# Mapping Resources > Tutorials/How-To >  Fantasy Cartography with Adobe Photoshop, Adapted to Gimp

## wisemoon

I've finished adapting the first episode of Butch Curry's _Fantasy Cartography with Adobe Photoshop_ video tutorial series. There are a few steps he does in Photoshop I don't know how to replicate in Gimp; in those cases I've indicated what steps one takes in Photoshop. If anyone tests this out and knows, or figures out, the Gimp equivalent--please let me know, so I can update the tutorials.

Episode one doesn't get you very far, but I hope to be able to continue this fairly quickly. I'll post subsequent episode adaptations as replies to this thread.

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## wisemoon

The PDF for the Episode 2 tutorial is now ready. Please let me know if this tutorial is helpful. If you have suggestions for this tutorial, or the series in general, please share them with me! Thanks.  :Smile:

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## Katto

I think your tutorials are helpful, wisemoon. I can't say it for me there I am using PS, but a lot of member here use GIMP. It seemed that you spend much time in your "translated" tutorial and at the time 26 user downloaded it. I can't understand that there was no feedback until now. Have some rep for your effords!

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## wisemoon

Thanks so much, Katto! I will keep plugging away at it. I've noticed that RobA recently posted a tutorial on how to make "old, tattered paper" in Gimp...I haven't looked at it yet, but depending on his methods I might end up using his methods in the tutorial. I did my best to emulate what Butch Curry did in Photoshop, but in many cases I had to deviate quite considerably from the video simply because I couldn't figure out how to do what Curry did!

I plan to continue updating and editing these over time, so eventually they may become just "Gimp tutorials" instead of being an "adaptation" of someone else's tutorials. We'll see how it goes.

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## wisemoon

I'm working on the tutorial from Episode 3. I may end up cutting it into two parts; much of Episode 3 is creating a custom pattern for trees/forest. The process is different enough in Gimp that it's taking me awhile to figure it out. I may, in fact, post that as a separate tutorial entirely...I couldn't find any other tutorials on creating seamless patterns in Gimp on this site. In fact, even an Internet search didn't turn up much. Most of the tutorials I found focus on creating texture patterns, which are more photorealistic than the pattern I'm trying to do. Curry's method creates an antique, "hand-drawn" style; he shows you how to hand-draw a forest pattern, then use it to bucket-fill or paint with.

As soon as I get the pattern thing figured out, I'll be posting the next installment. Thanks for reading!

wisemoon

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## wisemoon

Episode 3 is now finished. In this episode, we create a forest pattern, fill a new layer with it, then use masking techniques to selectively paint in areas of forest.

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## Ken_Scades

you know this is really bizarre... I've read your adapted tutorial and have had an "Ahhhhh"-Effect at least once per episode. Of cousre, that could be due to me beeing new to the job and so on... but really, I have to underline Katto's words.
Your adapted Tutorial is able to help at least the beginners like myself, so why the hell is there no post of any newby who gives you credit?! I mean this thing has been on the block for way more than half a year... am I the only new GIMP user in this long time who felt the need to read your tutorial??? xD
Anyways and even if it is propably way too lait to get you to continue this project. I give you rep.

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## Ascension

New mappers are usually new to The Guild so they almost always neglect to go back and look through the vast amount of assembled knowledge.  So kudos to you for doing so.   :Smile:

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## Vandy

Hey, All.

Just a quick comment.  I will be creating a link to this tutorial / thread in the near term.  I'm waiting right now to see if any of the Chapters 1, 2 or, 3 are going to be updated with any futher information.

Looking forward to the completed series.

Thanks fo all your hard work, wisemoon.

Regards,

Vandy

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## Candacis

I like the tutorial, too. It is really helpful and deserves to be more recognized. Will there be more steps?

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## wisemoon

> you know this is really bizarre... I've read your adapted tutorial and have had an "Ahhhhh"-Effect at least once per episode. Of cousre, that could be due to me beeing new to the job and so on... but really, I have to underline Katto's words.
> Your adapted Tutorial is able to help at least the beginners like myself, so why the hell is there no post of any newby who gives you credit?! I mean this thing has been on the block for way more than half a year... am I the only new GIMP user in this long time who felt the need to read your tutorial??? xD
> Anyways and even if it is propably way too lait to get you to continue this project. I give you rep.


Thank you so very much! I am a technical writer by trade, so writing instructions and tutorials is something I have experience with.  :Smile: 

I plan to get back to this very soon. I got laid off in June of 2010, and started back to school in Fall of 2010. I got pretty busy with school, and then this semester I got another fulltime job and was still going to school parttime! So that's why it got put on the back burner for awhile. But I'm not taking classes this summer, so I am going to pick it up again.

I am even considering trying to do some video tutorials. I took a Photoshop class last semester, so now I have both Photoshop and GIMP and experience with both. Please look for continued posts here, and I plan to set up a new art/design blog, which I will be linking in my sig. I will have plenty of tutorial content on my blog as well.

Thanks again!

wisemoon (Megan Wiseman)

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## wisemoon

Well it's taken me longer than I imagined it would, but I am finally getting back to this project. I apologize to all of you who've been waiting for more, and will really try to get the rest out on a more reasonable schedule. I hope to have Episode 4 up within a week.

Also, I may be renaming this tutorial series and reposting it...mostly because I have ended up changing quite a few things in the adapation. So I may call it something else and just give Zombie Nirvana credit for being the source and inspiration for the tutorials. Keep an eye out, I also plan on doing some other tutorial stuff in the future.

Thanks to all of you who commented and have used the tutorial!

Wisemoon

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## ZombieButch

This is a great project, and I hope you keep it up!

Butch Curry

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## wisemoon

Wow, I had no idea Butch Curry was actually a member here! Looks like he is a recent applicant. I am honored you chimed in on my thread, Butch! Any plans to add more episodes to your video tutorial series? Last I saw you had gotten up to episode 18...

Oh, and guys I promise I am working on episode 4...it will be up soon!

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## ZombieButch

I was on here some time ago as palehorse and just came back today.  :Smile:   I'll make an announcement about future plans by the end of the week, here and on my YouTube channel before anywhere else!

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## RobA

Butch - do you want me to merge ZombieButch and Palehorse?

-Rob A>

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## ZombieButch

Please do, Rob, that would be great! Thanks!

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## wisemoon

Episode 4 is finally ready! In this episode, we learn a trick to add some variety to our forest pattern so the tiling effect is obscured. We also learn to make a tree trunk brush pipe in Gimp, and use it to add trunks to our forested areas.

I seem to be having some trouble uploading the file, so I will upload the actual PDF later this evening. Thanks to everyone who has been monitoring this thread, and who has downloaded previous episodes. I plan to continue updating, and should be able to do so fairly quickly until mid-August--but as school starts for me at that time, they may slow down again.

Check back later tonight to get the new PDF!

Edit: Here is the file.


Wisemoon (Megan)

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## Lord James Of Riven

Well, I joined just for these tutorials, and I think they're fantastic. Thank you!

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## Mixail

I like the tutorial, too.

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## wisemoon

Hey everyone...Life got in the way again, I didn't get as far as I would have liked last summer while school was out. However, I'm hoping to get some more episodes done this month. Stay tuned, thanks for your praise and I'm glad you've found them helpful. Kudos to ZombieButch for the original videos, too.  :Smile: 

wisemoon

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## Chzimo

Awesome guide for those of us too poor to afford Photoshop, keep it up!

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## wisemoon

Episode 4 is finally here! After a considerable delay due to unavoidable life circumstances, I have continued work on this project.



Thanks everyone for all the great comments, and I hope you continue to enjoy working with this method.

wisemoon

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## wisemoon

I have finished the written tutorial for Episode 5. This episode talks a lot about colors. Due to the fact that Gimp does not have the same selection of palettes/swatches that Photoshop does, I found a color chart for the FOCOLTONE colors and created a custom palette in Gimp for those colors. I also created an approximation of the Pantone colors in a custom palette, which is also included. Here are the palettes:

FocoltoneAndPantonePalettes.zip

And here is the tutorial PDF. Thanks so much for reading and using the tutorials. Enjoy!



wisemoon

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## wisemoon

Just wanted to let readers know that I am in the middle of doing Episode 6, but I am mostly working on this during the weekends as I am focusing on other job-related projects during the week. So stay tuned, I should be posting Episode 6 and possibly Episode 7 at the end of the week.  :Smile: 

wisemoon

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## wisemoon

Episode 6 is still in progress, I got a little bogged down by the woodblock technique as it is difficult to replicate exactly from the Photoshop steps. I have found some additional resources, though, and hope to get it finished and posted this weekend. Thanks for your patience, keep checking back!

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## wisemoon

I have finally finished Episode 6 of the tutorial series! This one took awhile because I was trying to adapt a particular woodcut/woodblock technique from Photoshop to Gimp from the ground up, and it wasn't working particularly well.

Luckily, I managed to find several threads about this very technique here on Cartographer's Guild, both in the Tutorials forum and in the Mapping Resources forum. Credit goes to RobA yet again for his scripts and techniques! Thanks, RobA! I have included a zip file with the script and pattern files used in this tutorial.

script_and_patterns.zip

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## aetherImprobable

I see in Episode 2, the instructions require a watercolour set. Where can I download one for GIMP 2.8? I am relatively new to GIMP.
-Xis

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## Manny

I have recently been following Butch Curry's YouTube tutorials, and this forum is a great help to those of us who are new to cartography, especially those using GIMP; such as myself. It's only been a few days since I have been interested in creating my own maps using this type of "hand-drawn" style for some upcoming Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I am planning.

I was originally stuck in Butch Curry's YouTube tutorial episode 6 in GIMP, but luckily wisemoon covered it. However, I am rather worried I might get stuck in a future episode. Could some experienced cartographer with Photoshop/GIMP explain any future bumps I might have? Please, and thank you for your time.

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## RJsDad

Greets;

When I got to the end of the first episode, I said to myself, "...Self, there has got to be way to complete that last step."  I tried manipulating GIMP, but no luck.  So I jumped on the Google express 'cause I JUST KNEW the solution was lurking somewhere out on the Weird Wide Web.  And I was right!

Whilst skulking about on Google, I stumbled across Free Filters & Plug-ins, and guess what I found?  A PS plug-in called Spraye that does exactly what Filters > Brush Strokes > Sprayed Strokes does in PhotoShop; I already tested it and it works 100% in GIMP.  So here it is for you and anyone else who wants it.  A small token of thanks for all I've learned and my own little contribution to a great tutorial.

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## RJsDad

Here's another little addition that might be useful, a set of 5 masks that can be used for the tutorial's torn paper effect rather than using the select tool.  Makes things a bit easier.

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## wisemoon

> I see in Episode 2, the instructions require a watercolour set. Where can I download one for GIMP 2.8? I am relatively new to GIMP.
> -Xis


I am SO sorry I wasn't able to see this and respond in a timely fashion. If you are still following the thread, the best way to find brushes for GIMP is to go to deviantart.com and do a search on "gimp brushes". There are a TON of great artists on deviantart who are creating brushes for both Photoshop and GIMP. I'm sure you can find a set of watercolor brushes there. Thanks for reading my thread and using my tutorials!

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## Barlg

Thank you so much for this transcript and "translation" to GIMP.  :Smile:

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