Personal Commission: Meteor Crater Lake river system wilderness region

[Gamerprinter]

So I just completed a personal commission for a gamer I've done maps for over the years. This is a regional map featuring an ancient meteor crater that is now a filled lake fed by seven rivers, with the western river draining it to the sea. This is just a base map that the commissioner will be labeling himself as he builds a world based on this. The lake is about 60 km across with about a dozen villages and a river pirate town along it's banks. A permanent arcane storm sits over the center of the lake, presumably caused by arcane influences of meteor remnants at the bottom.

I created this using Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 365 ($49), a vector drawing program like Adobe Illustrator - the program I use to create the bulk of my maps. This only took me about an hour and a half to create.

GP

[Tiana]

Neat. Looks more 3D than vector to me though, did you use some kind of bevel layer style? By the way, there's a commission request for a vector map right now, maybe you want to apply for it if you didn't already.

[Gamerprinter]

Xara's bevel tools are among the best. Photoshop has a maximum bevel, which is pretty small, just at the edge. Xara lets me bevel to the center of any shape, thus applying a full bevel, such as the mountains on the top left. It does create the sense of depth, and why I so often use it. Notice the layers of forest shapes stacked that simulate hills and a rise to the highland areas - this using a very slight rounded bevel. Xara has flat bevel (used on the mountains), rounded 1 and rounded 2 bevels. The rise of land to the northwest (under the mountains) uses a rounded 1 bevel, while the forests use rounded 2 bevel (a slighter rounded bevel). There are 2 chiselled bevels, and flat, rounded, ruffle frame bevels - so a wide array of bevel options.

I don't generally take on personal commissions, it's just that I've done work for this guy over the past 4 years, so a regular client for me, so I comply. My time is so limited these days, I hardly take commissions at all, except big clients or regular clients - I have my own maps needs for my own publications, which I can't get to, when doing commission work. So I can see a time when I stop doing commissions altogether. My own publications and projects make more money in the long run to any commission work I do.

GP