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Thread: [WIP] Zevferen - Help Needed!

  1. #1
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    Post [WIP] Zevferen - Help Needed!

    Alright so its been awhile since my last post and after a few finished maps and more scrapped ideas than I care to remember; I have finally found a project that I really like....So aided by Jezelf's tutorials and a few of my own touches I have arrived at the stage you see below. The land is known as Zefveren; a desert peninsula populated by a number of city-states that have sprung up along the rivers and oases of the High Desert (water is life in the desert after all!). More to come later!

    I need help creating a map border that indicates the map's scale...for example a border of alternating black and white rectangles that represent a certain number of miles or kilometers on the map.

    Other than that, this post is a WIP and as such your C&C is much wanted and appreciated!

    Thanks!
    Oh and the thumbnail was not working for the original so I just updated it to the latest version of my map that is shown further down.
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    Last edited by SkinnyKazoo; 08-23-2010 at 10:31 PM.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Since you have PS and Gimp then here's how I do it:
    1. decide how much distance you want each and every single pixel to represent, say like 1 pixel = 2 miles
    2. make a rectangle that is 10 pixels wide (or 20 or 30 just something based on 10) and make it half as tall; so 5 in my example...this will be a 10 pixel rectangle that represents 20 miles
    3. duplicate that layer and hit ctrl-i to invert the color
    4. hit the arrow key 10 times to move the new rectangle over (or hold down the shift key and hit the arrow once)
    5. when lined up then merge down
    6. duplicate, move, merge, and repeat until you fill up the screen with one long line across (doesn't take all that long really)
    7. duplicate the long line and move it to the top, move the other to the bottom
    8. duplicate one line, rotate 90 degrees, and move it to one side edge
    9. duplicate and move it to the other side
    10. when all done merge together
    11. not really a step, just a note...by making my rectangle 5 by 10 then they meet at the corners very well and if you use some other tallness then you have to tweak the corners a bit
    12. (the step folks forget about) not totally necessary but sometimes it is; because you have the two vertical lines parts will be hanging out there in space where you can't see them (off of the canvas) but they're still there so if your pc is chugging along or your layer styles seem weird then crop them out...ctrl-click on a layer that is filled full (like the background layer or the paper layer or whatever) then hit edit-crop on the layer with the lines.

    This is for basic black and white rectangles, once you learn the technique then you can go back and add a stroke around the rectangles or whatever fancy thing you want. I don't use a pattern as it doesn't align properly most of the time and if you use a small pattern and want to scale up the size it will sometimes get blurred.
    Last edited by Ascension; 08-23-2010 at 08:21 PM.
    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)


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    Thanks for the tip Ascension...that had me dumbfounded for forever. Anyway any other tips, critiques, and comments are welcome..I'll post my updated version as soon as i finish it.

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    Ok so here is the updated version with the border/scale and updated legend. I still have a few more finishing touches to add to the legend and map...ah I just noticed a missing road. Well if anybody has any good tips they would be much appreciated!
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    Guild Adept loogie's Avatar
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    All the Cactus' threw me off at first, but I'm guessing by throwing in "forest" in the area that you're making then more like a certain species that comes together in a forest? That's a unique idea, and one I like... If that is the type you're going for, it could be a gigantic form of something similar to say, crab grass, where it grows shoots under ground from a central location and creates many many interconnected sprouts.. (that just gave me an amazing idea for a carnivorous plant!) just thinking out loud as to why there would be so many... as far as I know cactus "forests" wouldn't exist in real life...

    That being said, you may want to change the symbol for the cactus' to something a bit different then the "traditional" cactus symbol, just so it stands out as something different then your run-of-the mill cactus... As is it seems to jump out to me as "AHH! CACTUS ATTACK!" and I think if you made it a bit different, it would make me think, before deciding if its too much... so more of a "WTH is that!? Oh! its a type of cactus that grows like a forest!"

    Either way I like the idea! and the map looks great!
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    Guild Novice Jice's Avatar
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    I really like your map,I'd love being able to do that style of map, but some elements are looking blurry when in full screen, have you drawn them small and them made them bigger with photoshop?

    Offtopic question: Are you french?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jice View Post
    I really like your map,I'd love being able to do that style of map, but some elements are looking blurry when in full screen, have you drawn them small and them made them bigger with photoshop?

    Offtopic question: Are you french?
    I believe when I converted the file from PS to a .jpeg image I lowered the resolution a bit because of a topic on copying I accidentally discovered on the forum...so that probably explains the blurry image, idk. And lo,l no I am not French but I studied it when I was young and remember a few words that I thought sounded cooler or just plain different in French so I just put in the French.

    AND I just got a new laptop cuz I was borrowing my parents after mine crashed and I needed one for college....so this one doesn't have PS and I cant post my updated map for probably another day or so.

  8. #8

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    Looking great Kazoo! Just a suggestion, but if you want the names of your river to 'follow the river' more (see example below), this is pretty easy to do in photoshop:

    1. Use the pen tool to draw a path along the bit of river you want the text to follow.
    2. Select the text tool and hover over the start of the path until the icon changes.
    3. Start typing, your text will follow the path.
    4. When you've finished, go to the paths tab and you will see two paths there, one called 'work path' and the other with the name of your river. Delete the work path.

    The label for the broken peaks (and a few others) look a bit distorted, looks like you may have resized it after rotating it. Easily fixed if you follow the same method as with the rivers.
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by ravells View Post
    Looking great Kazoo! Just a suggestion, but if you want the names of your river to 'follow the river' more (see example below), this is pretty easy to do in photoshop:

    1. Use the pen tool to draw a path along the bit of river you want the text to follow.
    2. Select the text tool and hover over the start of the path until the icon changes.
    3. Start typing, your text will follow the path.
    4. When you've finished, go to the paths tab and you will see two paths there, one called 'work path' and the other with the name of your river. Delete the work path.

    The label for the broken peaks (and a few others) look a bit distorted, looks like you may have resized it after rotating it. Easily fixed if you follow the same method as with the rivers.
    oooo so thts how u do it...i remembered i learned it my senior yr for the one semester i took photoshop (biggest mistake ever, weight training was way cooler), but i completely forgot how to do that and it was kinda bothering me.
    I'll fix it as soon as I get PS back up, again another delay cuz my puppy is getting spayed today...

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