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

[Ayeohx]

I'm following the tutorial closely and I'm just not getting the desired effects.
I'm stuck at the beginning of the "Let there be land section". The grass isn't showing through.

I know something's going wrong at "Post 4 - I have an idea Part 2". When creating the Land Mask I'm told to:
"Now Invert the selection (Select->Invert), create a new black layer called “Land Mask” and fill the selection with white. "
This doesn't make much sense to me (probably because I don't know what I'm doing). When I invert and fill with black the wrong portion gets filled so I just ignore the invert part. Looks like the picture so I moved on.

The next issue occurs at making the Seashore layer. I add the blur & the displacements to the seashore mask but it looks nothing like the picture in post 7-5. In fact, I don't think it really changed at all.

I've restarted 3 times now, and before I break something, I'm going to take a few minutes off.
Are there any updates to this guide? Errata, maybe?

[RobA]

Post up a sample of where you are here or in a new WIP thread.

The could be a few issues. Some of the effects are map size dependent and don't work will if your map is big (like 3000x3000).

-Rob A>

[Rhotherian]

I just subscribed to this. Looks like I just found the FOURTH tutorial on this site to use in my latest map! ^^

[Gidde]

I'm not RobA, but he's my hero and I use his techniques a ton. This problem could be because the bigger your map gets (i.e. much over 2000x2000), gimp's native clouds aren't detailed enough to give a good coastline (or other random effect). Try downloading and playing around with Felimage Noise (for coasts I usually use a 10-15 size, and turn the lacunarity up and the Hurst exponent down). It's also pretty important to make sure your fuzzy select tool is set to "Select Merged" and a 0 threshold.

[wisemoon]

I'm not RobA, but he's my hero and I use his techniques a ton. This problem could be because the bigger your map gets (i.e. much over 2000x2000), gimp's native clouds aren't detailed enough to give a good coastline (or other random effect). Try downloading and playing around with Felimage Noise (for coasts I usually use a 10-15 size, and turn the lacunarity up and the Hurst exponent down). It's also pretty important to make sure your fuzzy select tool is set to "Select Merged" and a 0 threshold.

My picture is only about 800x1200, so I don't think size is the problem. And I had the "Select Merged" setting and 0 Threshold set, just like it said in the tutorial. My settings weren't the problem. Perhaps Rhotheria is right and it's a blending mode issue? Since changing the mode to Divide instead of Overlay seemed to change the outcome of the Fuzzy Select tool step, I think he may be on to something.

If I can recreate what I did for the first instance of the technique (creating the land, I think) perhaps I can use it for the rest. I'll try to write it down this time, so I can post it for the edification of others.

[Rhotherian]

My picture is only about 800x1200, so I don't think size is the problem. And I had the "Select Merged" setting and 0 Threshold set, just like it said in the tutorial. My settings weren't the problem. Perhaps Rhotheria is right and it's a blending mode issue? Since changing the mode to Divide instead of Overlay seemed to change the outcome of the Fuzzy Select tool step, I think he may be on to something.

If I can recreate what I did for the first instance of the technique (creating the land, I think) perhaps I can use it for the rest. I'll try to write it down this time, so I can post it for the edification of others.

Yeah. I wonder if this overlay-mode thing has to do with the different versions of GIMP. Probably, as my situation was basically summed up by wisemoon.

I'll try devide and see if I get any different results.

[Gidde]

Weird. I use that technique with Overlay all the time, with no issues. Maybe Rob can pinpoint where the problem is.

[wisemoon]

Well I don't know why it wasn't working before, but I deleted my previous layers and tried again, and this time I got it to work fairly well. Here's a sample of my mountain test:
Xamel_Region_MountainTest.jpg

So I guess I figured it out. I don't know what went wrong last time...maybe it was just far too late at night.

[wisemoon]

UPDATE: I found a more recent tutorial by RobA, a different method for making mountains. I liked the look of those mountains better, so I tried it out. Unfortunately, I think I did one or more of the steps wrong, since I'm getting a wierd inverted ridge around the mountains. Other than that, I think the mountains turned out well. But when I went back and tried to redo the forest layers after changing the mountains, something went wrong. I don't like the way they turned out.

So, closer, but still working on it:
Xamel_Region_AltMntnTest.jpg

[Gidde]

Could be, I suppose. I'm using 2.6.8 if that sheds any light.