World Map: Chizu

[Steel General]

This is coming along nicely.

Here are a few things that stuck out to me... I think the shadowing on the mountains is a little heavy and dark (at least for me). The scrub isn't bad, maybe try using a brush that's a little more 'scattered' to give it a bit more random look. You rivers seem to be 'floating' on top of everything else, you might try giving them a bit of a bevel to help with that.

[lisze]

Thank you for your comments and advice. I'll see what I can do about the mountains. I'm still trying out the suggestion I got before to see how I can make that work.

As to the scrub-- thanks again. I couldn't figure out why it was bugging me so much. Right now I have it made with an applied layer mask and something else. I'll look through the resource forum for a good brush and try that out instead.

As for the rivers, yeah... I still need to do those. Part of the reason they're not set yet is because I want to make sure they pass river police standards and partially because bevel isn't something I've used in gimp before. I'll search the tutorials. Thanks again.

[jfrazierjr]

Thank you for your comments and advice. I'll see what I can do about the mountains. I'm still trying out the suggestion I got before to see how I can make that work.

As to the scrub-- thanks again. I couldn't figure out why it was bugging me so much. Right now I have it made with an applied layer mask and something else. I'll look through the resource forum for a good brush and try that out instead.

Assuming you made the mountain ridgeline on a layer of 50% grey(set to layer mode Overlay) before you ran the bump map, just lower the opacity. If you did not, learn this technique post haste!


Instead of modifying the base image for your scrublands, just modify the mask. In your layers dialog, click on the mask part of the layer and paint in black or some shade of grey. Where ever you paint, the texture will disappear if black or reduce opacity of the texture if some shade of grey.

[lisze]

Oh, good point about the mask. Thank you.

The ridgeline is on its own transparent layer. I did bumpmap the layer, but I also have an un-bumpmapped, also transparent layer saved just in case. I tried filling the layer with gray, but the selection is feathered and so it leaves a little halo around the base of the mountain.

Also, if you put the ridgeline on a layer of gray, how do you get the color? A base? In the bumpmap? My knowledge of what I can do with gimp is very, very spotty. I just figured out how to install scripts this past weekend, even. Sorry. And thank you.

[jfrazierjr]

Oh, good point about the mask. Thank you.

The ridgeline is on its own transparent layer. I did bumpmap the layer, but I also have an un-bumpmapped, also transparent layer saved just in case. I tried filling the layer with gray, but the selection is feathered and so it leaves a little halo around the base of the mountain.

Also, if you put the ridgeline on a layer of gray, how do you get the color? A base? In the bumpmap? My knowledge of what I can do with gimp is very, very spotty. I just figured out how to install scripts this past weekend, even. Sorry. And thank you.

Thats ok, on the grey layer with the halo, just use the smudge or blur tools to soften it up manually.

For the color, you paint the color on a layer below the bump mapped grey layer(set to overlay). This is a great technique, because now, if you need to tweak the colors, you don't have to deal with the bump mapping again. This is also a great technique to get height into things. For example, take a look at this example: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3478. Note the original image and then pay attention to post 6 and 7 with Torstan's example and how it makes hils in the final product. The great thing about this technique is that I can change the underlying image or texture and the hills remain exactly as they are singe that stuff is done on another layer.

[lisze]

All right. I've been working on the map.

I still have not done the rivers. The blue lines are simply where I wish to place rivers. Are they okay? Do they violate any rules?

I am not happy with the forest on the continent on the lower left. I tried to mimic the forest I'd done on the three-isle continent above it (so that way regular forests and tropical ones would be different), but it didn't come out. I ended up overlaying the original forest I'd done for the lower left over the attempt to mimic.

I am also unhappy with my little ice island on the lower right.

Lastly, I'm not sure how to approach the islands, because they are so small. How can I do a single mountain or volcano?

That said, I also want to say thanks again for the help and links/references. They do help. Thank you.

The latest version of my map:

DeskTopVersion.jpg