Thread: World Map WIP - Comments?

The snow already looks much better up in the northern left-hand range. I'm not sure I like the lines, they take my eyes of your beautiful continent and that annoys me.^^ It's hard to say what exactly I do not like in them... Don't know, maybe it's just me, but they remind me of those annoying "watermarks" (on Deviantart for example), if you know what I mean...

I agree with Lyandra about the lines. That said, if you are using layers, I think the problem would be fixed by simply placing them beneath the continent. I have seen lines in the ocean that look cool, but they don't cut over the land. I think moving them down a layer (or as many layers as necessary) so that they only show over the water would help a lot.

Excellent comments and suggestions. I've moved the lines to just above the base ocean coloring, and by playing with fill/opacity I think it looks much better. I can also continue to tweak them until there are no objections to their appearance. I'll be working on the snow lines next as well as attempting a scale and possibly a compass. I'll update this post when I have the next stage ready. I just wanted to again say thank you for all of the constructive criticism and suggestions. This has been a great first experience here.

{EDIT}
Ok, here is the next round.



* Lowered the lines to background.
* Some more work on snow caps.
* A little more texture work on/around some mountains.
* Re-sized Ocean Names
* Added World Name plate, Compass and Scale

The map is turning out very nice!

Yeah, I think that is much better.

The map looks way better now, especially the lines and the snow caps. This is going to be an awesome piece when finished. It looks so great, that for now I have no new advice to give.

Lovely work. I agree with the above comments. I also really dig the font.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Another update. I had to do a lot of ocean work after expanding the width of the image. Added names to the latitudes, changed order/color of ocean names and added the continental divider line on the main continent. I'm not sure how the border looks or the other changes. I've looked at it for too long. I'd appreciate some thoughts.

Ok, so now that I've played with the basics of the process, I now need to refine the process. I'd like to make the map at a proper 2:1 aspect ratio (likely 4000x2000 at 300dpi). I want to address the fact that the people pointed out that main land mass ended up looking too much like N. America. I also noticed that the scale of terrain on the map is way off. For instance most of the volcanic mountains are more than 1,000 miles in diameter. Also, the mountain ranges are simply too large. The Rockies are only 3,000 miles long and only up to about 300 miles wide, yet this map has multiple ranges that size or larger (much larger in width). This map might work well for a smaller scaled continent or island, but overall I don't think it works as well at the full world scale it was meant to be, so back to the drawing board. I'll post as I have updates with the new map.