Wips and questions

[holyhalo]

So I have some version of the same city but I'm having tremendous trouble with getting the snow right.
Also I have no idea how to draw a good harbor (or how to generate one). Both maps were done in GIMP and with the tutorials of Pyrandon and RobA.
If anyone has any good tips or tricks on how to draw good snow or how to draw a harbor, I'd more than happy to hear about them.

For the first pic, I really like the icy, cracked coast and the white of the snow is nice as well but the illusion of elevation for the second one if also really interesting. The third image is completely different and I really like it but my houses are too brown and lack a sort of snowed under effect on them. And all three images are lacking the harbor. And floating ice. If anyone knows a good way to draw floating ice...

Thanks for your help.

Avanthalwhitesnow_zps40a68c40.pngAvanthaldirtysnow_zps14cfe624.pngAvanthaltempfinish_zps43e9cc9d.png

[Korash]

Yeah I like that icy feel you have going with the first map too. The second map, if you want my opinion, could us a bit of a blurto get rid of the fine definition and maybe a bit lower opacity, One of the things about snow is when you look down at an area snowed under, one of the things that you should notice is a LACK of detail to be seen. Snow fills in the low spots and the lack of contrast (white on white) sort of gives the impresion of evenness to the terrain, unless there are some major diffences in elevation

[holyhalo]

I always love someone else's opinion. I see what you mean about the lack of detail but if the surrounding area looks just like it has been filled with a bucket tool and complete white then I don't feel like I accomplished much. At the same time, as you said, the first map, where it is much whiter, things look much more snowy and icy like. I'll see about blurring and opacing (I'm sure that's a word, right. Right?) the second picture and have a look at how it looks.

[Korash]

I wasn't talking about making it all white, just that the details of the terrain are vague at best and it was the details that I found a problem with the second map. A combination of the two (first and second) would be great.

[artearth]

I created a mapping challenge entry with lots of floating ice. You can find it here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/ma...break-ice.html

It includes layer styles you can set up in Photoshop (I don't know if there is a comparable feature in GIMP). Hopefully that will help. Post #6 has lots of info on how it works.

While I'm posting, I'll add my 2¢ by saying I like the white snow, or a white/blue snow. Snow can be like sand dunes where you see the effects of wind. A google image search of "wind on snow" or "snow aerial" might give you some good ideas or textures.

[holyhalo]

So, with what I've learned in GIMP so far I've made an attempt at ice. Let me know what you think.
As I'm still new in GIMP I couldn't find the things you mentioned in your other post, Artearth but thanks for the link.

Avanthaliceexperiment_zpsc8d1303f.jpg

[torstan]

That looks good. I think you've made the right choice going with blue shadows. It was the brown in the initial image that jarred with the snowy look.

I like the ice - its' not how I would have imagined it, but I know what it is when I look at it, which is the essence of a good map.

[RobA]

As I'm still new in GIMP I couldn't find the things you mentioned in your other post, Artearth

Gimp doesn't have layer effects. You would have to manually apply the three effects - drop shadow, inner glow, and stroke manually after you carved the ice shapes out.

-RobA>

[holyhalo]

Through one of the tutorials, I believe it was yours RobA, I got a set of extra commands in GIMP or enhanced commands, whichever. In it I found Drop shadow and Inner glow. I believe stroke is also there in it. I'll see about giving it a shot later today. Thank you so much for all the help so far.