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Thread: Tephra WIP - Critiques Requested

  1. #1
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    Wip Tephra WIP - Critiques Requested

    Hey y'all - it's my first post in a while. I'm pretty sure I've just been a lurker for the past year. In any case, I come asking for your expert opinions.

    This is my world map that I've recently been re-adjusting. I was rather unhappy with the previous styles I was using and decided to go with something a little more fanciful, less pseudo-realistic. This map is heavily a work-in-progress. The central continent has a whole truckload of lore to go with it, but the rest of the continents we're still playing with.

    I just want to know what y'all think - am I going in a good direction, should some things be altered, what's good and what's bad?



    To note, I've used the following tutorials:
    - How to Make a Flag: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elem...ement-map.html
    - Tapering Rivers by Arcana: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2711
    - ISO Mountains by jfrazierjr: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3717
    - Antique Maps by Ascension: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3806
    - Making Maps by jezelf: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2557
    - I think my compass rose was inspired by GamerPrinter's map, which he posted at the CBG.

    Currently I'm debating on whether I want to add trees or not, and if so, how. I've tried about a half-dozen different styles of portraying trees on this map, and I don't care for any of them yet. I've also reconsidering the flags. Perhaps it's just the way they're displayed right now that I don't care for.

    In any case, I would love your critiques! Thanks
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  2. #2
    Guild Artisan Hoel's Avatar
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    Trees in the same style as the mountains should be quite simple i think...
    And about the flags, have you thought about making a shadow? Not a drop shadow but a 3d shadow, so they look like flag pins in the map?

  3. #3
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    I like your style so far, but would suggest adding more texture to your base layer, and reducing the size of the flags. Nice work.

  4. #4
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    There are some tree brushes here, not sure of the thread but there are some in the Elements subforum. Nice map, I'd remove the flagsticks and keep the flags, maybe lower the opacity a bit so they fit the color scheme...dunno, will have to think on that.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  5. #5
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jharviss View Post
    Hey y'all - it's my first post in a while. I'm pretty sure I've just been a lurker for the past year. In any case, I come asking for your expert opinions.

    This is my world map that I've recently been re-adjusting. I was rather unhappy with the previous styles I was using and decided to go with something a little more fanciful, less pseudo-realistic. This map is heavily a work-in-progress. The central continent has a whole truckload of lore to go with it, but the rest of the continents we're still playing with.

    I just want to know what y'all think - am I going in a good direction, should some things be altered, what's good and what's bad?



    To note, I've used the following tutorials:
    - How to Make a Flag: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elem...ement-map.html
    - Tapering Rivers by Arcana: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2711
    - ISO Mountains by jfrazierjr: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3717
    - Antique Maps by Ascension: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3806
    - Making Maps by jezelf: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2557
    - I think my compass rose was inspired by GamerPrinter's map, which he posted at the CBG.

    Currently I'm debating on whether I want to add trees or not, and if so, how. I've tried about a half-dozen different styles of portraying trees on this map, and I don't care for any of them yet. I've also reconsidering the flags. Perhaps it's just the way they're displayed right now that I don't care for.

    In any case, I would love your critiques! Thanks
    Nice start there! Thanks for listing the threads you used. Please be sure to rate the threads based on how useful they were and if rep the authors also if you wish.

    Since you are the only person I have heard from to directly use my ISO tutorial in a project, I am going to rep ya!
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  6. #6

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    I think your map style is great! I did note a couple of things you might want to fix:

    The river flowing from the lake in Kormany shouldn't be so thin, I can't even tell if the line fully connects or not.

    The lines around the the land get a little bit too blocky at points, especially around some small island chains, where it looks like a bunch of octagons slammed down on each other. Can you have them keep the rough shape of the coast a little longer to prevent that?

    You'll want to move Xanalau's label to outside the continent unless it's uninhabited, but I bet that was your plan.

    Finally, and this might be a complete non-issue to you, but it seems a little odd that Ismora is so isolated from continents and NEW Ismora is right by Rilausia. Is it just that Ismora is the Old World and Rilausia is the New World?

    I would DEFINITELY add trees, and I can't wait to see a fully-mapped world!

  7. #7

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    Welcome to the Guild, Legendary! Why don't you wander over to the Member Introductions forum and tell us a bit about yourself?

    I like this style quite a lot; I think you're on to a good thing here. For the trees, I'd do some nice side-view tree symbols and scatter them sparsely around the map, like the one attached below. It's tiny, but you can see a couple of places where four or five tree symbols indicate a forest.

    The compass rose is rather jagged. I'd retrace it so that the lines are nice and smooth like the rest of the map.

    edit: one further thing. To fix the end of that river coming out of the lake in Kormany, you could move it to the center of the lake, so that the width of the river is wider as it comes out.
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    Last edited by Midgardsormr; 01-05-2009 at 12:34 PM.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

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