March Challenge Entry : Serpent Isles

When This challenge Idea first came up ,I remarked That I was fairly confident that I didn't Have the Talent to submit a respectable entry !! I may have been wrong !? :?:While viewing a video tutorial on "Half tones" I realized I could probably use it for this competition Making a detailed texture and still meet the criteria of Black and White. Although there appears to be greys in the map It is actually a trick of the eye! As the ratio of Black to White gets higher the Eye perceives it as a darker shade of grey and visa-verso. Hai-Etlik's Entry uses different patterns which have a similar effect. My patterns are just smaller! Much Smaller. The mountains are Probably place holders And I am looking through my Fonts for a more Serpent like look. Still have much to do Labels ocean waves. island labels etc. But I think I can get something Presentable worked out.
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My don't that thumbnail look like crap :P

The "Serpent Isles" are located Due South of the Continent of Alteir roughly along the equator. The common misconception is that the name comes from fact that the chain's basic shape resembles that of a half submerged Sea Serpent. In actuality the name came from the fact that islands are over run with every type of reptile imaginable. No mammalian life forms exist on the Islands. Reptiles are the predominant species by Far . There is rumored to even be an indigenous sentient reptiloid culture. This is a FACT ! If you believe I am referring to those mythical Lizardmen or Troglydytes . You are Sadly and dangerously mistaken! No my fellow explorers these creatures are far more dangerous than those slow lumbering monstrosities! Much more snake like than lizard like they are lithe, stealthy and wicked fast. Deadly doesn't come close to describing these creatures. Stay away from these Islands at any cost !!
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Attachment 43186

Still have some labeling to do and some touch-ups but she is getting There :)

This would look pretty cool on a screen door, eh?

Very nice half-tone / stippling work and looking forward to seeing it completed. I'm curious, how bit is the image?

Jaxilon : On a screen door Hmmm I don't Know :0 As a silk screen maybe?

ravells : Thanks for the compliment ! How Bit is it ??? :P
Size as a PSD is 38 megs; as a jpeg 18 megs; as a pgn 3 megs. Pixel wise 4200 X 3238. I am not familiar with PNG to much so I don't know how much the quality suffers. Actual size in PS is 14X11 in. at 300 dpi.
Why Do You ask ?? I am ALWAYS open for tips, tricks, Suggestion!

Ah, lol, my typo! I ask because the less you want the stippled gradients to look grainy, the higher the resolution you need - hence my curiosity. I really like what you have so far but no suggestions from me as this is a style of mapping I don't really have much experience with.

ravells : I am losing a lot of quality using the png file formats !:( which of the guild allowable file formats has the best quality to size ratio ?? Thanks in advance !!

I don't know!! I don't know much about how compression and all that stuff works...try sending a PM to Redrobes, he knows a lot about the technical side of things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lostatsea

ravells : I am losing a lot of quality using the png file formats !:( which of the guild allowable file formats has the best quality to size ratio ?? Thanks in advance !!

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PNG is lossless: what you feed in to the PNG encoder is EXACTLY the same as what you get out of the decoder at the other end. If I had to guess, something funny is happening in your software before the PNG output proper.

By the back and forth, I'll assume you know the close up hurts. (My eyes!) :) But the thumbnail looks great. I'll leave it to the pro's here to help you.