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

[jfrazierjr]

I tried a lot of things, but found that blurring the mask often left the mountain edges too soft for my liking, hence the spread technique...but as said it really depends on the map. The last I made with this technique I kept blurring then spreading, then applying a mosaic filter then blurring some more...

Perhaps when you have a few minutes, you can post up few screenshots to show this technique.

Glad you all liked the tutorial, and it is really nice to see people's efforts posted here!

Your welcome. I even repped you for the tut. I am not very artistic, but I have learned quite a bit about GIMP from your tut's and playing around.

Joe

[Lucjan]

My God, this is exactly the style of map I've been wanting to do, and the tutorial is amazing!

Much thanks to the fellow who spent so much time developing and writing this.

[Azrof]

New to the site - I've been using Bryce with various results up until now. As a semi-artistic enthusiast, I've tried combining Bryce with PSP for years without really knowing how to do much successfully and recently broken down to using SnagIt! This tutorial has inspired me to work again on more artistic maps and more - shows me which directions to go.

Thank you very much.

As an aside (let the questions fly!):

Would importing an existing Bryce or similar 3D image work with this process, or would it be too much effort? (I'm thinking the existing 3D shapes would cause visual collision in the methods referenced here).

[ravells]

Sorry, which tutorial and process are you referring to?

[Azrof]

Sorry, which tutorial and process are you referring to?

Ah, the use of GIMP indicated in this tutorial.

[Azrof]

I get to this point...

Now Invert the selection (Select->Invert), create a new black layer called “Land Mask”
and fill the selection with white. Now save the selection to a Channel (Select->Save to
Channel) and rename the channel to “Land Mask”. This will be used a fit bit later.

To make the ocean/water (and the base contour for the land as well) a two layer variant of
the three layer sandwich will be used.
Copy the “Land Mask” Layer, and rename it “Sea Shape”. Apply a Gaussian Blur
(Filter->Blue->Gaussian Blur) large enough to eliminate the absolute black and whites
of the image. In this case, I used the same size as the image (500px).

1: I don't see a black layer? When I make it a "Back" layer - it turns out white and when I copy the layer...it's just white...so when I blur it, nothing happens?

Thoughts?

[RobA]

I get to this point...



1: I don't see a black layer? When I make it a "Back" layer - it turns out white and when I copy the layer...it's just white...so when I blur it, nothing happens?

Thoughts?

Create a new layer that is completely filled with black.
Fill the current selection with white. You should now have a B&W picture, with the land white and the water black.

With the land still selected, save the selection as a channel.

Select None.

Duplicate the B&W layer.

(continue)

Hope that clarifies things.

-Rob A>

[RobA]

Would importing an existing Bryce or similar 3D image work with this process, or would it be too much effort? (I'm thinking the existing 3D shapes would cause visual collision in the methods referenced here).

Many of the techniques (cloud rendering, etc.) are just ways to create moderately decent looking heightfields. You should be able to export any bryce image as a heightfield image an use in place of any of those.

The only problem would be the 8 bit limit in GIMP leading to stairstep terrain, having only 256 possible values...

-Rob A>

[Karro]

Okay, so stupid questions time:

1: I know at the beginning this is labeled as a regional map technique, not appropriate for whole world maps and not for local maps. But what, generally, do you consider the scale of this map (as in comparitive size to a region on real-world earth, or miles/km)

2. In obtaining some randomness to a coastline, what would the best method be to obtain such geographic features as barrier islands be... and at what scale would these even be features a map would normally show?

I was considering taking a fairly specific regional map, scaling it up to a very high pixel density (to within several thousands by several thousands) then using this method on a high blur that maintains the general shape to attempt to draw out some interesting geographic features like barrier islands within that framework, then scaling back down to a slightly smaller number of pixels while hopefully retaining those features. I haven't tried it yet. The idea is to take something like England or Nova Scotia or a similar regional area that on a world map is relatively small, but when viewed closely has tons of very interesting geographic features, including outlying islands that are too small to get picked up on the world map. Would this work, you think, for taking a general shape from a world map to produce a more detailed regional map?

[RobA]

Okay, so stupid questions time:

1: I know at the beginning this is labeled as a regional map technique, not appropriate for whole world maps and not for local maps. But what, generally, do you consider the scale of this map (as in comparitive size to a region on real-world earth, or miles/km)

Mentally, I was scaling things to be in the 5px/km range. So a 800x800 map would be around 160km (ish). But as mentioned, the textures can be scaled up or down appropriately.

2. In obtaining some randomness to a coastline, what would the best method be to obtain such geographic features as barrier islands be... and at what scale would these even be features a map would normally show?

I was considering taking a fairly specific regional map, scaling it up to a very high pixel density (to within several thousands by several thousands) then using this method on a high blur that maintains the general shape to attempt to draw out some interesting geographic features like barrier islands within that framework, then scaling back down to a slightly smaller number of pixels while hopefully retaining those features. I haven't tried it yet. The idea is to take something like England or Nova Scotia or a similar regional area that on a world map is relatively small, but when viewed closely has tons of very interesting geographic features, including outlying islands that are too small to get picked up on the world map. Would this work, you think, for taking a general shape from a world map to produce a more detailed regional map?

I show one technique in this thread for progressively adding coastline detail. A similar technique could be used for adding detail to areas: rivers/lakes/borders, etc.

-Rob A>