[n00b] how to do shorelines in GIMP?

[teef]

recently got back into mapmaking, using HexKit because it's a nice speedy way to bang a map together without getting up to your eyeballs in techy details.

that said i've found that i want/need to make some tiles of my own to use in the app. that has me wondering how to do shorelines in GIMP (my graphics tool of choice, no-brainer really since i'm on Linux).

here's an example from an excellent tile pack for HexKit called HexMarch:

Coast_127.png

if you zoom in on that you can see the way he's done shorelines:

shoreline-example.png

i've got the water tiles to use as background, and the land tiles that i have cut my basic coastline from but it's that transition area that i'm really wondering about.
so, GIMP n00b that i am, i'm wondering "how do i do that?"

[johnvanvliet]

not bad ,but the dark line at the shoreline looks like it should be a sandy color

other than that it looks good

as for doing that , i would use the airbrush tool and paint the sandy color

Screenshot_20180910_185845.png

[teef]

thank you for the reply. perhaps i was not clear in my original post. i was asking how i would go from something like this:

howto-Coast_127-before-shoreline.png

to something like this:

HM-V1-Coast_127.png

assuming that the grass, water, and hex border are all on separate layers.

i had imagined it could be done with borders or glow or somesuch but i'm too much of a GIMP n00b to know the details.
i do understand that i could airbrush and hand-draw it in but that's a little more finicky effort than i had in mind.

[Tenia]

Hi,
Here are some steps to achieve something similar (to the waves effect for instance) with Gimp :

- add a new transparent layer (called waves for example) between the sea and the land layers
- select the land layer
- select the transparent area around the land mass with the magic wand
- invert the selection
- expand the selection by 2 to 3 pixels (you'll have to test the good value) : Select/Grow
- eventually, distord the selection a bit (Select/distort)
- select the waves layer
- stroke selection (Edit/Stroke selection), 1 or 2px width (here again : test it) with black color (or directly with the color you want, in that case don't change the layer mode below)
- select all, blur the whole a bit (1 or 2 px ?)
- change the waves layer mode to "Grain extract" (you may test other modes and/or play with the layer opacity of course)

Follow about the same steps for the coastline effect.

[teef]

Here are some steps to achieve something similar...

@Tenia : thank you for that,i'll give it a try tomorrow morning and report back.

[teef]

ok, tried it and it works. lot of fiddling around with pixel widths and blurs but it does the job.
i'm currently looking into another approach suggested to me, heavily based on a layer of colour for each part of the shoreline.

[Tenia]

You're welcome

[Squessibionaro]

ok, tried it and it works. lot of fiddling around with pixel widths and blurs but it does the job.
i'm currently looking into another approach suggested to me, heavily based on a layer of colour for each part of the shoreline.

I'm interested in what you find out! I'm not very experienced in map making and I can see this knowledge being useful. What pixel width settings worked for you and let me know how the other approach you're trying works out if you don't mind .

[teef]

What pixel width settings worked for you ...

i found that settings of 2, 3, or at most 4 pixels worked best for me. it ended up depending on how you wanted the shoreline to look. 2-ish pixels on most settings gave a tight, fairly crisp appearance, as you might expect from a hard, rocky shore. more pixels gave a looser, blurred look, like a wide sandy shore might have.

tbh the other approach is working better for me because it makes it easier to go back and fiddle with each component: darken the sand/rocks a bit, bring the surf break in closer, mess with the look of the waterline vegitation, etc.here's the basic idea in 2.10 (all credit to mholder at gimp-forum.net, see https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-n0...is-shoreline):

screenshot-gimp-layers.png