Voradin WIP

[Tom_Cardin]

Now that my Wilderlands of Lords map is done, I am beginning my next mapping project.

This is the Empire of Voradin. It is my most recent campaign setting and up till now has only existed as a series of quickly drawn maps made before and during games.

Here are the maps I scanned in: An overall map of the lands of Voradin, A detailed map of the area around Ganlan City, Ganlan City detail and Voradin City detail. Again these maps just contain the bare information the adventurers needed.

[Tom_Cardin]

Now that I have it digital I have begun by zooming out a bit from my full map drawing to show a bit more of the world and just detailing in the coastline and my ocean graphic treatment. The ocean is mostly hand painted on top of a water texture I made.

[Tom_Cardin]

reworked my ocean and coast. Had some fun with alpha channel and stroked selections, ended up with this:<close up>

[Ramah]

Nice coastline. I like that effect a lot.

[Steel General]

Looking good so far...

[Tom_Cardin]

Ramah - Thank you! I like to vary the contours between smooth and jagged and textures in between.

Steel General - Thank you!

Now for my next update I have added mountains and snow...oh so much more to do, but its coming along.

[Ascension]

Huge tracts of...mountains. Sweet.

[Lathorien]

woooo I like the Ice Caps, the transition from snow to stone is a little clearer and realistic than I usually see, how did you do the selection/mask and fill?

[Tom_Cardin]

Ascension - Yes this land is dominated by some enormous mountains where many things lurk. I modeled them in 3d and blended them and tweaked them in photoshop to blend them to the rest of the land.

Lathorien - Glad you like the snow effect. I painted them in several layers, building up the bright areas and the cool areas of shadow. Then used a small scatter brush of solid white to bring out highlights and more details. No masking or filling, just hand painting them with a stylus, very loosely.

Again I am trying to really do justice to the life of the campaign that gave this land birth in my imagination, as with my Wilderlands of Lords map I am using this as an opportunity to learn and improve. And I am really motivated and inspired by the fine works of cartographic art done by the folks here. You guys all rock!

[Gidde]

Huge tracts of...mountains. Sweet.

But all I want to do is ... sing! hehe...

This is looking great. I too love the ice caps, thanks for explaining how you got there