[ME] displaying your concept in on the map

[Deunan]

Ever wanted your concept to be shown on the map?
Ever missed it?
Well here is a little workaround I use.

First create a concept.
Either draw it gimp or photoshop, or on paper and scan it.

It has to be square.
are playable area.
For reference, here is the image I made.
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/Shadowtiefling/wip%20maps/River%20trial/Rivertrialcopy.jpg


Later you go to canvas> select the center of the image as a center of origin and select the with and length to 200%
as seen here
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/Shadowtiefling/wip%20maps/River%20trial/River_Rendezvous_2pcopy.jpg
(also note, that I inverted the colors, to make the river stand out more)


save the file as a .tga



Create a new map
Fill it up with this detail texture
snow_packed03

this texture has a zero alpha layer (or is faulty) and thus shows the detail map clearly.

save the map as yourmap (or anythng else)

next find the file yourmap.tga.
delete it.
copy paste your concept image into the maps directory and rename it as yourmap.tga


close and reopen your map

voila

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/Shadowtiefling/wip%20maps/River%20trial/conceptingame.jpg

later with some height mapping

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/Shadowtiefling/wip%20maps/River%20trial/concpettop----roughrerraindone.jpg


And it's done.

[Brother Mattias]

Nice tutorial, I will try that when im making fortresses with different levels.

[etherdragn]

The power of the color map is the most underrated thing in dow mapping I think.

I like using some filter effects on the color map in photoshop and then using semi transparent detail textures to show it through.