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Thread: The Long Night

  1. #1
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Default The Long Night

    Fooling around with another map in the style of my recent Grand Circuit map. This one shows the eastern parts of a Byzantine-like empire (the lands on the west part of the map) which suffered a massive plague, civil war, and social breakdown over the last century, resulting in civilization entering a 'Long Night'. Hey, I like societal breakdown in my fantasy and scifi, what can I say?

    I did some experimenting with a fancy-schmancy border, since all the cool kids are doing it.
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    Looks nice a usual, looking forward to seeing some progress!

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    Guild Expert eViLe_eAgLe's Avatar
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    Looks great, can't wait to see some more.

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    I like the very clean style, is it vector or bitmap?
    I am not sure that the "hatching" (or whatever it was called, the lines to indicated elevation) works very well at this scale.

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    Very nice fancy-schmancy border Coastline looks cool too! It'll be interesting to follow the process behind your Grand Circuit style

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    @feanaaro: It's all photoshop raster-based. As far as the hatching/caterpillars... I like 'em.

    Here's some progress. I added in a title box (that will eventually include a key and scale bar, so I'll probably have to make it a bit deeper), and did the coloration, which is achieved by using multiple difference cloud layers and gradient maps. Also put in some tentative regional names.
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    I really like the colouration, and the layout of the land looks nice and intriguing too.

    I have to agree with feanaaro, though, about the caterpillars. Clearly, as a matter of preference, it's your choice; I tend to find they look a bit mechanical, though, in these maps. Have you tried hand-drawing hatched elevations? I've tried it myself and can say that it takes a really long time but produces nice results.

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    I've tried drawing them freehand, HW, and not only does it take a LONG time, but I just don't like the look as well. This cleaner, more precise look works for me (as well as taking up hours less of my time).

    Here's another update with some aging effects, some text, and a first attempt at putting in some heraldry (going for a kind of pseudo-blueprint look). I think I'm going to change the black text to a lighter brown color; the black is just too dominating, especially on the larger fonts. For the same reason, I think I'm going to weather/age/break up the outer border a bit.
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    I have to agree with TheHoarseWhisperer : your coloring is just perfect for the map !

    I like the pseudo-blueprint look for the shields, it's truly original.

  10. #10
    Guild Expert Guild Supporter Lingon's Avatar
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    Looks fantastic! I'm just not sure about the fold… maybe it's the placement, dead center, I think it cuts the map in half in a way… or maybe it is that the entire lower half is darker, instead of just a shaded crease… not sure, but something about it is bothering me Other that that, it's awesome. The more I look at those land shapes, the more I like them

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