July / Aug 2016 Lite Challenge: River raiders temple hideout

[djan]

Unless it's only one or two simple ones, I don't use Gimp for labelling. I do it all in Inkscape then export a PNG into Gimp. Don't know if you've used Inkscape? It's about a million times better than Gimp for easy positioning of text, curved labels etc.

I know inkscape quite well. I use it a lot for drawing diagrams and such for work. And also for some maps I used it for the initial layout of floorplans as it is much easier to move and rotate stuff. Tried it also for labeling but didn't think about exporting just the labels and importing that into the gimp.

So you export your image from the gimp. Import that in inkscape. Add the labels. Hide or delete the original map. Export the labels and import those back into the gimp. Right? I assume you make sure that the export has the same resolution as the original in the gimp.

Thanks for that tip. I'll try it out next time.

[ChickPea]

Yeah, what you've outlined is pretty much what I do.

Export a low-ish quality jpg from Gimp (doesn't need to be high quality - it's only so you know where to position, and Inkscape can occasionally get tetchy with huge image sizes). Open Inkscape and in Document Properties set the page size to same size as your jpg. Centre your jpg on the page, then lock the layer (so that you don't accidentally move it). Create a new layer and put all your labels there. When you're done, hide the jpg layer and export a PNG of just the labels. Open that in Gimp and position it (easy to do when you export by Page, rather than by Selection).

If you want to apply effects in Gimp like shadows, blurs, distressing etc, it's easy to do, because the PNG becomes just another layer in your main image.

[Bogie]

Looking great.

[djan]

I finally have access again to my drawing tablet and managed to do the colouring and shading. So here is the nest version of the map.

I am not yet completely sure about the colours. I might decide to desaturate them a bit. But for now this is the final version.

### Latest WIP ###

[ladiestorm]

This is beautifully done! I like the colors just the way they are. Your blending of them is flawless! They are so detailed! I especially love the details on the river and the forest behind it!

[7Sided]

That is awesome. I always love when buildings are intertwined with running water. Very evocative! Very nice original line work too!

[snodsy]

Really nice job on this, maybe play with the title some? The drawings are really nicely done, great job!

[Bogie]

Really came together nice, well done!

[djan]

Thanks for the comments!

Some more final tweaks. I tuned down the colours just a little bit (sorry ladiestorm); changed the title as suggested by snodsy; and added some weathering/distortion to the labels, these were too clean compared to the rest of the map.

### Latest WIP ###

[djan]

Aargh. I saw a small spelling error in my map, which I tried to correct with an edit to the post. However, now both maps are added to the post and the one with the spelling error shows up in the thumbnails view. So here the correct version.

### Latest WIP ###