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

[kjdavies]

Any pointers for creating the hills, or would greater depth while bump-mapping the grass be sufficient? I have a vague idea of how I might like to arrange highlands and lowlands, but no real clue on how to implement it.

Greater depth while bump mapping the grass could provide you with something hillish. You might want to do this only in certain regions (use TLS to make a mask, make a bumpmapped layer with the hills, then mix together to get 'hilly regions').

You could also do hills as high-resolution, low-amplitude mountains. You'll probably want more, smaller peaks than you had with the mountains (you might want to explore turbulent noise and multiply layer mode). It's unfortunate that the turbulence functions like horizontal and vertical lines so much, though.

[Karro]

Yeah, I think the mountains are pretty solid, Choco, and you already know about the issue with the rivers. A quick summary, if you haven't perused the provided linke: tributaries (small rivers) flow together going downstream and join into larger rivers heading to the sea, and very rarely split, going downstream, except in a few specific rare cases, most notably and most common of which is the river delta, which are rather smallish, usually, compared to the river as a whole. So many rivers flow down from mountains and join together to form fewer rivers that actually reach the sea.

As for colors: those are fine. Muted and understated, matches the palet fairly well (though, I'd then advise muting out the blue of the ocean to get that less bright looking as well), and is fairly clear on what the color represents.

[Ecrocken]

Another thing I recall about rivers/streams is the further downstream that two rivers meet, the angle they meet at gets closer to 90 degree's. Hence, the further UPstream, the smaller the angle.

~EC

[RobA]

Another thing I recall about rivers/streams is the further downstream that two rivers meet, the angle they meet at gets closer to 90 degree's. Hence, the further UPstream, the smaller the angle.

~EC

Close, but it is not specifically tied to upstream/downstream, it is related to the slope of the terrain. The steeper the slope, the more likely they will be traveling in the same direction, therefore meeting at small angle. Then the terrain is very flat, the angle can be larger.

In general, much terrain is steeper "upstream" and more level "downstream".

-Rob A>

[Ecrocken]

Thanks for clearing that up. I knew it was one... or the other.

~EC

[Elothan]

[img=http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/5135/msseglett2fjell.th.jpg]

This is my first result with gimp, after reading your TUT.. I never knew I could actually make somehing decent :p Lot of work left, but hoping to get a hang of it..

[a2area]

this sounds obvious but rivers tend to run kind of like a tree grows.. but the other way..

[Carlo]

I need help... I don't know use GIMP, and i have a question:

In a part of the tutorial he said : "create a new black layer called land mask", but i don't know how to create a new black layer, can someone help me?

[jfrazierjr]

I need help... I don't know use GIMP, and i have a question:

In a part of the tutorial he said : "create a new black layer called land mask", but i don't know how to create a new black layer, can someone help me?

• Create a new Layer. There are multiple ways to do this, so take your pick:
  
  • Control+Shift+N
  • Menu Item : Layer->New Layer...
  • On the layers Window, right click and select New Layer...
• Fill with black, there are multiple was to do this as well:
  
  • Drag the color black from your foreground or background color picker on the toolbox window
  • Use the bucket fill tool( if you do this, be carefull to make sure the opacity slider is turned all the way to 100%!!!!) using either the foreground color or the background color.
    In the previous new layer window, you can select to use FG color, BG color, White, or Transparency.

[Carlo]

Oh thanks, now i can continue creating the map