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

[Steel General]

Looking pretty good...

though I think your mountains need a bit of gaussian blur or something to help them blend with the other terrain.

[Karro]

@ Blackmojo: You want to use the magic wand to select all the non-white parts, then you invert the selection then you save the selection to a channel. This will be your land mask.


@ karro: I guess I knew how to do it, it's just that layer masks are giving me a headache.

The only thing you can apply to a layer mask is a channel, and you can't really convert a layer into a channel, you can only convert a selection into a channel. And you can't copy a layer mask from one layer to another, so if I end up editing a layer mask and I have several layers that use that mask, I can't copy it to the other layers. It appears when you duplicate a layer, the layer mask is copied along with it, but that's the only way I know of to copy a layer mask.

What I ended up doing for the water is copy-pasting my grass layer mask (which is where my rivers and lake is), bluring it and using that as a bump map to apply to a 50% gray layer.

So here's a copy of my map as it is now.

Attachment 14880

I'm not real happy with the border...I'll have to fiddle with it some more.

No, you can't copy a layer mask directly, but there is another method of transfering the mask. On a layer that has a mask, click on the mask (the image to the right of the image representing the layer on the layer stack) to make it the active layer (alternately, rightclick the layer in question and select edit layer mask). With that selected, right click the mask, and click (if I recall correctly, I don't have GIMP open in front of me at the moment, since I'm at work) "Alpha to selection". If I recalled the right "to selection" option what you should see is a selection outlining your mask.

Next, go to the layer you want to transfer the layer mask to, right click on that layer in the layer stack, select "Add a Layer Mask" and in the dialog that opens, click the radial for "Selection" as the source of the mask. Click okay, and the new mask should be the same as the mask on the previous layer.

[Alfar]

Er... just right click the layer with the mask, pick Mask to Selection, then right click the layer that needs to be masked, Add layer mask, Selection as source, Ok.

[Karro]

Looking pretty good...

though I think your mountains need a bit of gaussian blur or something to help them blend with the other terrain.

Yeah, I think Steel is right on, here, too. Otherwise, looking good.

Er... just right click the layer with the mask, pick Mask to Selection, then right click the layer that needs to be masked, Add layer mask, Selection as source, Ok.

MM, yeah, "Mask to selection" might've been what I was trying to remember, rather than "Alpha to Selection". Since I don't have GIMP in front of me, couldn't remember the precise option.

[Alfar]

Ah, ok. Pretty close, just leave out the "make sure the mask is the active layer" part. No need to Edit layer mask or such, just right click the layer. A layer only has one mask, so Mask to Selection is unambiguous, and right clicking the layer selects it.

[Aidan]

Ah, yes that's exactly what I was looking for. Once you do mask to selection, you can also save it to a channel and all the effects remain.

[Jagash]

I loved this tutorial, it was both effective at teaching how to make artistic maps as well as providing a host of different techniques which are applicable in other settings. I hadn't used masks terribly much in my art previously, but you have helped me overcome this aversion.

The only things which I had great difficulty with were the text along paths, as it is relatively poorly implemented imo in the GIMP, and the displacement map for the banner. For some reason, the displacement map wouldn't give me the option to displace by that disposable multiple-gradient layer while I had selected the title banner layer.

Either way, here is my meager homage to your astounding tutorial. Thank you again.

[Ascension]

Those are some very nice color choices. Good stuff.

[Blamenck]

I had found this tutorial a few days ago, only a couple after I joined the site. I was looking for tutorials on how to make maps using GIMP and this seemed to be the perfect option.

I first attempted a map on GIMP, without guidence, and it went terribly wrong. I then took another attempt using this tutorial and got much greater effects, but I still hit the wall at certain parts. So, I tried again and went through the whole tutorial and created a finished result.

I have added an attachment, so could some of the pros please let me know what you think

I used GIMP before, mainly for either drawing my own artistic renders (following tutorials of course) or editing stocks to give images some nice visuals. The problem was however, whenever I was using these other guides, I never really understood much about GIMP or what I was actually doing. From following this though, I can now claim to have extensive knowledge of the programme and it's capabilities.

GIMP certainly has it's advantages and disadvantages, but overall I will be using it for future cartography and hope to improve and hone in on my skills

Great tutorial RobA!

(P.S. - to introduce myself {which I havn't done on the site yet} my name is Danny )

[Ascension]

Looks like you have done a fine job. Now comes the hard part...adapting and changing things to create your own style