Reply With QuoteI am currently working on a map of my own based on this awesome tutorial.
Any comments?
Thank you guys, for all the positive comments!
Modifying the rings really improves the map but the way I did it was a veeery slow (editing 10 layers one by one is simply too much) and stressful (the moment I realized I had to fix the rings on like a quarter of the map was awful) process. Maybe for a smaller map (or at least, one continent only) that would be quite useable, though.
Ramah, I cannot take much credit for the "Final printed" looks as I used the paper from a real old map for it and just pasted my map over (after cloning away the thing that was originally showing).
Regarding the lines and their outer glow, though, you give me a nice idea. If I put them below all the labels' layers then the labels would be wholly visible and erase a bit from the grid lines (cause they have outer glow, too) but that won't be a problem. Since because the lines are straight, our eyes would see them straight even if they have some tiny breaks. And the outer glow is there (as Ascension mentioned in the Tutorial) because in general it's a characteristic of the antique maps to have many labels and details that are easily readable.
I am currently working on a map of my own based on this awesome tutorial.
Any comments?
I think you did a great job with it
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Thanks a lot! But I couldn't have done it without your tutorial. I am a total newbie when it comes to mapmaking with Photoshop. This is actually the first map I did in PS.
Then I'm hoping that we see more
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Alright, I've been trying (with mixed success) to work this map out in GIMP. The countries don't look right, but I'm working on it.
I don't know of a "Hard Edge" type dealie to separate solid noise into pure white and black, so I relied on RobA's Land/Noise/Clip sandwiching technique to take the landmass I had and random it up a bit. Then I used another of his techniques (well, I read about it in his guide first) and did 2 Map -> Displace for -20 X/ 20 Y and 20 X/ -20 Y respectively. I used the Noise layer I'd made earlier as the map for it. The landmass itself came out beautifully, I think. To edge the landmass with black I just Alpha to Selection-ed the land, made a new layer, grew the selection by a few pixels and bucketed the area black. Then I just merged the white mass onto the black layer and voila, black edging, no fuss no muss. The rivers and mountains can be done utterly without incident, though I think my squiggly lines may need some work in the future.
The countries were also similar, until I needed to edge them. I did something similar to the edge work on the landmass. I made the layer for coloring the countries, used Alpha to Selection to do my color fill, then copied the layer. I then went back and shrunk the original country alpha selections by 5 (too much, I think, gonna work on that) and deleted the inside of the countries on the copied layer.
I plan to keep on plugging away at this, so I should be back, here's a snapshot of the map so far, and my .xcf if you're interested. If you're wondering "why did he put the rivers/mountains directly on the land layer?" the only answer I have is that it's late here, and I'm only seldom fully competent with anything. I was actually completely certain I had made separate layers until I tried to use the eraser. I'll probably fix that soon, but right now I'm just trying to post this.
Last edited by Alecthar; 06-23-2009 at 09:12 AM.
When you get it done, you should do up a Gimp crossover for those who use it. You might even get your own tut award for it
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
That's the plan. Love the map, by the way, I'm just having some trouble. It's been years since I've used Photoshop, and I'm really just getting started with GIMP still. Because I've so little experience with Photoshop, I sometimes have little idea what effect a particular instruction gives you, so I'm still trying to figure out what I should be trying to replicate. Hopefully one of the GIMP wizards around here will have an idea.Originally Posted by Ascension
When you get it done, you should do up a Gimp crossover for those who use it. You might even get your own tut award for it
With that said, I stopped torturing myself around 2 AM this morning and decided to try something a bit different. I decided to go with a parchment and ink look I thought I could handle, but naturally I needed to make parchment first, and I had no idea how. Fortunately the tutorial that's linked to via a thread here translated very well into GIMP, you can see my efforts so far below. I decided to do my mountains first as a guide for the directions my rivers should take.
Last edited by Alecthar; 06-23-2009 at 09:12 AM.
Nice work on the parchment!
I've been trying the same tutorial in GIMP myself, but got stuck with the edges. Any tips on how you made yours?^^
Make a Cloud Noise layer of maximum detail and size (15 detail, 16 X & Y). Turn off visibility for it, you don't need to see it. On your parchment/parchment's layer mask, do a Filter -> Map -> Displacement for -20 X and 20 Y, with the Cloud Noise layer you just made selected for both. Go back and do it again with 20 X and -20 Y, this should give you torn looking, irregular edges. There might be a couple of little bits and pieces that aren't actually attached to the main body of the parchment, you can clean that up by showing the layer mask and then using a black pencil to knock out the stray white bits.
Edit: I finished the parchment map, it borrows a number of techniques from both you and RobA. Seeing as I posted my first progress here, I thought I'd let people know how it turned out. It still needs cities, and names for terrain features, but right now it really just needed to have the country names so it could go on the cover of a little .pdf booklet I'm making for an RL campaign.
Also, I've liked the look of the map now that I'm playing with layer modes a bit. I think I'll be able to come remarkably close to the look of this photoshop version with some time and effort. I'm restarting on a new map to alleviate my frustrations with being dumb and forgetting to put the mountains and whatnot on their own layers.
Further bulletins as events require.
Last edited by Alecthar; 06-23-2009 at 09:12 AM.
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