[WIP] Map for a New Campaign

[Jaxilon]

The client had asked to put this on hold through the holiday and year end, which worked out because I was able to enter the December challenge, but we are now back to it. This is going to be a map used for a game and names and so on will be added in as they go so there isn't a lot of labels for me to do.

Keep in mind this is scaled down 50% of the full size so it may be a little hard to read the writing.

[FeralBuddy]

Looks really good! I really like the colors and the key. This could be because it's scaled down, but the cities and towns, etc. don't seem to stand out as much as they should (a city next to the forest blends in with it).

[Steel General]

Looking good Jax!

[Ascension]

I'm with FB. The city icons fit the style of the trees but they could stand to be a bit bigger so as to be more prominent and not mistaken for something else. My only real nitpick is that the trees don't fit the style of the mountains - the mtns have a real hand-drawn appearance while the trees and icons have a crispness about them. I'd change one or the other. The hills down south, deserty area, look really good and if everything looked like that it'd be outstanding. Conversely, if the hills and mtns had the same crispness of fine line then that'd be cool as well.

[Jaxilon]

Thanks guys for the feedback. Ascension you have got some good eyes. I had to get in there real close. I cleaned up some of the lines on the mountains. I also found that the darker textured parchment beneath the mountains seems to help so I did a little tweaking. Hopefully that helps but if not I can revert to my last version. I also added some texture to the trees in an attempt to blend the whole a tiny bit more but it's a really subtle change. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to check it out. It always helps me keep improving.

The icons are many and I they do seem to get lost in the map especially when they are in the trees. The little forts are the toughest. I'll have to think about that.

Let me know if this is better or not as I think I've stared at it too long now.

edit: looking at it this morning I realized I dropped the border lines off on this one. DOH!

[Jaxilon]

Ok, we made some few changes and got some labels put together. Totally simplified the icons as the old ones just did not seem to work well with the rest of the map. I think everyone is happier with these.

Just waiting on a couple more names and a final once over and I should be posting this in the Finished Maps section. This project seems like it took a lot longer than it really did because we took time off over the holidays and New years and then there was time used getting test prints done before we moved forward and making small adjustments etc.

If you see anything really whacked that I missed let me know. This is the full size at 50% quality and max .jpg compression. (whatever that means I can't really see any difference).

[Naeddyr]

This is nice. How big are you going to make the final picture? As it is now, the difference in blurring between the mountains and the sharpness of the rest makes a bit of a mismatch, but if you scale the picture a bit smaller, that should become less pronounced.

[Jaxilon]

First off, thank you for running a critical eye over the piece.

That is the size right there. As far as the blur you see, I'm not sure I am seeing it, plus I'm not sure what I can do about it at this point. I think it may be the brushes which were drawn with pencil on paper and then scanned in? As I zoomed in and went back through them myself I did find a few that had a bit of blur perhaps from my shading. I cleaned up the worst of them but then I don't have the best eyesight. On a related note, I am getting my first pair of progressive lenses this week and so as a note to those of you who are getting older...it's going to suck! I know it must sound like I wear coke-bottle lenses, I don't, but I have 'Keratoconus' and had the 'Intacs' surgery. <--- Look that up if you want to get the willies.

On the bright side, I asked my wife to look at this and she has excellent vision, better than 20/20 and she didn't see it. I hope that means the mismatch isn't too powerful.

[Diamond]

@Jax: Not to derail the thread, but speaking as an optician, progressives aren't near as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Assuming the optician that fit them for you knows what he or she is doing, you'll be amazed at how natural they are once you get used to them (average 'adjustment time' is around 5 - 10 days). The best advice I can give you is to keep them on pretty much non-stop the first couple of days; the more you wear them, the quicker you'll adapt. And remember that you'll get the best focus where your nose is pointing; if you move your eyes to the side without moving your head, you'll notice that things will blur out on the edges. Unfortunately, even the best progressives still can't give you crystal-clear vision around the periphery of the lenses, but as you adapt to them, you'll pick up how to move your head/point your nose to get the optimum vision for whatever you're looking at. It becomes subconscious once you get used to working with them. Good luck!

I haven't personally worked with a patient yet who had Intacs done, but it seems like a great idea, since the lenses can be changed out if your vision changes, which is awesome, and light years ahead of regular corrective surgery.

And FWIW, I don't personally see any outrageous blurriness on the map.

[Gidde]

I really like this, Jax! It's a great style.