Reply With QuoteYW, it Il be interesting to see what you do with it, I'm sure you'll be able to pull it off better then me.Originally Posted by Diamond
Thanks for the mini-tutorial... I think these forests (or a close sibling) will appear on one of my maps soon...
YW, it Il be interesting to see what you do with it, I'm sure you'll be able to pull it off better then me.
I’ve been doing a major rework of the rivers. I’m not finished yet, but I was hoping to get some feedback before going any further. It was sort of a test, I wanted to try, and vary the width a bit to make them seem more natural, but I’m unsure of weather it’s turning out how I’d intended. If I continue in this style I’ll polish them up a bit more, probably tapper out the ends more, and remove a few which I find to be an eye sore at the bottom right corner, and then finish the ones which are missing.
I’m wondering what you guy’s think about the general style, and weather it suits or not, the placement, and the colour choice? Do they stand out too much? Not enough? Or are they just plain ugly?
I think they look pretty good. They do look a little funny coming into and out of the hard lined lakes and coasts, but then I always struggle with river to coast transitions anyways myself without coming up with anything satisfactory.
I think the rivers look lovely, but like Falconius I find the visual effect of them "bumping" into the coast a bit jarring. How would it look if you broke the coastline and turned it in for a very short way up the banks of the rivers, and blended the difference with line thickness and intensity (I have no idea how difficult or easy that would be, remember, since I use CC3+, not Photoshop, so I may just have asked for the near impossible, quite without meaning to!).
Its just an idea - don't worry about it if its not possible, or if it doesn't look right. The most important thing about your map, after all, is that you find it pleasing to look at, because not even the most beautiful map in the world will be to everyone's taste. The trick is in learning not to let it worry you too much. You are talented enough that most will appreciate your work
Free parchments | Free seamless textures | Battle tiles / floor patterns | Room 1024 - textures for CC3 | GUILD CITY INDEX
No one is ever a failure until they give up trying
Thanx Falconius, and mouse. I was struggling with the coast to river transitions, I see this in many maps. Diamond suggested earlier to tone down my coast, which I already plan on doing, just haven't got around to it yet. I'm wondering if I can reach some type of a balance by making the coast more brown like Diamond suggested, and maybe even doing the coast over with a thinner line, and then slightly darkening the rivers???
Like the trees, I was taking inspiration from the Elandaria map for the rivers, and I figured if this map hits the coast like that too, then maybe it would be ok. I was hoping that after doing text, labels, and other things it would draw attention away from the sloppy transition, I find it's hardly noticeable on other maps I've seen with the same issue... But it does bug me.
Mouse - I've seen other maps where they break the coast, and try to transition it like you said, and I find this look even more jarring... I'll have to come up with some type of compromise.
I really like your forest effect, it's nicely subtle, conveys information without grabbing the eye too much. I am gagging for more information about the human landscape though
I have a slight nitpick that your cliffs are a closer shade to your rivers, shouldn't they be the browner tone of the mountains? It's a subtle difference but it made me squint a microsecond longer than I'd like when tracing the rivers.
What created those enormous ranges of inland cliffs? Compared with the scale of the mountains that's some extreme geography you have there.
First of all, the rivers look great. I have been checking this thread regularly lately and you always seem to be unsure of the things you do. Don't be! It's looking great! I think the transitions won't be very noticeable once the map is labeled, but if you really want to do something about them you might try erasing the coastlines with a low opacity eraser around the river mouths. That way you won't break the coastline while breaking the coastline. I have never actually tried this, but it is just something that came to me after reading your last comment. (:
-Dan
No worriesInstinct is always the best leader in matters of art - and your map is a work of art.
Free parchments | Free seamless textures | Battle tiles / floor patterns | Room 1024 - textures for CC3 | GUILD CITY INDEX
No one is ever a failure until they give up trying
Robulous- I’m glad you like the forests, I wasted allot of time finding a style that fit...
As for the cliffs, there not done yet, so far I’ve only done the outlining on them, they will be shaded the same as the mountains, I just haven’t done them yet, so no worries there, it’s pretty easy to do, so I’m in no rush. I really don’t know what created them, I’m no geography buff, I just like the appearance of cliffs on a map so I thought I’d give it a go.
The scale of everything on this map is way off, actually for the size of the area the mountains should really be allot smaller, and the rivers hardly noticeable at all, but I’m not going to change it, so long as I actually finish a map that looks half way descent then I’ll be happy.
I can’t wait to get labels on here, that will be my next challenge, I haven’t come up with any names yet for the rest of the map, so you might be waiting a while to see the human aspect. I have done some testing on border, and text colours tho, and haven’t come up with anything I like so far.
DanielHasenbos – Thank’s, I’m definitely my own worst critic. I think I’ll refrain from breaking the coast in any way, I did however darken my rivers a bit, and I’ll be toning down my coast a little in the near future. Making it brown didn’t work, unless I change all my outlining then that’s not an option anymore, so I’ll probably just turn down the opacity a bit to make it less stark, and call it a day. I’ve been nit picking at this way too much, and I’m winding up spending all my spare time, which isn’t much, doing tests on this thing, then actually getting any work done.
Mouse – Thank’s again, you’ve been a big help throughout this process so far, I always appreciate you’re feedback.
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