My first local cartography job!

[Gamerprinter]

As far as GIMP goes, well, like I said, I use an old version Photoshop. I should upgrade, but I'm not too interested in forking over $500 and I don't do software piracy. I'm getting comfortable with GIMP and plan to eventually replace PS with GIMP, though I still may run to PS when I'm in a hurry.

The WW1 Dogfighting Trench map is complete. I've populated the trench with live soldiers, with several dead bodies in the no-mans-land, as well as around craters in the trenches. I rescaled the hexes properly. I even redid the crater rims in GIMP - turned out better this time.

Final map is printing now at 36 x 48 inches, 300 dpi, 469 MB in size...

Now I have the weekend to finish the March Challenge map - I'll get to it!

Thumbnail WIP of map...

[Badger]

I don't know if you can add this to an existing picture, but the next time you have a need for craters (and I don't know how much of this you can do with PS 5, either) but start a new photo, filter>render>clouds, then duplicate the image, save that as cloudsimg2, go back to original filter>render>diff. clouds, then bring up levels control (ctrl+L) slide input levels to 0/1.00/>150< and output >115</255 (you can play around with the numbers in the > < ).

New layer, blending mode to overlay, gradient tool to radial set it to Foreground to Transparency preset, paint some black areas, then some white areas. Add a new layer and use this custom gradient (attached to post) put in some rings and play with the settings of the gradient to come up with some varying craters. you can blend the rings into the the terrain if you like by using filter>render>diff clouds. And to give the craters a natural feel you can go to Render>Distort>Displace (keep the default settings of 10) and select the psd file you created in the begining of the steps...

Then select your layers and ctrl+E to merge them, rename the layer craters, then Filter>Sylize>Emboss with an angle of 135, height 4 and amount 248%..... that should give you some nice craters on your landmass....

If you want crisp craters like on a battlefield, I imagine that not adding the Displace step would do the trick (but I don't know, I haven't tried it yet. I could turn this into a full tutorial I suppose if I really needed too.

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks for the tip, Del, but I think I am going to try to learn as much GIMP as possible. I don't think I will ever upgrade past 5.5 for Photoshop - I don't plan to pay for another image editor for awhile. So GIMP is it for now.

Oh I found out that WW1 map I created is for GDW's Blue Max game.

That client was so pleased with the map, he showed it to a friend, and it looks like I will be working on some Civil War Miniatures maps next.

[Redrobes]

It's a mighty fine map !

[Midgardsormr]

That client was so pleased with the map, he showed it to a friend, and it looks like I will be working on some Civil War Miniatures maps next.

Shiny! That's the best kind of business you can get!

[Badger]

Civial war... that should be fun!

[RobA]

I don't know if you can add this to an existing picture, but the next time you have a need for craters (and I don't know how much of this you can do with PS 5, either) but start a new photo, filter>render>clouds, then duplicate the image, save that as cloudsimg2, go back to original filter>render>diff. clouds, then bring up levels control (ctrl+L) slide input levels to 0/1.00/>150< and output >115</255 (you can play around with the numbers in the > < ).

New layer, blending mode to overlay, gradient tool to radial set it to Foreground to Transparency preset, paint some black areas, then some white areas. Add a new layer and use this custom gradient (attached to post) put in some rings and play with the settings of the gradient to come up with some varying craters. you can blend the rings into the the terrain if you like by using filter>render>diff clouds. And to give the craters a natural feel you can go to Render>Distort>Displace (keep the default settings of 10) and select the psd file you created in the begining of the steps...

Then select your layers and ctrl+E to merge them, rename the layer craters, then Filter>Sylize>Emboss with an angle of 135, height 4 and amount 248%..... that should give you some nice craters on your landmass....

If you want crisp craters like on a battlefield, I imagine that not adding the Displace step would do the trick (but I don't know, I haven't tried it yet. I could turn this into a full tutorial I suppose if I really needed too.

Thanks Del-

I tried to follow this in GIMP but get lost at this:

New layer, blending mode to overlay, gradient tool to radial set it to Foreground to Transparency preset, paint some black areas, then some white areas. Add a new layer and use this ...

Care to start a new thread ad post a couple of steps graphically? I think I could figure out the GIMP equivalent then...

Thanks,

-Rob A>