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Thread: [WIP] Topographic Map

  1. #1
    Professional Artist cereth's Avatar
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    Post [WIP] Topographic Map

    Here is a new project I've been working on. I'm pretty new with photoshop still so I'm kinda fumbling my way through it. The terrain itself was generated in Fractal Terrains, and now I'm going through an making the map in photoshop. I'm trying for a style similar to what HandsomeRob makes, but am trying to put my own twist on it.

    What I'm going for is a heavily detailed map you'd expect to find in an atlas or history book. I'm still in the process of working on the rivers, which I'm finding is fairly time consuming. I let fractal terrains tell me where to put the rivers and now I'm going in and re-tracing them by hand.

    I'm not real sure about the colors and stuff yet. I think I might make the land colors a little lighter and the rivers a little darker. I also plan to go in and paint some of the land features as well (forests, etc) but just wanted to use the fractal terrains generated colors to give myself a base.

    Anyways, here is where I am so far.
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  2. #2
    Guild Journeyer Alecthar's Avatar
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    I like it quite a bit, though your ocean colors seem odd to my eyes. I generally associated the darker colors with further out to sea, whereas yours are kinda the reverse. I suppose that's part of the realistic atlas-type look.

    Other than that, though, very cool.
    "Unless I'm allowed to carry around a gun to shoot their giant killer-spiders, Australia needs to stay the hell away from me. Also Australians, who if they have lived this long are obviously agents of the spiders and not to be trusted."

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    That long mtn chain in the NW is kind of wonky looking but otherwise this is some really good stuff. The bay looks like an awesome place for a pitched broadside battle.
    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.
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    Administrator waldronate's Avatar
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    Sometimes I think I should have gone ahead and put in the effort to get the image climate shader working like I wanted to instead of just doing the cheesy thing that ended up in the software. Ah well...

    One way to avoid the overly-smooth mountain chains that FT editing tends to generate is to use the selection tool to generate a squiggly area and then Tools>>Actions>>Create Profiled Mound From Selection. The result is analogous to the shapeburst algorithm in popular image editing tools.

  5. #5
    Professional Artist cereth's Avatar
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    Here's an updated image of what I've been working on. It is a cropped image of the map at full resolution. I've done some extensive work on the coastline and the rivers. Outlining the rivers like this is pretty time consuming but i think I like the effect. Let me know what you think.
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  6. #6
    Professional Artist cereth's Avatar
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    I'm finally finished with the rivers. I think I'm going to start painting in land features now. This is the map so far at full resolution.
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  7. #7
    Guild Artisan LonewandererD's Avatar
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    hey this map is looking great. nice work

    one small thing though, the mountains in the NW corner look a little out of place, but other than that, way to go

  8. #8
    Guild Expert Greason Wolfe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by waldronate View Post
    Sometimes I think I should have gone ahead and put in the effort to get the image climate shader working like I wanted to instead of just doing the cheesy thing that ended up in the software. Ah well...

    One way to avoid the overly-smooth mountain chains that FT editing tends to generate is to use the selection tool to generate a squiggly area and then Tools>>Actions>>Create Profiled Mound From Selection. The result is analogous to the shapeburst algorithm in popular image editing tools.
    Lords, I never even thought of that, what a great solution!

    As for the map in question, it's looking pretty good to me. I won't harp on what others have already mentioned, but it looks like you're definitely headed in the right direction. Look forward to seeing more as you continue to progress.

    GW
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  9. #9
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Coming along nicely...
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  10. #10
    Professional Artist cereth's Avatar
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    I'll have to fiddle with those mountains a little I guess since the common consesus seems to be that they are distracting. I wanted some impassable, very extreme mountains there but I guess maybe I went too far. :-)

    Thanks for the input.
    "Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government."

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