First World Map - Saderan Tutorial Technique

[bitbyter]

Well this is my first completed worldmap so far. I have tried a few other styles and tutorials but this one has worked out the best for me so far (thanks Tear!!). I am pretty happy with it so far but it still needs some work. Mainly the mountains need to redone to make them stand out more as the overall effect has turned out to soft. Other things to do:

1. Map border
2. Ocean floor texture rework
3. Labels
4. Navigation lines like Tears example (Saderan)
5. Magical storm / whirlpool effect for centre of map area (location pretty obvious)

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

World Map.jpg

[Slylok]

it looks awesome bitbyter! the only thing i would suggest at this point is to soften the outline of the land masses. it seems a bit hard compared to the rest of the map in my humble opinion. Keep it up

[bitbyter]

Thanks!. Yeah I think I'm going to try to make everything harder / more defined. The overall effect came out a little to soft. Still a work in progress but I definately like the results from this tutorial.

[arakish]

Is that center feature the result of a meteor strike? Just wondering because there should be a ring of mountains around its entirety. It looks like there are only mountains to the northwest.

If not a meteor strike, then ignore the above.

Nice looking map so far.

rmfr

[bitbyter]

The centre feature is from an ongoing magical cataclysmic event / storm. I haven't quite figured out how I want to illustrate the effect. The islands around the circumference are mountainous islands but it is hard to tell because my mountain effects came out much to soft (something I'm going to work on).

[jtougas]

This is very cool. A good example of story driven mapping

[bitbyter]

Well it has been on again, off again with this project and I think I am finally satisfied. I can't believe it took me two years to finally get this project done. The campaign building that goes along with this map has progressed very far in those two years but I couldn't really get any further without a completed map. I should have a political version done soon with all the relevant kingdoms, city states and countries on it. I know that the clouds are a little much but I am using them more as a fog of war effect to conceal unknown portions of the world from my players.

I only have one portion of the map incomplete. Under the label "The Maelstrom" I need an effect to represent an active magical dimensional rift / vortex of some sort. If someone could suggest a way of creating one or point me to a tutorial that might suit my needs I'd appreciate it.

Xodara.jpg

[Wingshaw]

This is a really nice map. The clouds are pretty strong, but, personally, I like them a lot. I wouldn't suggest changing them or peeling them back at all. An idea occurs to me for your maelstrom - I don't know if this has been tried, but could you just put a rip/burn in a piece of paper and then photograph/scan it and paste it across the required area? Might not be the effect your going for, but I think it'd really stand out.

[amberroberts09]

Nice Map.. I would really appreciate it.

[arsheesh]

Well that turned out nicely! The compass rose is very interesting. For some reason the black of the compass rose and title don't seem to me to mesh that well to me with your overall color palette. I wonder what it would look like with a rich brown color...

Overall though I like it. Great work.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh