Island Map in two formats

[Torq]

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions.

I have made certain changes to the map, and am trying to concentrate first on the forests. I have given them more coverage using Rav's mask, except in the desert areas, and have tried to make them look flatter and more in tune with the scale. Its definately not British Columbia, but I doubt there are that many places in the world that are so heavily treed. I'm from Africa, but the area I live in is fairly wooded, at least on the foothills around the mountains, looking at it now that may have had some influence.

I will have more problems addressing the rivers. I am using Inskcape and Gimp and I dont know how to use either of these to draw lines that taper or widen as they progress. Does anyone else?

What do you think?

Torq

[ravells]

I think it looks much better (particularly on the islands). Cartographist has a point when he says that left unimpeded by man, forests will just stretch on in unbroken swathes. I remember wondering what to do about very large clearings that the mask made (you've got one in the NW of the large continent) so I stuck a town in the middle of it to account for the clearing. Where there were long strands of forest, I put in rivers to follow the strand so it made it look more believable. So basically, you use man or natural objects to explain any wierdness of distribution!

Re the tapering lines, the vector app I use has a ' pen pressure simulation' setting which allows you to make tapering lines, although I don't know if Inkscape or Gimp support this.
Ravs

[Hyptosis]

Very cool map, those farms look awesome =]

[RobA]

Re the tapering lines, the vector app I use has a ' pen pressure simulation' setting which allows you to make tapering lines, although I don't know if Inkscape or Gimp support this.
Ravs

AFAIK - Gimp supports pressure sensitivity when using a tablet in all tools, inkscape supports it for pen width only using the calligraphy tool.

-Rob A>

[RPMiller]

The mountains' texture gives me the impression of gigantic boulders laying on top of rather flat rock ranges. At first glance they sort of looked like... I'll just say cow pies. Not that they look bad, its just that they don't look like what one would guess to be mountains.

[pyrandon]

I think the lack of a ridge line/peaks is the reason the mountain area(s) looks so "gloppy". I'm not sure about GIMP, but in PS I would create a new layer on top, then draw in peaks and ridges using a layer style that would emphasize the height. You may also want to choose a light direction and slightly shade the relief areas on the opposite side of the mountains.

Hyptosis mentioned farms. Are those farms on the coast? If so, they are HUGE fields! Is that intentional? Or perhaps I'm still having trouble figuring out the scale?

The forests look much, much better! Good job!

[RobA]

Something like this is an easy way:

make a selection from your mountain layer, and make a new layer. fill that selection using one of the Gradient - shaped options (play with the three to see which works best. Angular is nice, but usually needs a bit of a blur or even better jitter to take out some of the orthogonal lines). Use this as a bump map on a 50% grey layer, and then set that one to overlay.

-Rob A>

[Naryt]

Something like this is an easy way:

make a selection from your mountain layer, and make a new layer. fill that selection using one of the Gradient - shaped options (play with the three to see which works best. Angular is nice, but usually needs a bit of a blur or even better jitter to take out some of the orthogonal lines). Use this as a bump map on a 50% grey layer, and then set that one to overlay.

Here is a really quick example on your map - can you tell the two areas I did?

-Rob A>

Very clever and effective!