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Thread: The Land of Tereden

  1. #1
    Guild Applicant LeonaWindrider's Avatar
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    Map The Land of Tereden

    Hi! After introducing myself, I had to come here to show off my map of the Land of Tereden, which was made for my husband's fantasy novel series. Originally hand-drawn, the final line art was done in Photoshop, as was the rest of the map.

    If anyone has any constructive critiques, I'd love to hear them -- I'm really interested in improving in this field!

    Thank you for taking a look
    ~Leona
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  2. #2
    Community Leader Torq's Avatar
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    Great map Leona. I really love the style and the feel of it, authentic and ancient and yet at the same time clear and communicative.

    There is a place called "Wynberg" in the top centre of the map. Thats weird, its also the name of the suburb in which I live.

    Well done again.

    Torq
    The internet! It\'ll never catch on.

    Software Used: Terranoise, Wilbur, Terragen, The Gimp, Inkscape, Mojoworld

  3. #3

    Praise

    I also like the feel of the map. It's simplicity speaks for itself with calm colors.

    The only critique I personally have, is the actual symbols for the cities and capital cities. I always liked to just have a dot to show for it.

    I find that little pictures of cities like this throws the scale of the map off a little bit.

    Again, this is the only critique I have, and it is speaking from a personal preference.

    This is indeed a great map!

  4. #4

    Post

    Here are my thoughts (in no particular order):

    I love the texture of the map - it almost seems to glow. I also love the individual mountain symbols. The font choice, size, placement and orientation (except for Amber Valley - not sure why it's at an angle) really works for me as well. I like your convention of naming cities and towns in all caps and terrain features in upper and lowercase.

    A scale bar might be useful (although if this is accompanying a book, distance information might become apparent from reading the book itself)

    Do the mountains, forests and rivers symbols need an explanation in the legend? In fact the only symbol which I don't understand (maybe they're fields or steppes) are the large cross hatches above the text for the Southvale Expanse. The symbols in the Westwood Wastelands and Amber Valley also don't appear in the legend. I'd suggest either putting all or none of the symbols in the key.

    We've recently been having a chat about rivers on this thread and this thread . Worth having a read but the potted version is that rivers don't (or very rarely) fork, instead they merge. This needs to balanced against the fact that it's a fantasy map and weird things happen in fantasy worlds. That led onto a wider discussion on the extent to which fantasy terrain should follow natural laws. Nonetheless the rivers in the map do some extremely funky things - there's one (Moroth river) which cuts across the entire continent and has a triple fork in the middle.

    Anyway all these are tiny points on what is a lovely, visually pleasing map. Great work!

    Ravs

  5. #5

    Post

    LeonaWindrider - Welcome to the Guild. I, too, really like your map. While I definitely understand your desire to improve, this map, right now, is as good as some I've seen in published works.

  6. #6
    Guild Expert Eilathen's Avatar
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    I really like the style as well. But i second what ravells said: a scale bar would be nice.

    I am not very fond of the shape, the form of your continent? Island? It just seems a bit bland to me. But then, that is always a matter of taste.

    Oh and last but not least: Great to have you here on CG
    I'm trapped in Darkness,
    Still I reach out for the Stars

  7. #7
    Community Leader pyrandon's Avatar
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    I'm so glad you're here, Leona.

    This map is wonderful. I will echo the critiques listed above re: the legend, the shape of the island, etc.

    As for Photoshop use, I think this is very well done except it contains no texture. It appears to be a white map under a yellow light, and I think this is because the paper has no depth, irregularities, or other authentic features. Have you ever thought of running a verrrry slight texturizer filter on it (ex: even sandstone), or perhaps of overlaying a scanned in piece of thick paper or cloth? (Or, if you want to get really crazy, you could use a displacement map, too, but that's perhaps over the top.)

    Overall, this is a great map. Very well done.
    Don
    My gallery is here
    __________________________________________________ _______
    "Keep your mind in hell, but despair not." --Saint Silouan [1866-1938]

  8. #8

    Post

    Nice map Leona (and welcome to the guild!)

    "The mother and the Son" - I really like that name

    My only gripe is (as ravs pointed out) the rivers. I am a bit river anal though, so take anything I rant about rivers with grain of salt. Your worst offense with rivers is that they cut clean across the island! Where does the water come from and which way does it flow? They also cut clean through mountain ranges in two cases.

    But I really like your style!

    -Rob A>

  9. #9
    Community Leader RPMiller's Avatar
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    "river anal" should be "River retentive" Am I going to have to slap your... hand.
    Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.

    Please make an effort to tag all threads. This will greatly enhance the usability of the forums.



  10. #10

    Post

    Gorgeous! I really like the style of this map. I didn't notice the rivers, but I did wonder what those grid-like shapes were. The only new thing I have to add is that the label for the Crimson Mountains is obscured by the mountains themselves. All the other labels are placed on open land, limiting the interference of other lines.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

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