Pretoria - WIP

[alizarine]

I wouldn't say this looks amateurish, I'd say it looks like a preliminary map! I like the shapes & placement of the landmasses, although the coastlines seem a bit over-scraggy (sorry 'bout the lack of better language). I know smooth coastlines are a bad idea, but yours just seem too rough.

For your mountains, I woud suggest using a rough brush (if you want, I could upload a couple I like using) on a very low opacity setting (not in the brushes panel - see along the top of Photoshop, there's an option to change opacity and flow). Just click multiple (okay, a dang lot of) times in the mountain areas to build up your mountains. Incidentally, I'm kinda talking based on the idea you'd use something like Pasis' terrain tutorial like I did ^.^ If you're not, it's still a viable option; you could also manipulate DEM files in photoshop to build up your map - this would be a lot of work and would be more satellite style, so I dunno what you want this map to look like in the end. Oh, and I also like the placement of your mountains - dunno if you figured out where they'd "really" be based on totally analytic "real-world" geographic stuff (like tectonics) but they appear to be pretty well placed. Good luck!

- Alizarine

[SereneParadox]

I wouldn't say this looks amateurish, I'd say it looks like a preliminary map! I like the shapes & placement of the landmasses, although the coastlines seem a bit over-scraggy (sorry 'bout the lack of better language). I know smooth coastlines are a bad idea, but yours just seem too rough.

For your mountains, I woud suggest using a rough brush (if you want, I could upload a couple I like using) on a very low opacity setting (not in the brushes panel - see along the top of Photoshop, there's an option to change opacity and flow). Just click multiple (okay, a dang lot of) times in the mountain areas to build up your mountains. Incidentally, I'm kinda talking based on the idea you'd use something like Pasis' terrain tutorial like I did ^.^ If you're not, it's still a viable option; you could also manipulate DEM files in photoshop to build up your map - this would be a lot of work and would be more satellite style, so I dunno what you want this map to look like in the end. Oh, and I also like the placement of your mountains - dunno if you figured out where they'd "really" be based on totally analytic "real-world" geographic stuff (like tectonics) but they appear to be pretty well placed. Good luck!

- Alizarine

I totally agree on the coastlines, although I hadn't noticed it previously. I used Ascension's incredible and simple cloud technique to generate the landmasses so perhaps I should direct the question of how to "de-scraggify" the coastlines to him. If you're reading this, A, let me know if you have a quickfix handy

As for the mountains, I love Pasis' technique but I don't think it would suit this map very well. It's trying to be an "antique style" map (although I know I've practically ruined this by colouring the rivers and a plethora of other factors -- it makes it easier to use as my campaign map) and I don't think I want to take it in a 3d direction so I think that "raising" the mountains would look out of place. Sorta like looking at something from a 45 degree angle but seeing the mountains from a 90 degree angle (top down). Thanks for the compliments on the mountain placement too, I had studied plate tectonics a little for some previous (really crappy) mapping efforts and for this one, I basically guestimated placement based on what "looked right" and I'm glad it looked right to you too.

Thanks so much for the constructive criticism, it's much appreciated and if you come up with any other strategies for the mountains or other suggestions, I'm all ears.

SP.