[Award Winner] Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional RPG Map

[RobA]

Thank you very much for this great tutorial!

You can find my current efforts so far in attachment.

I am having trouble with the rivers. I don't really get how I should create the bevel. I downloaded the tutorial.xcf posted in this thread and when I look at the "river shore bevel" layer, it looks like black or grey lines on a transparent background. I followed the link to another thread showing how to do the rivers, but I don't end up with that at all (just with a bump map applied to the grass layer, which does not have the same effect).

Can anyone point to me what I'm doing wrong?

Not sure. Could you zip your XCF file and post it here?

-Rob A>

[astralplaydoh]

GREAT Tutorial! Thank you so very much for making this. With about um, 8 hours worth of work, heh, I made this map.

I think I got lazy during the title part. My title looks a little wonky. But other than that, I'm very happy with everything.

[RobA]

astralplaydoh - You're welcome!

And I must say, those are some of the nicest mountains I have seen achieved!

-Rob A>

[Steel General]

And I must say, those are some of the nicest mountains I have seen achieved!

I agree, those look quite nice.

[astralplaydoh]

Thanks. I couldn't tell you what I did different. I think the mountains took me forever. I ended up playing around a lot with blurs and pixel spreads. I doubt I could replicate it. Heh.

[davosaur]

This post brought me to the guild. I was looking for a few tips and tricks, but what I found was so comprehensive- thanks! I've also had a chance to view some of the other tutorials here. I can't wait to work my way through it all, learning as I go, since this is my first foray into the world of Gimp.

I have a few things I wanted to add to the post in addition to my praise; a request, a question, and a complaint.

First, the request: I've noticed in many of the screenshots, some very awesome patterns. I really appreciate RobA's color palette, but can anyone direct me to their favorite repositories of patterns that work well with mapping? I'd like to build up my Gimp library.

Second, the question: I am having a little trouble with the last step of the first part of the tutorial, creating the sea. I know I should post a screenshot, but it is irrelevant now because I played around with the file to the extent that it doesn't really reflect what my problem was, so I'll describe it. I got to the last part of the tutorial, doing the offset to create the nearshore water turbulence. The result looks very similar to RobA's picture, it has the same light blue cast to it. The subsequent screenshot, the one where RobA says, "This screen grab is after the first one," shows the land white- no more blue cast. Just applying the offset step did not cause that to happen for me. Not sure what I missed.

Third, the complaint: sarcasm/ as I said before, I originally came here for a few tips and tricks, but after seeing the incredible maps that are capable, I'm now turning into a cartography junky. Thanks a lot for setting such a high standard to shoot for; free time (what there is of it) now has a new outlet.

Oh, there is one more thing. Perhaps someone has already noted this somewhere, but I discovered a few things messing about with Gimp. In the current version, there is an option under "select" to distort the selection. It seems to produce a similar effect to the "Three Layer Sandwich" technique described in the tutorial here. It might turn out to be a timesaver. I also had luck using "Filter-->Map-->Fractal Trace" on the basic coastline to chew it up into more detail. The smudge tool was also useful in these early steps in pusing the shoreline around.

Hopefully someone will find my meager input to the discussion to be of use. Thanks again and cheers!

[RobA]

First, the request: I've noticed in many of the screenshots, some very awesome patterns. I really appreciate RobA's color palette, but can anyone direct me to their favorite repositories of patterns that work well with mapping? I'd like to build up my Gimp library.

Hi - first off, welcome, and second, glad you found something of value.

That specifically do you mean by patterns? Seamless textures? There are a fair number floating around, and a number of pointers to other texture sites.

Second, the question: I am having a little trouble with the last step of the first part of the tutorial, creating the sea. I know I should post a screenshot, but it is irrelevant now because I played around with the file to the extent that it doesn't really reflect what my problem was, so I'll describe it. I got to the last part of the tutorial, doing the offset to create the nearshore water turbulence. The result looks very similar to RobA's picture, it has the same light blue cast to it. The subsequent screenshot, the one where RobA says, "This screen grab is after the first one," shows the land white- no more blue cast. Just applying the offset step did not cause that to happen for me. Not sure what I missed.

Really hard to say without a copy of the file, sorry

Third, the complaint: sarcasm/ as I said before, I originally came here for a few tips and tricks, but after seeing the incredible maps that are capable, I'm now turning into a cartography junky. Thanks a lot for setting such a high standard to shoot for; free time (what there is of it) now has a new outlet.

Sorry you have been bit by the bug....

Oh, there is one more thing. Perhaps someone has already noted this somewhere, but I discovered a few things messing about with Gimp. In the current version, there is an option under "select" to distort the selection. It seems to produce a similar effect to the "Three Layer Sandwich" technique described in the tutorial here. It might turn out to be a timesaver. I also had luck using "Filter-->Map-->Fractal Trace" on the basic coastline to chew it up into more detail. The smudge tool was also useful in these early steps in pusing the shoreline around.

Hopefully someone will find my meager input to the discussion to be of use. Thanks again and cheers!

Thanks for the alternatives. The real value of the TLS is that it provides interactive control over the results. Distort selections is also useful... I know a lot of tuts for parchment use it.

I have never had success with fractal trace to get anything of value. Care to share what you did? (Honestly, it the sharing of tips, knowledge, and inspiration that make this site such a nice place...)

-Rob A>

[davosaur]

For the fractal trace, I started with a rough outline for the landmass. Then I applied the trace. The control sliders are pretty touchy- mess with them more than a little and the result is not even close to the outline you started with. As it is, the trace does distort quite a bit. The main value I see is if you're creating a semi-random landmass. By that, I mean that you are starting with a rough idea of what you'd like in the way of shape of the main landmass, presence of islands, etc. The main effect it had was to rough up and add interest to the edges of the land.

As for the seamless textures, I'm looking for ones that are well-suited for fantasy maps, indoor and out. I have Dundjinni, and what I'm thinking of are textures similar to what exists in that program. Those patterns are a proprietary format (as far as I can tell). I've had good luck with Dundjinni for indoor stuff, but for larger outdoor, overland-style maps, it locks up on me quite regularly. Besides, the maps I'm seeing here, done with Gimp, are much nicer looking anyway. I've grabbed a few textures here and there, but I'm wondering if someone has built a zip file of useful textures for this endeavor. Sort of a one-stop shopping thing. So I'm lazy

The problem I was having with a step in the tutorial just popped up again when I was clipping the mountains. I have a feeling that I'm doing something wrong in the clipping stage. I will experiment some more and post my file if I get really stuck. I find it helpful to start over altogether with a new file to cement the previous steps. I'm starting to grok some of what is going on in all those steps in terms of what is being masked, how the noise is producing texture, etc. I'd like to get to a point where I'm not: A, following a recipe; and B, not just clicking randomly until I get the desired effect. In essence, I'm trying to understand in an intuitive way, what is going to happen before I do it. If that makes any sense.

Thanks again for the help.

[Karro]

I'd like to get to a point where I'm not: A, following a recipe; and B, not just clicking randomly until I get the desired effect. In essence, I'm trying to understand in an intuitive way, what is going to happen before I do it. If that makes any sense.

I think that's exactly the result you'll get from repeated practice with RobA's tutorial. Once you're beyond the formulaic approach to make that style of map, with repeated attempts, you start to pick up just what's going on, and how to get the effect you need.

Of course, if you happen to like the general style that RobA's tut produces, and what to hew to that as closely as possible, there's nothing wrong with that (... I mostly do, for sure)

[Faelpen]

Here is my attempt to follow this tutorial. I would like to thank RobA for writing this tutorial, it has been very helpful.

I had some trouble getting the mountains to look right, but they look okay. The names came from a random generator so, if you like any of them, you can use them.

The compass rose I did in a rush, so it looks kind of cheap.

Any advice would be great, thanks.