Okay, so I tried to take Joe's suggestion and go back and redo the rivers a little (and add a little noise to the ground). I just fuzzed up the edges of the rivers with a soft brush, and thinned them out. I put a b&w gradient on a plasma noise and overlayed it over the ground layer to provide some additional noise on the ground cover. I also added an additional terrain label.
Practicing techniques 1-part3-rivers.jpg
Then, I started in on the title. Here is the final output for that. I noticed that I couldn't follow RobA's instructions exactly because, given the order he used by applying the mask to the gradient/curve layer over the title label first and then distressing the edge of the title lable left some unusual artifacts along the edge of the title label. By removing the mask on the gradient curve layer, then alpha-to-selection on the new, distressed-edge title layer, and using that selection for the mask on the gradient curve cleaned up those artifacts.
Practicing techniques 1-part3-title.jpg
Finally, the border. I didn't try to do a legend or compass rose.
Practicing techniques 1-part3-final.jpg
And that's that. I think I've learned enough about GIMP to give it another go round and to be a little more adventurous in what I try next time round. I started the thread with a second set of coastlines begun using RobA's tutorial, so I'll see what I can do with that one now.
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
I love the color scheme, I hope you don't mind if I try to incorporate that into my work.
FYI, here is the city tutorial It works well in GIMP too. There a few extra posts in the thread on GIMP alternatives to Photoshop for some of the steps.
-Rob A>
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
Where's the tutorial to make forests like in this map?
I followed the process detailed by DanChops starting in post 18 of this thread.
(It's a variant on RobA's original regional map tutorial that involves a few more layers for the forests and uses plasma clouds with a b/w gradient instead of solid noise clouds.)
Last edited by Karro; 06-12-2008 at 01:44 PM.
Same here Nym, I'm also looking into the way it does tubes, or whatever they're called, so I can get more randomness into my building's shapes.