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Thread: Help needed, first campaign map

  1. #1
    Guild Applicant
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    Default Help needed, first campaign map

    Hey people,

    This is my first attempt at making a map, and after the gigantic obstacle called "drawing mountains", the "coloring mountains" is currently holding me up now.
    The plan was at first to create a campaign map, and after that draw zoomed in regions. But when I look at it now, the scale I had in mind is just too big. So, I'd like to hear your opinion.

    Because I thought the mountains of being an utter failure, I removed them in one map to show the differences, and I'd like you to help me drawing mountains that fit in the style of this map, and then to color it accordingly.

    Here are the maps:

    Kamaria with mountains
    Kamaria without the mountains

    Thanks everyone in advance, and I hope to get some nice new ideas from you!

    Greets, Kuldotha

  2. #2
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Perhaps this post of Ramah's mountains extracted into Gimp brushes would help out ?
    Last edited by Redrobes; 07-30-2010 at 08:32 PM.

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    If you did anything more with the mountains then they'd just look busy and fussy. The way you have them gives them a nice appearance and let's them stand out without dominating. The only thing that I'd do is put a light brown underneath them to match the other colors...something not too dark. It gives you you're own style, too. Nice job.
    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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  4. #4
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor Gidde's Avatar
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    Hiya Kuldotha, welcome to the Guild! Mountains are the constant difficulty for many, if not most of us, so don't feel alone in your mountain struggles

    I'd agree with Ascension that all they really need is some matching brown - in fact, you've already got a good start on the coloring there, I'd just make it a more brown and a little darker. As far as the scale goes, it doesn't look like too big of an area to me, but I'm not sure exactly what scale (i.e. miles to pixels/inches) you've got in mind. Slap a scalebar on there and we can give you some better opinions on that.

    All in all, it looks great for a first map, have some rep for putting a map in your first post!

  5. #5
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    Thanks for the replies!

    I removed all of the mountains, and went back to the drawing table. This time an other approach, and it worked out quite good, if I say so myself.
    I also removed some things, added some, and finally decided the scale.
    Next, i'm goin to add some towns, roads, villages, castles, sea routes, and so on.

    Here the updated map:
    Updated map

    Comments are welcome!

  6. #6
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    I'm kind of torn; the second version of the mountains is good, but I think I liked the first one a bit better. Good-looking map all around, good colors.

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  8. #8
    Community Leader NeonKnight's Avatar
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    Me too. The first, the mountain style 'flowed' with the other artwork. In the second, the mountains seemed to uniform and 'perfect'.
    Daniel the Neon Knight: Campaign Cartographer User

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  9. #9
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    I'm glad that I'm not the only one thinking the same thing about the mountains - these aren't too bad but I liked the first ones better...they seemed to fit just right.
    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

  10. #10
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    Hehe, well, it seems I can't talk myself out of this one x) The problem with the previous mountains was the coloring. I just couldn't get it right and that was why I changed the mountains.
    The problem is, I can't find the original drawing anymore. And I saved the new map over the old one. Another thing I won't do again.

    I also tried to add roads, towns and things like that, but I have the feeling the map is too crowded. I could't find a way to let the structures stand out of the rest of the map. So, I think I'm going to call this one practice, and begin something new.

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