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Thread: Hello

  1. #1
    Guild Novice
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    Map Hello

    Hello !

    Ever since I had started playing RPGs - roughly 25 years ago - I have been fascinated with maps. Thats influenced because I am a strategist at heart. So I have always dreamed about a fully free digital map of the world I play in, which could be zoomed in without limitations. Sadly that isnt really possible with todays technology, but thanks to the tutorials and help I have found here over the last two weeks I have arrived at a compromise that seems to work atm. This "compromise" is done in Photoshop atm and its a 70*70 cm 300 dpi map of a corner of Forgotten Realms ... 1.74 GB ... but I am not really done yet. Needless to say the file takes about 15 minutes to save and I would have done the whole world map, but PS didnt let me.

    When the geography is done I am thinking about trying to put the whole thing into a Campaign Cartographer map so CC3 can handle the towns, roads and labels on the map for different scales.

    So far most of it looks great, but I couldnt even have started it without your help. There are still some things that could look better and others which I havent solved the looks problem of. The mountains look nice and 3D-ish, but I need to do something similar with the cliffs and ridges or it will look funny. Also since the mountains look 3D-ish I have to improve the forest, plains and water again to make them look less flat. So the work still isnt done by far and maybe CC3 can help there ...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails sneak preview.psd  
    If you cant say what youre meaning,
    you can never mean what youre saying.

    - Centauri Minister of Intelligence, Babylon 5

    Software used: mostly Photoshop, but icons may come from CC3.

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Welcome Aboard!

    I hereby banish your 'Blue Pip O'Anonimity' *bonk*
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



  3. #3
    Community Leader NeonKnight's Avatar
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    Welcome to the Guild!
    Daniel the Neon Knight: Campaign Cartographer User

    Never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice!

    Any questions on CC3? Post them with CC3 in the Subject Line!
    MY 'FAMOUS' CC3 MAPS: Thunderspire; Pyramid of Shadows; King of the Trollhaunt Warrens; Demon Queen's Enclave

  4. #4

    Praise Nice map!

    Nice first map post! You seem to have gotten a good handle on the techniques you've learned here. Those mountains are nice!

    Have some REP (be the first to receive a +5 bonk from my Rep stick.)

    Welcome to the guild and keep learning our secrets...

    GP
    Gamer Printshop Publishing, Starfinder RPG modules and supplements, Map Products, Map Symbol Sets and Map Making Tutorial Guide
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    Artstation Gallery - Maps and 3D illustrations

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamerprinter View Post
    Nice first map post! You seem to have gotten a good handle on the techniques you've learned here. Those mountains are nice!
    Thank you.

    To be honest that was just a result of fiddling around and being lucky I think, hehe. I always say: "Good ideas cant be rushed, they just come overnight when youre not thinking about it!" so its still a few nights of sleep for me there to get those ideas to be happy about it.
    If you cant say what youre meaning,
    you can never mean what youre saying.

    - Centauri Minister of Intelligence, Babylon 5

    Software used: mostly Photoshop, but icons may come from CC3.

  6. #6

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    Hi Pandora and welcome to the Guild. That's a really great start you have there. Take a look at the software links if you're thinking of getting CC3 - (see my sig) there's lots of useful information there in coming to a decision.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by ravells View Post
    Hi Pandora and welcome to the Guild. That's a really great start you have there. Take a look at the software links if you're thinking of getting CC3 - (see my sig) there's lots of useful information there in coming to a decision.
    I already have CC3 (weirdest story there ... it arrived a few years after I ordered it ...) and I will have to use it for putting in the "civilization" into the map since I am too close to the limit of document size for Photoshop. I find the way of adding mountains or filling an area with texture much too tedious and not really "intuitive" in CC3, but the scaleability of icons is going to be great - I hope - for the "zoomable map" I want to create. Photoshop allows me much more freedom with the fills and patterns through the layer masks since I can simply paint with an X% opacity brush and erase with the next stroke and the results there arent as "perfectly filled" as CC3 stuff.

    Update on the map:
    The plains arent as plain anymore due to adding two pattern layers: One for rocky / dry / infertile and another for fertile areas. The first is a simple "carpet pattern" from Photoshop and the other is a detailed tree pattern from pedrov. Both are added sparingly and the rocky one combines nicely with my hills. Maybe I find a decent alternative for pedrov's fill, because it does look too much like forest when the intensity goes up.

    I also noticed that the water had been looking like it was above the coastline, so thats another little error gone now.
    If you cant say what youre meaning,
    you can never mean what youre saying.

    - Centauri Minister of Intelligence, Babylon 5

    Software used: mostly Photoshop, but icons may come from CC3.

  8. #8
    Professional Artist Turgenev's Avatar
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    Welcome to the Guild, Pandora. Very nice start with your map.
    Cheers,
    Tim

    Paratime Design Cartography

    "Do infants have as much fun in infancy as adults do in adultery?" - Groucho Marx

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