Current project in GIMP

[RPMiller]

Rob you need to put that into a tutorial in the tutorials forum (so that I can find it easily when I go looking for it later. )

[pyrandon]

Faide--one thing about your map is that it strikes me as absolutely stunning from a distance, but up close it gets that starkness that ruins the effect (i.e., looks "cartoony"); it reminds me of an impressionistic painting in that respect. If this map was much smaller-scale but had this level of detail, I say keep it. If this is a large area/continent map, yes, keep playing around! Looking great.

[NeonKnight]

Faide--one thing about your map is that it strikes me as absolutely stunning from a distance, but up close it gets that starkness that ruins the effect (i.e., looks "cartoony"); it reminds me of an impressionistic painting in that respect. If this map was much smaller-scale but had this level of detail, I say keep it. If this is a large area/continent map, yes, keep playing around! Looking great.

Actually, a Blur (Guasian maybe) applied to the colored maps (everything but coastlines and rivers) would greatly help soften the map, and make it appear nice even close up. Possibly.

[Faide]

I've had a lot of fun today playing with bump maps and merging noise into things. Unfortunately most of the resulting Jpegs are too big to upload to the site. But here's one I have been able to do.

I took an old handrawn map and played with it.
I realise it's a bit confusing. It's a map of a huge part of the continent with just the ancient symbols for the cities on and the musical notation they used to activate their teleport circles.

(And yes the script is a bastardised form of tolkien elven)

[Faide]

This is the latest of my mapping efforts.

I received my graphics tablet through the post recently and so this map was done using it.
It took me twice as long to do most tasks but it's getting quicker. Certainly the drawing parts are much more comfortable to do rather than with a mouse but the general fiddling with layers and levels took much longer.
I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually and it will become just as intuitive as using a mouse.

The map is of a section of caves that the party has explored, it was given to them last night after they'd finished the section and staggered out under the weight of too much loot.

I'm not happy with the mapping of the Well of Savarius, it was meant to be a massive deep hole into the ground with wooden posts driven into the walls forming a spiral staircase. I couldn't figure out a nice way to represent it.

The Underfolk lair was a side tunnel off this staircase.

Tell me what you think.

Karl

[pyrandon]

Nice little map, Faide. Clear, simple, and a nice color pallette.

And enjoy that tablet--I like mine so much I'm thinking about upgrading!

[RobA]

It took me twice as long to do most tasks but it's getting quicker. Certainly the drawing parts are much more comfortable to do rather than with a mouse but the general fiddling with layers and levels took much longer.

I've ended up using both the mouse and pen intermixed. I find for vector work, adjusting node positions, and such (where click and drag is required) I am much steadier with the mouse. And I've given up completely double-clicking with the pen on my tablet, as I can never do it without moving But I would never try painting with a mouse again. Pressure sensitivity makes all the difference in the world!

(Additionally, I work with a dual screen setup, and have the tablet pen area mapped to just my main screen, so I need the mouse to get to the other screen anyway.)

And a question on technique - the undergound map still looks like it has jaggy lines on the outlines....how are you stroking them?

-Rob A>

[Faide]

Cheers guys.

I'm using a stroke path command with antialiasing on, but you're right they do look a little jaggy.
I think I might have changed wall colours at some point, maybe the antialiasing was lost during that process.

I'll have to have a closer look at the files again.

Karl

[ravells]

I really love the Mourne's cave map. It's beautifully executed and the composition and colours are really pleasing.

[Talamar]

I really like the greyscale map, its looking gorgeous and I also love the thousand years idea, though I don't like the style of those two colored maps, but this is personal tastiness.