Celestia Forums

Hi there,

has anybody a link or another form of help for me? I think i read something in some post about a how-to manual for GIMP, but couldn't find it anymore.

I want to create some earthlike textures for my fictional systems. I have the GIMP as image program, and so far i have been able to create the outlines of the continents and so on.
But the picture itself doesn't look really good. I know it's a first attempt and i should not expect too much, but with so much people out there i thought i ask, perhaps somebody can point me in the right direction.
My problem lies within the shades of the continental layout. I want to have deserts, high and low mountains, normal woodland, and iceland/greenland mixtures.
How do i create goodlooking mountains? Just copy and paste from an earth map nad then how do blend them in?

Regards,

Guckytos

Hi Guckytos,I dont know if there are any sites dedicated to this ,but there are a few other threads on the forum when this has been discussed before.I just use different bits of the Earth when making Earth-like planets,and blend the different bits by hand in Photoshop.The most useful tool I've found is the Clone brush,I have heard there is a similar tool in Gimp but Ive no experience of using this program so I cant help you find it.Let us all know how you get on,or if you have any other problems,Jestr

Perhaps you meant this thread. Thats the only one I remember refering to GIMP in this context.

Otherwise you should read posts from Don. Edwards - he sometimes explains how he is doing things. It's best if you start with a part of an earth texture, and then blend and modify it. Or use one of the free terrain or world renderer to generate a starting picture. Or try to take pictures of some stone formations with your digicam - then blend, distort, smear, move ...

maxim

Thanks guys,

this should help my map.

When i think it is in a presentable state i will post it here.

Guckytos

Thought I had posted this here yesterday...oh well.

http://s92198053.onlinehome.us/html/planet_map_tutorial__dantooine.html

That should help.[/url]

diabloblanco17,

ouch!

I find the bright red on black very hard to read.
Also, for some reason the images didn't load when I looked at the page just now.

Hmm. For some reason, the images are all still links to the copies on my computer. And if the red is a problem, I'll just make it darker.

diabloblanco17,

Black lettering on white background is the easiest to read for both technical and physiological reasons, even though it may seem unimaginative.

On low resolution screens, the black areas between glowing dots form continuous, uninterrupted shapes, making them easy to recognize.

When there's low contrast between the colors of the letters and of the backgound, it tends to cause eye-strain. There's plenty of contrast between black and white

And for some reason, just thinking about those bright red-on-black shapes gives me a headache!