Welcome Feralspirit and great start. City maps can be time-comsuming headaches but you have perservered and the result looks really cool. I agree with Ravs that the thread should probably go to WIP so you can get a wider range of feedback.
Torq
If you want, Feralspirit, I can copy this thread to the WIP section so that It gets the attention it desrves. Entirely up to you.
Welcome Feralspirit and great start. City maps can be time-comsuming headaches but you have perservered and the result looks really cool. I agree with Ravs that the thread should probably go to WIP so you can get a wider range of feedback.
Torq
The internet! It\'ll never catch on.
Software Used: Terranoise, Wilbur, Terragen, The Gimp, Inkscape, Mojoworld
Ok, I am currently laughing at myself. While trying to manage my attachment, with the click of the mouse I erased the reply I just spent an hour and a half writing. You guys are saved!
Let me sum up.
ravells, yes, I accept your offer to copy this to WIP thread. I hope I will be able to find it. I am something of a techno-idiot. I am hoping that with the might of the guild to assist me, this project will become a very educational exercise. (Just talk really slow.) I may take a few days off though, to let my head clear so that I can attack it somewhat refreshed.
Gamerprinter, the antique feel was lost when I tried to add color to just a few buildings. I did add a key, though. It's not the direction I want to take for the finished product (it looks too busy, andI don't even like the font), but I hope it answers some of the questions about what I had in mind.
Stern's Bridge 2nd Edit +Key reduced 50%.JPG
The post that I just lost ended with "Damn! Am I long-winded or what?" To avoid that from happening again I'll cut this one sh-
This is coming along nicely. I might have missed it, but what program(s) are you using? There are probably a couple of easy ways to add nice subtle colors that keep that inked feel.
I like it, nice naming too!
Love the layout of the city. Lots of rpg potential
Started on paper, scanned at 200 dpi, now using GIMP and MSPaint. I would love to apply color gradient to denote elevation, green for undevoloped land, and a rich brown for animal enclosures, possible the road as well, as it is not developed. I am having difficulties with layer mask. Would like tree texture for the forrest, Frogwood. Also, the area north of the mill, just north of that pool is supposed to be a small swampy area, running north and west along the bank of the river (the idea being the ground there is just low enough to be regularly inundated by the river). Wondering if I can easily alter image properties to work at 600 dpi, and whether you guys think that would be a good or bad move. My key is too large, in my opinion, I merely wanted it to be easily readable. It should probably also have a border, and there should be a compass.
Phew! Ok, I've realized I could go on, and on. Let's start slowly. I think I should begin by backing up to my 1st edit (losing the key) and apply roofs to the buildings that have them, my intention being to fill everything that I don't want the elevation gradient to be visible through. Do you guys think that would be better done at 600 dpi? Is there a way to alter image properties without printing and re-scanning? I think I need to track down CSUAC folder and browse through it for good roof texture.
If you need some help with the layer mask stuff in GIMP, check out my tutorial (link in sig) and post any questions here.
Personally, I think you should stick with the more hand drawn style you have with the existing forest shape and not put any high res textures, but that's just me. You might also want to check out the mapping resources section. There is a list of GIMP scripts, one of which generates old paper which would look pretty nice for the background and is not far from your original and it's automated to boot (or RobA (I think) has a tutorial for doing it by hand).
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Thanks, jfrazierjr, and good to hear from you. I actually have followed your tutorial already. It took me days to get it to work right (I had to read it, and reread it very slowly to figure out where I had missed a step). I am going to follow it again a few times until I can do it without having your tutorial displayed in front of me. My initial problem was the channel thingy will only apply 1 selected area, and I want the elevation to rise on both sides of the river. Again, I am probably missing something very simple and it's possible this isn't really a problem, it just threw me (as a new user).
Ok, I've just had an epiphany. I am trying to make two maps, one that looks antique (player hand-out) and another for me (with a realistic look). Thanks, I guess I'm just slow like that (I think I've been confusing the two, or maybe I just haven't been very clear). I think I'll start with the antique looking one, it may end up being the only one. Let me do a little mapping and come back. Somewhere on this site I've seen some beautiful antique style maps, but I'm not sure if I can find them again. Could someone link to a few. I need a good swamp thingy and my forrest could be better, if there is a good example to inspire me.
BTW; check out the first post in this thread. I've already found the torn paper script.
Fantastic work!! You should check out the CWBP threads...we need lots of cities there!