Map-Making TTT (Tips, Tricks & Tutorials)

[DiM]

the purpose of Map Making TTT is to have a place where new and old map makers share their knowledge and help eachother achieve a higher level of understanding photoshop fireworks or any other image editing software we use. my hope is to gather as many tutorials as possible and constantly update them in the first post, thus allowing everybody to quickly find what they need. also you can share your brushes patters and textures. just upload them on the web and post the link.
anybody is free to ask and answer if they follow some simple rules:

rules for asking:
1. please state the name and version of your image editing software. this way you'll make sure you receive a proper advice.
2. please don't bump your question. somebody will answer it.


rules for answering:
1. always quote the question so people will know what the tutorial is about.
2. the tutorial must be in one of these forms: video or text with explanatory images
3. make sure your tutorial is easy to follow even by the noobest of noobs. that means no skipping of steps you assume the readers should know.


general rules:
1. no side talk. posts like "wow" or "great" don't belong here. they just clutter the thread. if you really feel you want to congratulate someone for a nice tutorial then pm him.
2. if you post a collection of brushes textures or patterns please say what software they are for.


Video tutorials:

1. terraforming tutorial by mibi
2. epoch terraforming parts 1-5 by mibi

Image and text tutorials:

1. how to make an old paper by DiM
2. Using the Magic Wand Tool by DiM
3. how to make a mountain by WidowMakers
4. how to make realistic trees by DiM
5. Photoshop keyboard shortcuts by DiM

Layered images:

1. layered mountain file by WidowMakers
2. 8 Thoughts by WidowMakers
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... hts_WM.zip
3. Circus Maximus [Revamp] by WidowMakers
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... mus_WM.zip
4. Great Lakes by WidowMakers
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... kes_WM.zip
5. Indochina [Revamp] by WidowMakers
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... ina_WM.zip
6. King of the Mountains by WidowMakers
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... OTM_WM.zip
7. Montreal [Revamp] by WidowMakers
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... eal_WM.zip
8. realistic trees by DiM


External links:

1. Rotating and cropping in GIMP by DiM
2. Simple Animations in GIMP by DiM
3. Advanced Animations in GIMP by DiM


Brushes, Patterns and Textures:

1. patterns for Fireworks 8 by DiM
2. textures for Fireworks 8 by DiM


Various files:
1. GIMP help files by DiM

[DiM]

i am having a problem with my antarctica map im using inkscape but i might be able to use gimp (learning how to). the problem is impasible borders rivers aren't a problem in inkscape its mountains that r tough because u have to import a pic into inkscape and then edit it , so it has a box around ur image i can color that box but it takes a while.

how can i put in impassible borders preferable mountains?

i'm not sure i fully understand your problem but my guess is you have a picture of a mountain and you want to use just the mountain and not the background. here's a tutorial on the magic wand tool. the tutorial is for gimp. i'm not sure if you have the magic wand in inkscape.


Using the Magic Wand

you have this image:



you want to use the ring but not the hand.
zoom into the ring as much as you need but make it so you can see the entire ring and a little bit around it. now select the magic wand tool that looks like this:



set the tolerance at a low value. let's say 2 or 4. using the magic wand, click on the ring. a small part will highlight.



you can select larger areas by clicking and holding down the mouse button and moving your mouse down. this selects a larger area, but sometimes it will select unnecessary parts of the picture. you can press undo(or Ctrl+Z) to undo anything you accidentally selected. you can also hold Ctrl and press unwanted areas to deselect them. once you have a little bit selected, hold the Shift key and do the same thing. Your area will generally increase, but make sure you don't select unwanted areas. keep the Shift key held down and click, click the mouse down and unclick. then select another part on the ring. keep repeating the process until the entire ring is selected. like this:



when you're done, copy the selections you just made by pressing Ctrl+C or going to Edit and Copy Image. now you're going to want to make a new layer. make sure it's on transparent mode. now click the layer you have just made. then go to your image and press Ctrl+V or Edit > Paste. this will paste the ring on the new layer.

your newly created layer will contain nothing but the ring.
do so to any image you need.

[DiM]

.... ok got all that done but now i cant figure out how to change the size of my mountain in gimp
idealy if u could tell me how to download the help files for gimp i wouldnt need to bother u

to scale something in gimp right click that something and go to image then scale image. after that set the dimensions you want and click ok.


help files are here:
ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/help/

[Evil Pope]

Ok.. So how would one go about making buildings, such as in the troy map.. I can make buildings, but they seldom(never) look quite as good as those.. And its somewhat hard to make out quite what he's doing in the movie.. Also, the movie's little help to me anyway because I use GIMP.. The only way I could make use of it is to find the GIMP eqivalent to the Photoshop tools.. Which can't be done because its hard to make out... But anyway, I'd like any sort of help in forming buildings like those, or any other varieties of buildings.. Maybe even castle-like structures..

And i'd like to know how the trees are done, its difficult to see what he's using, and is there a way to do that in GIMP?

Thats all right now, thanks.

[gimil]

for the trees i would sue a small rounded brush ( i used a 5pz and a 3px) place a few dots around of green around then drop shadow it. Thats how its done in photoshop but i dont know if you can do a drop shadow to a layer in GIMP.

[DiM]

im using gimp 2.2.11
i need to know if anyone has a way to rotate something with out it blurring, for my map i want to rotate buildings to fit the area i want them in, at it is easier to make them as a rectangle then rotate than make it on a angle.

read here:
http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/gimp_tut ... _crop.html

[DiM]

Does anyone know a good quick way to make animations using gimp?

here you go 2 tutorials to animations in GIMP:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Advanced_Animations/

[DiM]

sorry to make this topic but i had no idea who to ask and were to post. it can be deleted after i get my answer.


so here's the question. how can i merge some brushes or layer styles or shapes?

i have let's say basic brushes file and assorted brushes file. and i want all of them in one single file because i'm tired of switching between them all the time.

thanks.

[mibi]

you keep loading new brushes and make sure to APPEND to the current set. then when you have all the brushes you want you save the brush set as something else.

[WidowMakers]

Here is a PSD file that shows one way to make mountains. It is basically a layered approach. Each layer is made by applying and layering small amounts of color to a layer (pick a textured brush with 25%-40% opacity and flow) then the layer has a bevel and texture applied to it via Blending options.

You can open the PSD file and turn off the layer styles. That will show you what each layer looks like and how to better make the mountains.

Have fun

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... ntains.psd

[DiM]

Sorry if this isn't the correct subforum to post this in

On the US Senate map, any idea how to make the area of Democrats/Republicans where there is a semi-circle of sub-divided sections? I have a map drawn on paper that has something similar, but instead it is an entire circle and sections are divided evenly.

I tried using the GIMP to draw circles, but GIMP doesn't even have a shape-drawing tool. I do not have Adobe Photoshop, although my school has Photoshop and I could ask if I could use it for "extra-curricular" projects.

I downloaded Inkscape but I have to spend some time learning that.

Is there a premade image of circles placed inside of circles (not a spiral). It would make the job a whole lot easier. Even if I can make a circle, I need circles inside of circles inside of circles (a total of 5 or 6 circles).

Can anyone tell me how to get started on this?

Use the ellipse select tool, and press Shift while clicking and dragging the mouse. Pressing Shift constrains the selection to be circular. Once you've selected a circular area, you can either stroke the selection with the current brush (Under "Edit->Stroke"), change the selection to a path, or fill the selection. It all depends on what you want to do with the circle.

also check the first post in this thread. you'll find there the help files for GIMP. download them and read.

[Gnome]

Tutorial:

hey gnome, how do u get the pictures into the background anyways???

This tutorial is for Photoshop (I made it in Adobe photoshop cs2)

1) make a new layer (I made it 300x300 for the example)

2)choose a background colour...I took (0d1d4b)


3) take a picture you want to add in the background (Im going for a boat in the see) Just put the picture on top of everything


4)now go in the picture<adjust menu (I think it's called that way)


5)this is what it should look like now


6)now put the layer on 50%


7)should look like this


8)now take this tool (don't know name in English)


9)take it on 87px or something that suites you and start to move it around...
this is my final result on it but it works on all kind of stuf...

[Wisse]

gnome the "natte vinger" tool is called smudge tool in english

[casper]

Here's a cool tutorial I found on Wikipedia's Cartography page.



Rendering a map using relief shading technique in Photoshop

[WidowMakers]

Whenever i try to type more than one line in Photoshop, the text overlaps. How do you type more than one line?

Is this what is happening?

You want to type like the top text, but the text overlaps like the bottom.

Adjust your leading in the character panel in photoshop

TOP: Proper Leading in Photoshop (Character size 30, leading 36)

BOTTOM: Improper Leading in Photoshop (Character size 30, leading 11)

WM

[DiM]

never underestimate the power of personalized brushes. create a shape of how you think a tree looks from above. let's say a star shape. now take that brush and set the background and foreground to 2 foliage colours (dark green and yellowy green) then do the following:

shape dynamics>
> size jitter 100%
> minimum diameter 0%
> angle jitter 0%
> roundness jitter 68%
> min roundness 25%


scatter> adjust as you please dependng on what you need

colour dynamics>
>fore/back 100%
> saturation 50%
the rest at 0%

and check smoothing.

then go ahead and paint what you need adjusting the brush size according to the height of the viewpoint.

after you paint put on some drop shadow and even bevel if it suits your need. but keep the bevel at a minimum.

here's a quick example. i didn't bother making a custom shape so i used a flower one. it looks rather bad on large trees but it works for small ones as the details are hard to spot.



and here's the file http://www.sendspace.com/file/9g965g

[bryguy]

ok i had some free time, and recently i figured out how to make a decent looking landscape with inkscape, ill include a picture i drew up 5 minutes ago at the end.



OK first, open X-11 and Inkscape

Click the Rectangles and Squares tool

Make a box, it can be any size

Choose a color for the box from the color swatch (the thing at the bottom of inkscape that has all the many colors you can use), for this example im using green.

Now using the Freehand tool, carefully draw some water onto the map, and give it a nice looking blue color. (You dont have to create a new layer for this, since Inkscape uses layers inside of layers)

After thats done, decide where your light source will be, for this example im using the lower right corner

Now draw along the coast of the water, just a little on the land and a little in the water

Now if that side is facing towards your light source, fill it with al lighter color than your square (so if your square is green, make what you just made light green) If it is facing away from your light source, make it darker than your square (dark green if your square is green)

Repeat until u have done that for the entire coastline

Now if you have done that correct it will look crappy so far. But dont worry, we're gonna fix that.
Click your lightened and darkened areas, and using the lower selection along the top bar, move it until it is under the water, yet still visible on the land. Do that for all the coast

Now it should look a little better, but not all that good, but dont worry this is the final step
Click a lightened or darkened area, and in the upper right corner of inkscape, click the little paintbrush (it will be next to a T)

Now once u have clicked that, using the sliding bar that is under Blur, modify the blur until it looks good (i use about 12.5%)
Now repeat that for each of the lightened/darkened areas, and if u did it right, it should look something like this:



hope thats not to confusing

[bryguy]

OK same landscaping thing as before, but in the GIMP this time


OK open GIMP

Create a new image, im using 600x600 for this one

Click the Paintbrush tool, choose a nice color (green again this time) and fill the whole picture with it (or if your lazy just use the Bucket Fill tool)

Now create a new layer, and on this layer, draw some water, i suggest using a large brush to get the basic area, and then zooming in to 400% or more and using a smaller brush and smoothing it out

Once thats done, choose your light source (lower right corner again here)

Now create a layer BELOW the water layer, but above the grass layer

Now choose wether your gonna start with the areas getting hit by light, or in the shadows.

Once you've chosen, if u chose the shadowed area, then grab the Airbrush tool and set the color on it to black or dark green. Then select a Circle Fuzzy Airbrush and change the pressure to 10, and the rate to 88. Now start coloring along the shore parts that are facing AWAY from your light source.

Once done, if u chose your grass color to be green, then keep the same airbrush, but change the color to light green. And then do the same thing that u did for the shadowed areas, but do it to the areas facing TOWARDS the light source.

Now if u did it right, it should look something like this:



Remember, i spent like 5 minutes drawing this, so if u work at it longer u could get better looking results

Also, for airbrush sizes, i suggest using:

Circle Fuzzy (19)

and on the scale bar, move it up to 2.21

Hope this helps

[bryguy]

ok, with some toying and messing around, i have figured out....


How to make a O.K. looking fantasy world/map using both GIMP & Inkscape

Note: You will want to save a bit, cause for some reason (at least for me) every once in a while X-11 will crash, taking all your unsaved work with it. And save it as a .xcf, or .psd
Note 2: Sometimes X-11 is called XQuartz
Note 3: You must have Inkscape and GIMP for this

Part 1, making the land:

Spoiler

OK, to start, bring up GIMP

Once up, select new and choose your dimensions (im gonna be using 600x600)

Fill the background with a green color

Once done, your gonna need a grass texture. An easy way to make an O.K. looking texture is to do this:

Create a new layer
Choose the Paintbrush tool
Choose a 1 pixel brush
Set the jitter to 50
Set the color to a dark green or black
Draw up and down, back and forth on the new layer until you have millions of spots all over the green (hopefully u did this on your new layer, not the background)
Now set the new layer to overlay
mess around with the opacity until it looks o.k. (I have it set to 10.9)

OK now that you have your texture and grass, you need water. Open Inkscape

Make a green box

Select the box, and make sure its the same dimensions as yours is in GIMP

Now draw your water on, i suggest you use a really dark blue, like this:

BLUE BLUE BLUE


After you have done that, delete the green box that the water is on

Now select your water, and do the following:

File: Export Bitmap

and choose what u want to name it

Now close down Inkscape, u wont be using it for a while yet.

Go back to GIMP, and on your opened grass picture with texture, go under:

File: Open as layers

and choose the water picture u made

Now you water will probably be all in the center of the picture, using the Move tool, move the water to your desired location.

If it fits where its supposed to, great, if not, do the following:

Select your water layer
Put it so that its roughly in the right spot
Use the Scale Tool to scale it so it fits

Now do get depth in the water, select the Airbrush tool and change the color to one that is a little lighter than the water color. Now color along the shore with a large fuzzy brush, until it looks good. It doesnt matter if you accidentally draw on the land.. Now in the areas of your water that are FAR AWAY from the shore, use a smaller fuzzy brush (still with air brush) and a really dark blue color and color in there. Then if it doesnt look that good, use a fuzzy brush and use the Blur tool to make it look better

OK now once done with that, if u got some blue on the land, its time to go in there and erase it off the land, to do so, i suggest

under the Eraser tool, change the brush to Circle (11) brush, and change the scale to 1.45.
on your map, zoom into 400%
erase the blue off the land, but dont erase the water!

Note: if you zoom in to 800% you can get even closer, and not ruin the water

O.K. now go back through my tutorials, and look for the landscaping in GIMP tutorial

If your doing it right so far, it will be looking something like this:

Part 2, Adding Castles:

Spoiler

OK if you've closed Inkscape, bring it up

Now open your current fantasy map, so that u know where u would be placing it (u will have to have saved it as a .png to open it)

Using the Squares and Rectangles tool, create a square that u want in the basic shape/size of your castle.

Now assuming that Inkscape does what always does to me, u should now have a colored square.

Next, make four squares of the same or about the same size on the corners of your square. Those will be your towers.

Now delete your original square, u wont be needing that now

Once its deleted, make rectangles that go between each of towers for walls (but only 1 rectangle between 2 towers!)

Once u have done that, u should have the basic shape of a castle

If u want, u can get creative and create inner walls and such

Oh and if u want to have it so that u can distinguish where your walls your walls end, then here are some ways to do it:

1) Make the walls lighter in color than the towers, or reverse
2) Add a thin line around the towers by doing the following:

Select the tower
Bring up the Fill and Stroke window
Go under the Stroke Paint tab
Select the square that is right next to the giant X
Go under the Stroke Style tab
Change the width to a low number (0.5 or less should do)
Repeat for each tower

Note: You usually want the walls smaller in than the towers, and a way to keep the towers the exact same size, is to make 1 tower and copy it the desired amount of time. Also, if u do the first suggestion, then make sure that the wall is below the tower

Now if u did that right, u should have a nice/O.K looking castle, and u can create as many castles that u want that way.

Now to get it over to GIMP

Delete the background picture
Select the castle(s) you created
Go under File: Export Bitmap
Name the file
Hit Export

Once done, on GIMP, do the following:

File: Open as Layers

and choose your file. Be sure to move it around so that each is in the area u had it in.
Note: If you have more than 1 castle and u want to move each around individually, u can either export them all individually, or once u opened the picture as layer(s), copy it the same amount of time as there are castles, and make sure that there is only 1 castle on each layer, and that they are all different.

WARNING!

Once you open the castles as layers, proceed with caution. Just a quick resize could make them look ugly!

Now to add a shadow:

GIMP way:

This part is tricky and i have not perfected it yet. Roughly, here is what u do:

Create a new layer behind the castles
Zoom in to the castles
Using a 1 pixel brush, draw where u think the shadow would be
Blur it
Repeat for all the castles

The shadow is the hardest, and if u want, u dont have to do it. Also, if u want, u can try to do it in Inkscape, which ill tell how in a minute.

If you did it about right, it should look something like this:




OK now if u think your castles look crappy after the shadow, then there is another way to do it

Inkscape Way:

OK if u closed down your Inkscape and got out of your castles, then bring inkscape back up and open your castles, or just make some new ones

Once done, you should again have your basic castle without a shadow or anything, this is what i do:

Zoom in alot

Go under
Edit: Copy: Paste

Do that once for every piece

so now u should have something like this:



OK now u need to get all those stray pieces where they belong. First tho, u have to be able to distinguish them from your original castle. So click down in a corner, and drag over all of the stray pieces so you have selected them, and then change their color to a darker shade of the same color as your original castle, so that it looks like this:



Now move each of the pieces so that they are above the original, and now u should have a dark castle, with none of your original showing.



Now this next step is hard, and i suggest u start with the walls. First, click a wall that is horizontal (left to right), and lets say your light source for your map is gonna be in the lower right corner. If so, then once you have selected it, there should be a bunch of arrows. Choose the arrow pointing straight up, and drag it up a ways



now do the same thing for the other horizontal wall, and you should have something like this:



Now for the vertical walls. Still assuming that the light is in the lower right corner, choose a vertical wall, and again u should see those arrows. Click and drag the one that is facing to the LEFT. Now repeat for the other vertical wall. You should now have this:



Ok now for the towers, click any tower. Now choose the arrow that is facing towards the left corner. Drag that a ways. Now repeat that for every tower, and u should have something like this:



Now click each of those pieces, and choose to Lower the Selection or the Page Down button on your keyboard. Now just modify your darker sections in size so that they look right. If done correctly, ur end result should be something like this:



Note: zoom out to 100% before you export it, to make sure the castle is the size u want. If not, then select the whole castle, and using the arrows to make it the size u want

At that point, just select the whole castle, and export it. Then bring it up in GIMP using the Open as Layers, and move the castle(s) around to the right spot.

You should now have it looking like this:



And be creative with your castles! dont just do bland boring square and rectangle ones! add inner walls, inner towers, do circle ones even! and done just use grey, try using oranges and browns!

Hopefully your castles will look better!

Part 3, adding a desert (optional):

Spoiler

OK I know that alot lately there have been maps starting to use deserts, and its been annoying me that I couldnt make such good looking deserts. But I put my mind to it, and finally figured out how to.

In GIMP, make a new layer (I find that 50x43 works well)

Fill that layer with white

Do the following:

Filters: Noise: RGB Noise

Now a little preview will come up, uncheck all the boxes except for the preview box

Now take up the Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha all the way up. You should now see in the preview area your box filled with black and white noise.

Hit OK

Your box should now be filled with black and white, but your not done yet, click the Scale tool

Now click your box

Once clicked, it should show a bunch of squares in the different areas. Pull on the squares until the size of your noise layer has a width of 1313 and a height of 659

Note: use the squares, dont just go under scale layer and change it

Now You should have a giant layer full of noise over your entire picture. If you do, your on the right track.

Set your noise layer to Overlay mode, and the Opacity to somewhere between 40 and 60

Create a layer behind the noise layer, and on that layer, draw behind your noise layer with the color of sand in the area that you want your desert. Be sure to use a fuzzy brush, fuzzy (19) brush works well. In that area it should have a nice looking desert, so now take an eraser over the extra parts of the noise layer that are not on the desert. If done correctly, it should look something like this:



Part 4 Coming soon!

Part 4, adding food resources (optional):

Spoiler

OK creating simple resources is easy. First, using the Paintbrush tool, change the brush to Pencil Sketch#1

Then, choose the color u want your resource

Now just click where u want it

Note: It wont always place it in the way the brush is facing

Now create a new layer behind your resource layer

On that layer, use a fuzzy brush to put some dark green behind the pencil sketch.

Now to add a fence, create a new layer above the resource

Zoom in above the resource to about 800%

Set the color to brown

Use a 1 pixel brush now, and around the resource, make a bunch of small lines, each being about 2-4 pixels long, with about 2-3 pixels between each. If u did it correctly, it should look something like this:

Part 5, adding signs of life:

Spoiler

For this part, when I say 'adding signs of life', I dont mean villages.... yet

First off, lets start by adding some boats

Create a new layer (above the water layer)

Zoom in above the water

Select a 1 pixel paintbrush

Change the color to brown

Draw the relative shape of a fishing boat

Now you'll need a sail

Change the color to white

Using your 1 pixel brush, draw a triangle

Note: You need to make sure that the triangle sides are mostly straight. To do this, click at a spot, and then hold shift. This will allow you to make straight lines.

If you want, you can create a new layer for the sails

Repeat until you have your desired amount of boats

That is a way you can do it in GIMP, I have noticed tho that the ships made that way are usually more pixely. If u dont want them pixely, then make them in Inkscape, to do that, do this:

Open Inkscape
Using the Freehand tool, draw the relative shape of a boat (minus the sail)
Draw a triangle for a sail
Select the boat shape and choose a brown color for it
Select the sail and choose a white color for it
Repeat for desired amount of boats

Then do the usual File: Export and opening as layers. If your boats are to large once you've done that, then use the scale tool to scale them down to size.

Now to add some ports, again u can do this in both GIMP and Inkscape, here are the 2 ways

GIMP:

Zoom in to along the shore after creating a new layer
Use a brown 1 or 5 pixel brush, and be sure to use shift to make straight lines.
Draw a dock

Inkscape:

Open your picture after saving it as a .png
Use the Freehand tool or the Square and Rectangle tool to make straight lines/docks
Delete the background picture
Export, open as layers
Scale down to the right size

OK so its kinda hard to explain, but really easy to draw

Now you should have some boats and a dock for them to go from, now to add a road.

Create a new layer (make sure its just above the grass and grass texture, nothing else)

Use a brown or light brown color and draw using a fuzzy paintbrush, you can use any size u want, but dont make it to big

Draw where you want the road to be

Change the opacity of the road to somewhere between 10 and 60

Now you might want to draw something more, lets go with sheep for now.

Create a new layer

Use a Circle fuzzy paintbrush, make sure its small, and that the color is on white

Draw short lines for sheep

Scale the layer so that the sheep are about the appropriate size

Now to fence them in

Create a new layer if u like

Zoom in around the sheep, and use the same technique u used for the resource fence, and you can fence them in in a square or circle, whichever you prefer

And there you have it, some signs of life. If you did it right, it will look something like this:



Note: The dock/boats in the upper water area was created in GIMP, and the ones in the lower water area were created in Inkscape


Look for the next part soon!

Part 6, Adding hills (optional, although i mostly suggest u skip this step):

Spoiler

OK if your like me, you'll be thinking that the land looks rather flat. The way to fix that, is the same way we gave the shore an upraised look. The only difference is, we're gonna use that technique to create hills

Choose your color (light green for the light parts, dark green/black for the dark parts)

Choose your fuzzy paintbrush (if your hill is small, then use a smaller brush, a (3) or (5), if its large, then try a (19))

Create a new layer, but make sure its between the grass and the texture layers

Zoom in a lot, 400% or 800% should suffice

Draw your hill

Its really hard to do for small hills, so im going to do a large hill in the upper left corner.


OK after a little bit, you will realize that making hills is really difficult. I cant even do it that well! Although i did manage to create a big lump....



so yea u dont have to try making hills if u dont want to, for me its a big pain

Part 7, How to make a village:

Spoiler

There are many ways to make villages, here are some of them


Open Inkscape

Make a square, and change the color to a nice house like color

Using the freehand tool, make a shape like < and > and place them at the ends of the house

Now make a straight line between them

Repeat for the amount of houses you want

Export

Open as layers in GIMP

Use the scale tool to make sure its the right size

Move it to the right spot

Note: If u resize it, it might get blurry, so i suggest that you make sure its the right size in Inkscape before u export it

_______________________________________________

You can also do the same basic thing in GIMP.

Also, here is a way kinda like how mibi did in an earlier tutorial:

Create a new layer

Zoom in alot

Draw the shape(s) of houses

Use a 1 pixel brown brush or pencil, and while holding shift, make the outline of the house, but ON the house

Now do the same >-< thing that u did with the inkscape houses, but change the color to black, and set the Paintbrush Mode to overlay

Scale it down to the appropriate size

Note: After you draw the house, i suggest u use a 1 pixel pencil for the rest


Now to add smoke from a chimney:

Choose a white/grey/smoke color

Chose a small fuzzy paintbrush

Zoom in

Start at around a 1 pixel area from a house, and the farther u get, the fatter you should have it, like this kinda:

...:::

or something like that

Now get a blur tool, and blur over the smoke

Now to have it seem kinda like the smoke is disappearing the farther it gets

Go to the END of the smoke (not the point u started it from) and use the blur tool ALOT

You should now have a some nice looking smoke

Note: The wind will change over distance, so if u have a big map, dont have the smoke all going the same way

Now you may want to add a fence area next to a house, heres how:

Create a new layer behind your village layer

Using a brown pencil, from about half way down the house make a line that goes out a ways

Now make that line do a left/right turn (a sharp one like this: |_ not like this (_ )

Go down/up past the house

Do another turn like that

Make the length of this part of the fence the same as the original line (make sure these to are parallel like this:||)

Go until u reach about the area of a corner of the house, and u should be below it, so do another sharp turn and go and connect to it

If done correctly, u should have a nice looking fence that you can put animals in (like sheep from earlier)
Note: If you feel like it, change the pencils mess around with the pencils opacity, or the fence layers opacity


Now to have fire from a smokestack (im assuming i got that right, basically from one of those big burn piles with sticks stacked up and such)

Ok zoom in to 800%

Create a new layer

Change the color to grey (like rocks)

Using a 1 pixel pencil, do individual pixels for rocks in a circle (actually, just 4 groups of 2 pixels each with none of the groups touching but with 4 pixels in the center of it all should work)

Color the center between the pixels red with a red paintbrush

Now do half the pixels of the inside with orange

Make a new layer and have smoke coming from the fire (same way as the villages)

If done correctly, you should have something looking like this:



So yea you should now have your villages the fire pits thingys are at the cross roads (or at least 2 of them), the village down at the bottom is the one i made in GIMP, and the other one I made in Inkscape, and the fence is at a house in the GIMP village

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Before I finish up this part, there is 1 more type of village you can make, it is tricky tho.

And before I start on how to make this type of village, I would like to thank gimil for telling me how to do it, so I could modify it for GIMP

In GIMP, create a new layer

In this layer, using a tanish brush, make some strange blob like shapes (but contained blobs, not ones with a ton of curves)

Do this a couple of times, 3 of 4 should do (but be sure to do this all on 1 layer!)

Now, go under Filters: Distorts: Emboss

On the preview, make sure u can see your 'blobs'

Now change the settings to as follows:

The Bumpmap box checked
Azimuth: Any of your liking
Elevation: 44.08
Depth: 2

Then click OK

Now you should have some elevated looking blobs, now heres what to do to make them look kinda like the ones in Feudal War

Using the SCALE TOOL, scale the layer down so that the blobs are really small (like this size: <>, each)

Now under the layers window/tab, keep copying your layer with the original blobs, and move the copied layers around so that none overlap and so that you have something that looks like one of the villages in Feudal

Now just merge all the village layers together, and add smoke! You should now have a nice looking Feudal Wars type village, which btw ill include mine in the end of part 8

And again, thanks gimil for telling me how!

Part 8 coming soon!

Part 8, making a mountain (optional, but good to learn)

Spoiler

OK if you were wondering why I have a mountain in the last one without telling you how to do it, its cause i was to lazy to make that layer invisible

Now in this part, I shall tell you how to do it! And since its really hard, Ill even use pictures!
Note: Im gonna start a new image to show you how to do this, then have about the same picture with the mountain from last time shown

Create a new layer

Using a fuzzy paintbrush and a nice brown color, draw a brown area



Now create a new layer

Get a small (circle 3-circle 10) airbrush, and choose a lighter brown color

Set the settings to around this:

Rate: 24.8
Pressure: 3.3

Now for the side thats facing your light source, do fast up and down (or diagonal) strokes, the longer the strokes, the steeper/longer your mountain, and every once in a while change the size of your brush



Create another new layer

Now do the same for the dark side as you did for the light side, but with a dark color

Now create another new layer

Change the color to whitish

Get a fuzzy brush (any size i guess)

Draw along the top for snow

Now you may want to go through the layers and blur it a little



Sorry if it ends up looking worse than my original, just keeping playing around with the rate and pressure and you should eventually get it
Note: also, try using differnet brushes


oh and now for that picture with the feudal type villages:




And there you should have it, a whole fantasy world of your creation

Part 9, converting it into a map:

Spoiler

OK now if you want to convert it into a map, heres wat you will need to do:

Add a legend
Add borders
Add bonuses
Add starting points (optional)
Come up with some unique gameplay

Now lets start with adding a legend

Legends can be at the bottom, top, or anywhere on the map! But for now, we shall just tell you how to do it on the bottom/top

The maximum size restrictions for a small map are 630x600 pixels, and we're gonna have the legend on the bottom, and 100x500 pixels should be enough. But we will have to change the image size for the legend to work, heres what we shall do:

Go under Image: Scale Image

and since we want for now about 100 pixels tall for the legend, lets scale it to 500x500 if u have a 600x600 picture. If you have a large 800x800 map, then 700x700.

Now go under Image: Canvas Size, and change the height back to what it originaly was, but not the width

Now GIMP should have automatically moved your image up, and you should now have a 100x500 pixel area for your legend. If you want your legend at the top, then move every layer carefully down to the bottom

Now create a new layer BEHIND EVERYTHING!

Use the bucket fill to fill that layer with whatever color you want (im gonna use grey)

Now you have a legend, in the next part, ill tell you what to put in it

Now for some territory borders, i suggest u make these in Inkscape

Bring up inkscape

Open up your map as a .png

Using the Freehand tool, draw some borders. You dont want them all straight, and you dont want them to complex. I suggest doing a little of each. Also, you usually want to keep your castles/villages in one territory (not ALL the castles and villages, but the individual ones)

Zoom in, and using the Node Modifier Tool modify the nodes of each of the lines so that they look good to u

Export the BORDERS ONLY and then open them as layers in GIMP

Move them around so that they fit right, also scaling if needed, and erasing a little as needed

You will also want to come up with fantasy names for territories. Otherwise, you could do numbering. There are some websites out there that can come up with fantasy names for you so that you dont have to work that hard at it

If done correctly, you should have something like this:



I had to draw the borders up quickly, but if your good and careful, then you can do better ones. Also, I didnt add names.

Part 10, coming up with bonuses/unique gameplay:

Spoiler

OK coming up with good bonuses is usually easy if you have starting points. If u have starting points, then good bonuses are usually as follows:

Castles:
4, 5, or 6

Villages:
1, 2, 3 or 4

Now coming up with some unique gameplay is harder. You could do something like everybody has to try and stop a dragon, or something like my Empire Builder map (going under a name change) with each regular territory being -1, or anything like that. So coming up with gameplay is something you have to do. Occasionally, people add in quotes.

Once you have all that done, you want to explain it well. If its not explained well, then its more likely that people want like it. So you want to use concise wording that isnt confusing. Once done, make sure you have yours bonuses/gameplay in your legend, with the title anywhere on the map

If done correctly, you should have something like this:




I hope you enjoyed my tutorial, and congratz if u made it all the way through

also, here my file if u want it:

XCF:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/13/ ... xample.xcf

PSD:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/13/ ... xample.psd

[Lone.prophet]

ok gimil asked me how i did the gulfs border wel here is a minitut

1, i made the continents in illustrator


2, i make all borders in illustrator ( i think its a 2 pixel brush thoough it could be something in close)


back in photoshop:

3, i give the border a outer glow of white with noise set on overlay


4, i do an apply image blur it a couple of times and set the layer to darken


hope you liked it and learned something

[RjBeals]

Sure it's not the most efficient way, but I really like the look of your borders Lone.prophet. It just must be hard to make adjustments on the fly.

[bryguy]

How to create custom GIMP brushes

ok with my last tutorial finished, i have time to create this tutorial on how to make custom brushes.


First, create a new image, with any size settings

Draw what you want your brush to look like

Do the following:

File: Save

but u have to go through the following folders to get it as a brush, do this:

Find the GIMP application folder

Now to find the right folder, heres what folders to go through in order:

Contents
Resources
Share
Gimp
2.something
Brushes

And save it as a .gbr

now you should have your own custom brush

[bryguy]

ok took me forever to find anything for this, but:


Adding font to GIMP 2.X (X being any number)


OK i found this on the internet, and here is the original link: http://raygunrobot.com/archives/The-eas ... -with-GIMP


But unless u dont want to scroll through what that guy has to say, im gonna put it in short:

First, know where your fonts that are used in places like Word are

Bring up GIMP

Go under File: Preferences

Scroll down all the way to the one that says Folders, and click the little triangle next to it

Now scroll down to Fonts

Once thats chosen, click the little image that looks like a page with a corner bent

Now it will have a little area for u to right where u want it to get some more fonts from, click the Folder button

Now a window will come up, now work go through your files to your folder were your fonts are kept throughout your computer

Hit ok

Then hit the ok in the bottom right corner

Restart GIMP

There ya have it! no more trouble with getting fonts that you really want in to GIMP!

[DiM]

shortcuts for photoshop

* Add to selection - (SHIFT + Drag)
* Audio Annotation Tool - (N)
* Background Eraser - (E)
* Brush Presets - (F5)
* Brush Tips - (F5)
* Brush Tool - (B)
* Brush Size Increase - (])
* Brush Size Decrease - ([)
* Burn Tool - (O)
* Clone Stamp Tool - (S)
* Close File - (CTRL + W) or (CTRL + F4)
* Commit Change - (Enter)
* Copy - (CTRL + C) or (F3)
* Create Layer - (SHIFT + CTRL + N)
* Crop Tool - ( C )
* Default Fg/Bg Colors - (D)
* Deselect - (CTRL + D)
* Direct Selection Tool - (A)
* Dodge Tool - (0)
* Duplicate Selection - (ALT + Drag)
* Edit Menus - (ALT + SHIFT + CTRL + M)
* Edit Preferences - (CTRL + K)
* Ellipse Tool - (U)
* Elliptical Marquee Tool - (M)
* Eraser Tool - (E)
* Exit - (CTRL + Q)
* Eyedropper Tool - (I)
* Fill - (SHIFT + F5)
* Free Transform - (CTRL + T)
* Freeform Pen Tool - (P)
* Gradient - (G)
* Group Layers - (CTRL + G)
* Healing Brush Tool - (J)
* Horizontal Type Tool - (T)
* ImageReady - (SHIFT + CTRL + M)
* Insert Text - (T)
* Keyboard Shortcuts - (ALT + SHIFT + CTRL + K)
* Lasso Tool - (L)
* Layer Via Cut - (SHIFT + CTRL + J)
* Levels - (CTRL + L)
* Line Tool (U)
* Lock Transparent Pixels - (/)
* Magic Eraser Tool - (E)
* Magic Wand Tool - (W)
* Magnetic Lasso Tool - (L)
* Match (ImageReady) - (CTRL + M)
* Move Tool - (V)
* New File - (CTRL + N)
* New Frame - (ALT + SHIFT + CTRL + F)
* Notes Tool - (N)
* Open File - (CTRL + O)
* Paint Bucket Tool - (G)
* Paste - (CTRL + V) or (F4)
* Patch Tool - (J)
* Path Selection Tool - (A)
* Pattern Stamp Tool - (S)
* Pen Tool - (P)
* Photoshop Help - (F1)
* Polygonal Lasso Tool - (L)
* Preview (ImageReady) - (CTRL + ALT + P)
* Print - (CTRL + P)
* Print One Copy - (ALT + SHIFT + CTRL + P
* Print With Preview - (ALT + CTRL + P)
* Quit Photoshop - (CTRL + Q)
* Rectangular Marquee Tool - (M)
* Red Eye Tool - (J)
* Remove Border Displays - (SHIFT + CTRL + H)
* Reselect - (SHIFT + CTRL + D)
* Reset Colors - (D)
* Rulers - (CTRL + R)
* Save A File - (CTRL + S)
* Save A File With A New Name - (SHIFT + CTRL + S) or (ALT + CTRL + S)
* Save For Web - (ALT + SHIFT + CTRL + S)
* Screen Mode - (F)
* Select All - (CTRL + A)
* Select Bottom Layer - (ALT + .)
* Select Next Layer - (ALT + ])
* Select Previous Layer - (ALT + [)
* Select Top Layer - (ALT + .)
* Shape Tool - (U)
* Show Guides - (CTRL)
* Slice - (K)
* Slice Select - (K)
* Spot Healing Brush Tool - (J)
* Subtract From Selection - (ALT + Drag)
* Transform Again - (SHIFT + CTRL + T)
* Undo/Redo - (CTRL + Z)
* Zoom In - (CTRL + +)
* Zoom Out - (CTRL + -)
* Zoom Tool - (Z)

[MrBenn]

I want to redraw the territory borders, as I want them to look fresh and crisp. At the moment I think they look a bit jaggedy and distorted (as well as inaccurate in 1 or 2 places like N Ireland).... I think this will be a major major task, as my couple of attempts at redoing the border have taken ages, and not been overly successful... Any suggestions on how to do this quickly, easily and efficiently would be warmly received.

I like to use a solid black 2-pixel brush with a hardness of 100% (Opacity 100% & Flow 100%). This gives a good well defined smooth border. I will sometimes outline the entire bonus region in a 3 or 4 pixel brush also, just to keep it separated even more. Zoom in close on your original map and trace the borders. Yes it will take a while, but most likely not as long as you think. How accurate you keep it is up to you.