dropper.

[Sacred.Stone]

Yes you sig looks good that you're working on.

So what level of opacity should I choose for each layer? Or is it not that big of a deal since I'm not doing any shading? Just maybe low opacity for the text?

[Istarlome]

the opacity is what ever you think looks good. play with it.

some of the things on your map could be done with home made brushes. any image can be a brush. mainly i'm thinking about the lines used in the forest and mountains. once you draw the area you could "stamp" down those lines with brushes that you would create. there are several tuts on how to make brushes on the sites i listed.

[Sacred.Stone]

Could you list me those sites again, please?

[pyrandon]

So what level of opacity should I choose for each layer? Or is it not that big of a deal since I'm not doing any shading? Just maybe low opacity for the text?

Unless what is beneath the layer should be seen or suggested, forget it. I see the maps you're emulating do not appear to use much opacity adjustment, so perhaps you would not do it at all.

In all honesty, I slide around opacity a lot to see if there's an effect I like from it. But that's me--very trial & error, give & take, play & replay. You may wish to use a different effect instead, such as a "blur" filter instead.

Make sure to post us an update on that map. If the file is too big you can post it elsewhere & link to it here (there are plenty of free image sharing sites out there), or you could save it as a lower-resolution jpg file to get it under the 5 MB limit. Either way, I'm eager to see how it's coming along!

[Sacred.Stone]

Well so far here it is. I outlined the coasts, lakes, and did the rivers.

You can see those big red areas are going to be mountaineous.

I think the two separate blobs are gonna be individual, random peaks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...inprogress.png

[Sacred.Stone]

Okay so I went back to the layer titled "coasts", and colored in the ocean. I created a new layer called "mountains", and in that layer I outlined in black the areas that will have mountainous graphics (ranging from hills, to big volcanic looking peaks to craggly mess). I sunk the actual topographic map of mars down to the bottom so I could work without it interfering.

My "base" layer is going to be the land (colored greenish), the coasts, rivers, and lakes, and the ocean, all colored. I will then have a layer on top of that, called mountains, and after that another layer for adding features onto the land, such as hilly areas, forests, etc. After that there will be another layer "cities and structures" which will have the icons for cities and the text for each city / area etc.

All in all I thinkt he map will be very basic, but that is okay. Later on when I feel more skillfull and have read more tutorials, I can go back and dissect my layers and make it better.

So... I'll keep you guys updated. I would still like if someone could help me wth the mountains.