Coa'q Island and Pinser Shore

[Blamenck]

My First Maps...

Hello! I had been looking online for tips and tricks at how to make maps using GIMP (for our D&D campaign) and stumbled across some videos by RobA.

On each of the videos there was a link to this website, so I checked it out. After becoming a member, I begun to browse some of the immense and epic maps that a lot of people on this site produce. I then found a link in RobA's signature to his massive tutorial...

I had begun to know this tutorial inside-out and, after a couple of days, slowly but surely I had gotten the hang of map drawing with his techniques. I firstly produced a fail followed by an actual attempt: Coa'q Island!



I followed the tutorial intensly and completely copied the style; but I was happy with the results.

Coa'q Island

Coa'q island was originally infamous for it's regularly occuring natural disasters. The name (pronounced "quo-ake") suggests that one of the more commonly recognised burdens were volcanoes - this, unimaginatively, is true.

Coa'q Red, as it was known, has now reached it's volcanic maturity and will remain docile for ever. This good news to the civilisation triggered growth of communities with land health flourishing and shores brightening.

The islands that surround it are still rumoured to hold ancient tribes and villages, but for the people of Coa'q they have no longer anything to worry about.

After this map I wanted to add a hint of my own style. It turned out that the only "style" that was added in my slightly larger, more recent map, is a small change in colour from following RobA's guide again.

This second peice of cartography I feel was more of a success and has influenced me to potentially carry on with map design in GIMP. I present to you: Pinser Shore!

Pinser Shore

Amogst the uninhabbitable regions of the world, Pinser Shore (a small coast off the side of an island) fits itself well into the category of "potentially dangerous".

Having incredulousley steep cliff faces and barron islands, the word "culture" only springs to the minds of that who are out of their mind - and the people living there.

Setting up camp had proven to be a worthy task to the brave rock climbers off the other side of the island. In fact, the resources had proven to be such a success, citys and towns grew out of nowhere and had somehow created life on this wasteland.

The fact that people with an I.Q of no bigger than their shoe size discovered this island, has nothing to do with the uncreative name due to it being shaped like a claw. One man said, "Claw, crab - crab, pinser. Get it?".

We have now learnt never to underestimate the knowledge of our fellow Pinser Shore residents.

I am not sure if the quality of these two images have been maintained, so I have posted additional attachements that hopefully retain the clarity.

Please comment and tell me what you think I need to do to improve, or just to have a dig at me ...

All credit goes to RobA! (for the amazing tutorial, not the maps. I made those. Not him. )



*EDIT* The second map is bigger than it appears, so for more detail please click on the second attachement for the full 750 x 750 image. (Likewise fot the first image also - that should be 512 x 512, not 501 x 501 pixels)

*EDIT* The image sizing on the post has been fixed.

*UPDATE* The second map has now been brightened so that it is easier to read.

[Gandwarf]

Nice maps Blamenck. Have some rep.

It's nice to see you are developing your own style. You should definitely continue with it. The mountains look more realistic than in the first map. The blues and greens are a bit dark though, you might want to lighten them a bit in the next map. Overall it's a pretty dark.

I like the layout and the name of the second map as well.

[Blamenck]

Nice maps Blamenck. Have some rep.

It's nice to see you are developing your own style. You should definitely continue with it. The mountains look more realistic than in the first map. The blues and greens are a bit dark though, you might want to lighten them a bit in the next map. Overall it's a pretty dark.

I like the layout and the name of the second map as well.

Thank you! I know that the second map is dark, but I tried to implement the feeling of, well, darkness... I know exactly what you mean though - I will try to lighten up a little in the future .

[Gandwarf]

Well, I have been criticized because my maps are too light
It's hard to get it right.

Anyway, I think it's a tad too dark at the moment (on my laptop screen it's hard to see some of the details for example).

[Blamenck]

Well, I have been criticized because my maps are too light
It's hard to get it right.

Anyway, I think it's a tad too dark at the moment (on my laptop screen it's hard to see some of the details for example).

I have brightened the image - can you see the details now? (You may need to click the attachement for higher quality).

[Gandwarf]

Yes, the visibility is a lot better.
It did lose some of the dark mood it was conveying though... as I said, it can be hard to get it right

[Blamenck]

Yes, the visibility is a lot better.
It did lose some of the dark mood it was conveying though... as I said, it can be hard to get it right

Ah well - it isn't THE most important feature of map however, so I don't think that there is much to worry about. More about the visibility and distinction, I feel.

[Steel General]

These are pretty nice, you seem to have gotten a good handle on RobA's tutorial.

*temporary soapbox mounting*
The whole lightness/darkness issue of maps is a bit subjective I think. I have often stated that many of Ascension's maps seem dark to me - but this is easily fixed by simple adding a layer of white set to 'Soft Light' at the top, the reverse can also be done for maps that seem overly bright.
*temporary soapbox dismount*

[Blamenck]

These are pretty nice, you seem to have gotten a good handle on RobA's tutorial.

*temporary soapbox mounting*
The whole lightness/darkness issue of maps is a bit subjective I think. I have often stated that many of Ascension's maps seem dark to me - but this is easily fixed by simple adding a layer of white set to 'Soft Light' at the top, the reverse can also be done for maps that seem overly bright.
*temporary soapbox dismount*

Lol - thanks, I did that with the image to brighten it up a little. I think that it is high time that I start generating my own style (but still using RobA's techniques ) so that it becomes more distinctive to me. I don't think that image brightness will ever be an issue, as it can be easily changed.

Thanks for the comments .

[msa]

Great maps... I personally like the colors that are there now at least. Certainly a very strong showing. Consider yourself repped.

That said: USE THE ATTACHMENT MANAGER NEXT TIME. Those images hated me at the public library... would have loved a thumbnail instead. It can be accessed by the "Manage Attachments" button on the post UI.