(WIP) Arch City of Nessa'Mor

[XCali]

Phew! That makes my suggestion a lot easier

The idea was to create a new perfectly square and perfectly symmetrical brush (identical no matter which side you have at the top) using bits and pieces of the border, or even just a simple pattern of circles or a blank bevelled square. Then all you would have to do is use the colour picker to pick the colours from the existing border, and dab it once in each of the four corners.

A lot of mappers use all kinds of corner designs - some elaborate and involving miniature scenes in little circular or quarter circle cameos and such like, but I don't think you really need to go that far unless you have a fancy to do it like that. Simple is just as good and effective

For future reference you might also want to make a brush out of that frame design to go with it.

Well that was my idea. Maybe you have an even better one of your own

EDIT: You just ninjad me! LOL! I like the lighter one because the darker one merges too much with the sea. You might find a subtle line of a very much darker blue around the inside edge of the frame will help to separate it just a bit more - whichever one you decide to use.

I think the roads tie the houses together a bit better - define the city.

Awesome, thanks. That is useful definitely. Though the key word there is symmetrical... I'm still feeling around in the dark with symmetrical stuff. And perfectly so? The how of that is just a tad intimidating. It is, however, an awesome idea. I just need to figure out how. Hehe.

About the roads, you said, "a bit better" Is there something you'd change there or add or tackle differently?

[Mouse]

Oh stop! The roads are fine

Here's another couple of ideas to deal with symmetry:

When making the brush, use existing symmetrical brushes placed centrally - for example different sizes of the standard circle or square brushes, or...

create just one quarter of the design, then increase the size of the canvas by a factor of 2, so that you can copy the design, rotate it, and paste it another three times to generate the symmetry. You might have to tidy the join between each of the four quadrants, but its easier than trying to do the whole thing totally freehand.

[XCali]

Oh stop! The roads are fine

Here's another couple of ideas to deal with symmetry:

When making the brush, use existing symmetrical brushes placed centrally - for example different sizes of the standard circle or square brushes, or...

create just one quarter of the design, then increase the size of the canvas by a factor of 2, so that you can copy the design, rotate it, and paste it another three times to generate the symmetry. You might have to tidy the join between each of the four quadrants, but its easier than trying to do the whole thing totally freehand.

Hehe, thanks.

Oh! The symmetry idea is great. I'll see what I can do.

I felt inspired, so one last update for today.

I added a darker line as you suggested. It works for me.

Also, I changed the Nessa'Mor Legend into a flag type.

Enjoy the evening!

[XCali]

Hi!

I thought I'd add a few boats. And some text to the memorial(though I don't know how to bend text along a path...yet. But anyway.)

Small and straightforward




On my to do list before I make the final call is:

What needs to be placed in the small courtyards(between the buildings) to make them more interesting.
And then the corners maybe.

***
Anything else I need to be mindful of before I declare this a finished map?

[Mouse]

Hey XCali

Your boats are looking great.

There are lots of tutorials on making curved text in GIMP on YouTube, but I decided not to pick just one to recommend, since although they all achieve some kind of result none of them cover the entire subject or point out half the problems. Some even do it a really odd way that goes all around the houses once you know how to do it yourself, but its fun watching them and generally absorbing all the information they contain - both good and bad

[XCali]

So...

I'm really and truly hitting a brick wall with the border's corners. I tried my hand at it in different ways and still, I'm no closer to having ANY idea how I can tackle it.

As much as I'm struggling with it, I'm really starting to consider leaving the corners as is.

[Mouse]

Hey XCali

If all else proves to be unsatisfactory, you could always use just four straight squares (a square brush), large enough to cover the corner, and on a layer of their own, then perhaps even apply a bevel effect of some kind?

That is only a suggestion, by the way - there's no rule to say you have to do anything to the corners if you don't want to

[XCali]

Hey XCali

If all else proves to be unsatisfactory, you could always use just four straight squares (a square brush), large enough to cover the corner, and on a layer of their own, then perhaps even apply a bevel effect of some kind?

That is only a suggestion, by the way - there's no rule to say you have to do anything to the corners if you don't want to

Thanks Mouse, I needed that. I'll see if I can get something to work other than what it is now

***
Thought I'd add a corner here.

[Mouse]

Seeing that has given me an idea.

Would you mind if I borrowed it and had a play around with it - see if I couldn't come up with a solution?

[XCali]

Seeing that has given me an idea.

Would you mind if I borrowed it and had a play around with it - see if I couldn't come up with a solution?

By all means go ahead, I don't mind one bit.