And now for something a lil bit different

**Ascension** · 09-29-2008, 08:48 AM

The mountains are very similar to how I usually do 'em. Render some clouds (Photoshop) then with white as the active color: Select > color range > fuzziness = 128 (or as much as 192)...this then selects the lightest half, copy this onto a new layer. Image > adjustments > gradient map = black to white. This puts some black into what was previously white and light gray but adds more white to the lightest pixels, put a black layer under it then merge the 2 layers then run the lighting effects filter. Delete the blackest bits, hide the layer, then repeat the whole process but with the fuzziness set to 64 or 32. So what I'm doing is to actually make mountains 2 parts, like stackable blocks...the first part creates the lower half, sort of like a flat mesa and the second part creates the peaks. Then some layer styles and colors to finish off.

**Badger** · 09-29-2008, 09:09 AM

Gotcha... I'm gonna have to play around with maybe get me some mountains that look decent

**Jkaen** · 09-29-2008, 09:41 AM

Just a minor nitpcik I only just noticed (because I was trying to work out how to do the very same effect myself) but is the numbering on the longitude and latitude lines wrong?

ie, shouldn't the numbers on the left of the map match the numbers on the same line on the right, rather than having the axis reversed?

**Ascension** · 09-29-2008, 04:44 PM

I don't really know if there is a correct way. The first way I did it has all of the numbers on 1 layer then I just copy it 3 times and rotate them. I did it this way so that the 200 on the horizontal would be near the 200 on the vertical instead of 1800. Ideally these numbers should actually be degrees in latitude and longitude but since I'm not smart enough to do the math I just made it into miles. If anyone knows how many degrees are in 2000 earth miles then I could fix that quite easily and the whole problem goes away

**Karro** · 09-30-2008, 09:46 AM

It's a beautiful looking map! I love the style!

I particularly like your subtle and interesting borders.

My only critique: I count at least 5 distinct fonts used in different capacities in the map, and that's a little busy, typographically. In particularly, some fonts are easier to decipher than others on this map. (The fonts that look like medieval black/gothic calligraphy are the most difficult to discern. For instance, the title of the map looks like "The Bands of [something]yarthein"... I have no idea what the first letter of "-yarthein" is supposed to be; maybe an "N", maybe an "A", maybe something else. This comes up a lot with the ornate capitals of black/gothic calligraphy. The same problem is repeated in some of the regional country names; I can't quite read several of them.)

I think I read a rule of thumb once (possibly even somewhere on this site) to restrict the number of distinct fonts used in something like this to around 3, with variations on those (size, boldness, etc.) for any additional subheadings needed.

**Ascension** · 09-30-2008, 04:59 PM

Oy, I had no idea about that font stuff, I just wanted each different type of label (city, country, ocean, etc) to have its own font as well as its own color or opacity. I guess I just wasted a whole night last night adding in more labels so I'll redo that tonight. As fas as that N goes, it bugged me as well so I changed the font and the spelling last night. I'll put up a wip once I get the re-fonting done as well as some other new additions.

**Ascension** · 09-30-2008, 08:03 PM

Ok here are some updates. Added in more labels, then fixed/refonted them, redid the title banner, made some lil icons for interesting places (like towns, villages, forts, towers, temples, and shrines), added minor trade routes, added the compass, changed the mile markings into degrees of lat/long, added a frame and some other stuff I can't remember right now.

I didn't label everything because I didn't want the map to be overwhelmed with text at this smaller size, when I move on to making my normal larger maps everything gets a label. Not sure I'm happy with the icons yet but there is only so much info you can put into a 20 X 20 pixel brush. On larger maps I might hijack some of the symbols from CC3 (I have a contact sheet jpg).

Fonts used: Agincourt for the main title and country names, AL Afternoon Delight for cites and stuff, and Aramis for everything else (roads, rivers, oceans, etc.).

--PS: If some things are hard to read then zoom in to 200%.