[Award Winner] Eriond - A Tutorial for GIMP & Wilbur

[libraryian]

I can't seem to be able to open the my map in Wilbur as there is no option for a .xcf file. Am I suppose to export the flattened image file as a .bmp or .jpg, or other format? Otherwise, everything has worked great so far, I'll admit that you were right on the "there will be tears" section of the airbrushing the mountains. It took me forever to actually see any results.

[arsheesh]

Hi there libraryian, yes, you are correct. You need to save the flattened version of your height map as a .jpg rather than an .xcf. I guess I forgot to mention this in the tutorial. I will have to correct that. Glad to here that despite the tears, the tutorial is working well for you so far. If you do come across any other problem areas in the tutorial though feel free to let me know.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[arsheesh]

@Tregmallin Apparently Notsonoble's tutorial on Gradient Tool Basics has gone missing (some of the admins here can't even seem to find it), however I have found a tutorial on About.com that goes over the same concepts. You can find it here. Hope that helps.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[TregMallin]

@arsheesh That looks like just the ticket.

[FlyingIcarus]

I love this to death. Thanks for making this, it looks great, even for a newbie like me.

[dlaporte7271]

Hey Arsheesh...using your tut to try and make my world map...getting stuck on the copy/paste from mountain cloud layer to mountain layers....cant seem to get anything to actually paste to a layer...The free select/copy/paste aught to be intuitive...but apparently I'm doing something wrong...or it works differently in GIMP. Suggestions?

Dave

[arsheesh]

Hm, well without knowing a bit more I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. However, if the problem is that, after creating a free selection, you attempt to copy and then paste a mountain selection from the Mountain Clouds layer into the Mountains 1 or 2 layer, and you don't end up getting any pasted layer appearing at all, then the problem may be that when you clicked on copy the layer you were copying from was not the Mountain clouds layer, but rather from some other (possibly blank) layer. I make that mistake allot. Going back and forth from the Mountain Clouds to the Mountains 1 and 2 layers I sometimes find that the layer I ended up copying from was either Mountains 1 or 2 (which transparent) rather than my Mountain clouds layer. So when I go to paste the layer on my Mountains 1 or 2 layers, nothing shows up. So this might be the problem for you as well. If not, would you mind providing a bit more detail and/or providing a screenshot to work with.

EDIT: another thought occurred to me. If the problem isn't that nothing is showing up, but rather that the pasted layer does end up showing up, but as a "Floating Selection" rather than an element pasted directly onto the Mountains 1 or 2 layers, and you want to know how to merge the floating selection onto the Mountains 1 or 2 layers, then you just have to hit that little Anchor symbol (Anchor the Floating Layer) at the bottom of the layers dialogue (see attached image). However, make sure you make the necessary modifications to the selection (e.g. rotate and/or resize it) before anchoring it.

Floating Selection.jpg

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[dlaporte7271]

Wow...quick reply! I'll try again and see if I can give you some more specifics...

[dlaporte7271]

what's the point of the anchor? Why the additional step? Why not just make 'paste' add the selected image where you want it?...anyway...I did something else that worked...but maybe it's not working as it should...I make the selection with the free select tool...right click, edit, copy...the selection appears in the little clipboard on the lower right. I think I can still manipulate/resize/rotate the selection...but I end up choosing the brush tool and then selecting my new brush and plopping it down that way. Does that do what I need it to do or am I unwittingly doing something I shouldn't?

dlaporte

[arsheesh]

Funny, I just replied with an explanation of this to your WIP thread. However, for the benefit of anyone else who may be having the same questions/issues, I'll reply here as well. While the "Floating Selection" is a bit odd at first, it is actually a nice feature, because it allows you to manipulate the floating selection as much as you like before anchoring it to the layer you pasted it too. So, a step by step walk through of the process of copying and pasting selections from one layer to another layer in GIMP would be as follows:

1. Make the layer you want to copy from the active layer (click on that layer);
2. Use your Free Select tool to create a selection of the desired area;
3. Right click on the image and go to: Edit > Copy;
4. Make the layer you want to paste to the active layer;
5. Right click on the image and go to: Edit > Paste (this will create a "Floating Selection: Pasted Layer" above that layer);
6. Manipulate the pasted layer if you so desire (e.g. rotate it, resize it etc);
7. In the Layers Dialogue, click on "Anchor Floating Selection".

That should do it. As to the method you suggest, that works as well, though it will create a "Dropped Buffer" layer each time you to this, and you will eventually want to merged these all down into the appropriate Mountain 1 and Mountain 2 layers, so I guess in the end, either method works.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh