Confession and request for help

[michaeltobias]

Okay, I must confess. While I used RobA's wonderful tutorial to begin my mapping adventure in GIMP, I couldn't make it work like it's supposed to. I fudged. And trying to make it work is driving me nuts. The steps that I simply cannot seem to make work are the ones that are supposed to make the coastline jagged and irregular. I have followed these steps as closely as I can and it never works. The coastline is always smooth...or relatively so. When I made my map, I actually used the magic wand to select the white part of the map (the land) rather than the black part and then invert it. Then I changed a few settings in the noise or blur (I honestly don't remember exactly what I did) and got some of what I was going for.

But it wasn't what I wanted.

And for the life of me, trying to go thru that tutorial slowly and deliberately, it just doesn't work. I cannot get the coastline to a jagged state.

Now, I realize I must be doing something wrong. Everyone else seems to be able to do it, so it must be something I'm overlooking. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it might be. I'm not completely new to GIMP, but this has got me stumped and I honestly don't know how to figure it out. Help?

[Meshon]

Could you link to the tutorial you used? I have no idea what the steps are but as a shot in the dark I'll suggest that you could change the sensitivity on the magic wand tool (or whatever it is called in GIMP) or make sure your file size is high enough resolution.

But if you post a link to the tutorial I could have a look and try to give you better advice.

cheers,
Meshon

[Jaxilon]

Don't feel bad I was terrible at following tutorials. I would get half way through and start going off the rails and just ended up finding my own way with some helpful tips and advice from the folks here. Over time you will get it.

Now it's been a while since I was using GIMP myself but it would help if you were able to show what tutorial steps you are not getting to work and a shot of what you have so far. It's always possible GIMP has updated it's version and made some changes. If nothing else if you show us what you have you can get a lot of helpful advice on additional ways you can accomplish what you need.

Just don't give up and you will get there.

[Llannagh]

I am not using GIMP but photoshop, but I also would suggest that it might be a resolution problem.

A workaround would be if you'd drew the coastline by hand, be it on a tablet or on paper.

I don't know if this would work on gimp, but that's how I got started with photoshop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRax...st=WL&index=12

I would think there're similar settings in Gimp. In any way, I found this tut very helpful for beginners, as it is a step by step guide. Hope this helps.

[michaeltobias]

Could you link to the tutorial you used? I have no idea what the steps are but as a shot in the dark I'll suggest that you could change the sensitivity on the magic wand tool (or whatever it is called in GIMP) or make sure your file size is high enough resolution.

But if you post a link to the tutorial I could have a look and try to give you better advice.

cheers,
Meshon

How clumsy of me...here's the tutorial in question. One thing I must say, I also followed the updated link from this tutorial to "Old Guy Gaming" where he provided GIMP instructions (scroll down) supplied by RobA. Since the techniques were similar but slightly different, I tried that one as well, but had the same problem.

[TK.]

By the powers granted to me I hereby renounce thee of thy sins!

[michaeltobias]

By the powers granted to me I hereby renounce thee of thy sins!

Whew! That's a load off my mind. I was worried about stocks and stakes

[michaeltobias]

Okay, after working and re-working, I think I know what my problem was. I was simply expecting the program to provide some things for me that I have to do myself. After adjusting the blur, a great deal more than I had previously, I finally got my ragged coastline. However, I was expecting a bit more randomness that would affect the overall shape of the continent more. I'm not quite sure why I had that expectation, but there it is. After adjusting my expectations, and providing a bit more randomness myself, I think I'm getting the general hang of it.

Seems there's a metaphor for a life lesson...

Thanks to all who responded!

[ChickPea]

I tried both of those tutorials back in the day, but I don't really do it either of those ways any more. I couldn't remember all the steps, so I toned it right back and tend to take a more hands-on approach. Not saying my technique is better, as I do a little (or a lot) of cutting and pasting, and a manual clean up every time, but it doesn't take especially long, and I can remember the whole two steps without having to check a tutorial! All I do is the Render Clouds step, then Threshold. This gives the 'pieces' for my coastlines, and how I go from there depends on what I need. If I'm not too picky about the land shape, I just squint until I see something I can use, and manually paint with black or white until I've filled/erased the bits I need/don't need. Or I just use the free select tool to copy/paste parts of the image and manually 'assemble' the coasts that way. Most of the time, I just paint and rarely spend more than about 15 minutes on the coastline.

I'm very much a fan of the "KISS" approach. It works for me!

[michaeltobias]

All I do is the Render Clouds step, then Threshold. This gives the 'pieces' for my coastlines, and how I go from there depends on what I need. If I'm not too picky about the land shape, I just squint until I see something I can use, and manually paint with black or white until I've filled/erased the bits I need/don't need.

I'm very much a fan of the "KISS" approach. It works for me!

This makes me think of another tutorial I saw on Youtube. It looks like an very interesting thing to try and I think I will, thanks!