[Award Winner] Eriond - A Tutorial for GIMP & Wilbur

[arsheesh]

I absolutely love the tutorial. But as a complete novice I am a bit uncertain what to do in the "Creating Additional Layers Masks" section. What am I supposed to be selecting here exactly?

Hi Dracozard, glad to here it! To create a layer mask on a layer right click on the layer and a popup window will appear which offers a host of functions. About midway down there is an option to "Add Layer Mask" (see image). Click it and a new pop up window will appear. Select the default "White (full opacity)", hit OK and a layer mask will appear just to the right of the layer. When you want to work on the mask you must first make sure that it, not the layer, is selected. To do this simply left-click on the mask and a white bounding box will surround it rather than the layer. When you want to work on the layer again just left-click on the layer. Hope that helped.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Xuixien]

I'm stuck at the mountains/airbrushing part. Can someone explain it to me? This is where I'm at so far: http://i.imgur.com/neG70ur.png I just can't get the mountains to blend in. Should I erase them a bit and make them narrower? How long should the shading take? I feel like with 3% opacity I have to stroke the same tiny area 20 times before I notice a change.

[arsheesh]

I'm stuck at the mountains/airbrushing part. Can someone explain it to me? This is where I'm at so far: http://i.imgur.com/neG70ur.png I just can't get the mountains to blend in. Should I erase them a bit and make them narrower? How long should the shading take? I feel like with 3% opacity I have to stroke the same tiny area 20 times before I notice a change.

Hi Xuixien. Don't despair, this is the most time consuming part of this tutorial; it's not just you. However there are a couple of ways you can use to help speed up the process.

First, since writing this tutorial I've discovered a handy little trick to cutting down on the amount of erasing needed on the mountain clouds layer. If you take the select by color tool and select any transparent pixels on the mountain clouds layer (i.e. anywhere where there aren't any clouds) this will create a selection of everything but those clouds. Now if you feather the selection (Select > Feather) by say 10-30 px or so, depending on the size of your map, and then click "delete" this will fade the perimeter of our clouds, effectively getting rid of any hard edges. You will still need to do some spot erasing and blending but this trick will save you a lot of time.

Second, beyond just erasing the mountain clouds layer remember to to also airbrush the land clouds layer below it. This will help to make the transition between the two layers appear seamless. In my own workflow I often go back and forth between erasing and airbrushing until I can't tell where one layer ends and the other begins. It looks to me like you've started the air brushing process but have only focused on the area directly beneath the mountain clouds. It's worth pointing out is that as in painting you want to begin with broad brush strokes, gradually building up the height of the areas surrounding the mountains (e.g. the foothills) before moving in with a smaller brush to sort out the finer details of blending. This will help the transition from lowlands to highlands to mountains appear smooth and gradual.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Xuixien]

Hi Xuixien. Don't despair, this is the most time consuming part of this tutorial; it's not just you. However there are a couple of ways you can use to help speed up the process.

First, since writing this tutorial I've discovered a handy little trick to cutting down on the amount of erasing needed on the mountain clouds layer. If you take the select by color tool and select any transparent pixels on the mountain clouds layer (i.e. anywhere where there aren't any clouds) this will create a selection of everything but those clouds. Now if you feather the selection (Select > Feather) by say 10-30 px or so, depending on the size of your map, and then click "delete" this will fade the perimeter of our clouds, effectively getting rid of any hard edges. You will still need to do some spot erasing and blending but this trick will save you a lot of time.

Second, beyond just erasing the mountain clouds layer remember to to also airbrush the land clouds layer below it. This will help to make the transition between the two layers appear seamless. In my own workflow I often go back and forth between erasing and airbrushing until I can't tell where one layer ends and the other begins. It looks to me like you've started the air brushing process but have only focused on the area directly beneath the mountain clouds. It's worth pointing out is that as in painting you want to begin with broad brush strokes, gradually building up the height of the areas surrounding the mountains (e.g. the foothills) before moving in with a smaller brush to sort out the finer details of blending. This will help the transition from lowlands to highlands to mountains appear smooth and gradual.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

How do I select the right brush type (hardness, size, etc)? Is that something that just comes from experience?

[johnvanvliet]

gimp 2.8.18
is a VERY different tool under the hood than 2.4 or 2.6 WERE

a near 100% NEW software rewrite using GEGL instead of the " Gimp Tool Kit" (GTK )

you do NOT select

you use the sliders right there in front of you on the toolbox

[Xuixien]

gimp 2.8.18
is a VERY different tool under the hood than 2.4 or 2.6 WERE

a near 100% NEW software rewrite using GEGL instead of the " Gimp Tool Kit" (GTK )

you do NOT select

you use the sliders right there in front of you on the toolbox

Huh? What do you mean?

[jimydog000]

I finally got it finished, some parts were painful particuaraly the mountain airbrushing and incise flow. I'm pleased with it though.

[Voolf]

Hey arsheesh

I have been trying this tut receantly but have encounter a problem. When i want to select rivers in Gimp (after importing png from wilbur) I can not do that perfectly. I mean, i have to play more with the treshold of magic wand (because 15 dosent work nicely). But whatever i pick i can never select ALL rivers. I guess the problem is that they are all different grey. Also all rivers are 1-pixel wide. Is it important to grab WHOLE length of river, or just part of them ?

Thanks

BTW. I stopped on the rivers now, but so far, very nice tut, and i have so much fun working with Wilbur (like a kid playing with new toy, haha)

[TheLonelyWolfie]

Hiya! Sorry to respond to an old thread but it still seems decently alive. So far this has been a pretty amazing tutorial, but I've gotten stuck on a part. when I try the color curve for the mountains layer, nothing happens. I'm not sure if I messed up somewhere with my layers but you've got me on this one. (could just be my art skills aren't that great) I'm pretty sure I've done well at following all the prior instructions, just not sure why this isn't correct. (doesn't show the mountainy outline in the color line menu either as you can see). the mountains layer is transparent with mountains posted in, and it was selected before I used the color line tool, just for reference. (also, tips on how it's going so far are welcome)

[Lewellyn]

Thanks, Arsheesh, for the tutorial. As soon as I'm allowed to I will check it out. I hope it won't take so long 'cause I'm literally like a cat on hot bricks. xD