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Thread: Tesset Gallí

  1. #41
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    Could you perhaps share your setup? What brush-styles do you use to get such great, crisp lines for your mountains, rivers, forests, and coasts? Programs and image settings (resolution, etc.)? Thanks for posting this process, a lot of helpful input!

  2. #42
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Hi Frenchie, thanks for asking.

    My setup is actually quite simple. Hardware-wise I'm using a (pretty old) Windows laptop and a (so old they no longer make them) Wacom Bamboo tablet. On the software side everything in this map is done with Photoshop CC.

    About brushes: I'm not a big fan of those fancy schmancy brushes that tend to promise more than they deliver. Tried them in the past - didn't like them. So in this map I've been experimenting with simple round brushes only. For the coastline I went for a 3 px 0% hardness brush without shape dynamics. The little squigglies that lend some depth to the coastline DO have shape dynamics activated, however: a minimum diameter of 33% (or 1 px) with control set to pen pressure. This allows variable thickness without going too thin. I used a 4 px, 0% hardness brush for the mountains, again with stroke thickness set to pen pressure (25% in this case). Once the mountains were finished, I discovered the strokes are in fact a bit too thick to my taste, so I reverted back to using a 3px, 0% hardness 33% diameter brush for everything else (no way in hell was I gonna redo the mountains ). I think I'll use the same brush for the mountains as well in my future maps, though I might still experiment a bit (or a lot) with the minimum diameter settings.

    And that's all there is to it! At least regarding the linework. For the shading and colouring I'm still very much in a testing phase, I'm afraid. The results are acceptable at this point, but there's not much consistency yet when it comes to the brushes I used. One thing I learned from Max's mini tut on mountain shading is to set the brush opacity to pen pressure (and don't toggle the minimum diameter in that case!). It lends your strokes a waterpaint-ish quality that I rather like. I used it for every non-linework stroke you can see: shading, background, forest colour etc.

    And that's all! Linework and fill, it's all a matter of experimenting until you get something you like, and then consistently keep doing it until your map is finished. Which mine still isn't by a long shot, so I guess I have some work to do .
    Last edited by Caenwyr; 03-07-2016 at 01:02 AM.
    Caenwyr Cartography


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  3. #43
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Alright, another update! And long due too.

    I finished the micro-terrain, drew in some canyon ridges in the dessert and shaded... well, everything, from the forests over the land squigglies to the rivers .

    Teset Gari 18.jpg

    I believe my colouring and shading is done now! Unless of course you guys have some remarks, which I'll be glad to take care of.
    Caenwyr Cartography


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  4. #44

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    Just keeps getting better.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh

  5. #45
    Guild Expert DanielHasenbos's Avatar
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    After I read your first post I thought this would be an interesting thread, yet somehow I never got back to it ;p It's looking great so far! You really caught that style you were aiming for, at least in my opinion. Keep it up!

    -Dan

  6. #46
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Lingon's Avatar
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    Splendid I still think the forest texture (and now, also the microterrain, which is another interesting term by the way!) is too evenly spread out, and if you'd erase a few at random, it'll give a more natural appearance. I also wonder if the desert ridges would look better with slightly thinner lines, more like the micro stuff, they are very similar to the rivers right now!

    It is already a great map though, I'm really just nitpicking now

  7. #47
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    Looks nice Caerwyn! Though I agree with Lingon about the evenly spread of micro details and trees tops in forests. The overall colors are also a bit dark (especially if you're going to print it).

  8. #48
    Administrator ChickPea's Avatar
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    It's looking great, Caenwyr!
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"

  9. #49
    Guild Artisan Warlin's Avatar
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    Great map Caerwyn. I envy your coloring skills .

  10. #50

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    Looks great! I am not the biggest fan of the spikes indicating coniferous trees, personally. I also wonder if some more gradual shading would look better - right now, to my eye, the three-dimensionality of it seems like all the rivers are incised into the land by the same amount. It looks to me almost like the land consists of tiles, with the borders at the rivers. Does that make sense?
    Last edited by jshoer; 03-14-2016 at 05:02 PM.

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