January 2011 Entry: Deep in the Wood

[moutarde]

Ah, of course, that makes perfect sense

[jtougas]

Looks Great !! I love the names

[Mrmox42]

Dang, this is a great looking map. You have done a fine job indeed.

[Immolate]

A minor update including a compass rose wherein I learned a few things by imitating the style used by Ramah in Vaniya but didn't quite get it right. Good enough though. Also added some grunge before being called away to a work emergency that chewed up the rest of the night.

Next steps are to incorporate the story into the map.

### Latest WIP ###

[Map Vandal]

This is an amazing map. The only comment I have is that I find the forest names a bit hard to read.

[moutarde]

This is really looking good Immolate The only thing I can offer is that the road names look a tiny bit pixellized. But that might be just the jpg quality. Good job!

[Immolate]

Thank you for the feedback. I think the road labels felt pixelated because they had an inner glow chosen to make the font seem lighter. Instead, I toned down the opacity and took off the inner glow. I turned the outer glow on the forest labels up a couple of notches so that they would be more legible.

### Latest WIP ###

[moutarde]

Oh that does look a lot better. Your maps are always a pleasure to look at Immolate - keep it up

[Ramah]

Oh my word. I've never been reverse-engineered before.

Sorry I haven't commented on this before now. I just saw your DA comment. My house is in disarray at the moment with everyone playing musical chairs but with bedrooms so I haven't had time to log on much at all this past month.

I'm very gratified that you think enough of the map that you want to emulate some of the techniques used but I think you are giving me far too much credit Imm - most of the techinques I used in Vaniya were either directly lifted or at best, modified, from Jezelf's excellent tutorials (which are now the hidden basis of almost everything I do).
I would have done a tutorial long ago if I thought I would be adding enough to what was already there.

I have to say though, I love your map. Don't take this as meaning you are failing in your endeavour, but your landmass area is a lot "cleaner" than mine with all the features such as towns and forests being crisper. I like that. I would probably bleed them more and add my "hand-drawn" pattern to all the shadows.
Love what you've done with the iso markers and your colouring on things such as the roads is far better than I have done on any map. Also, I'm glad that you're finding the Treething app useful. I haven't had time to work on it for ages and I had a version that was almost ready to post up when last I touched it. I'll have to get back to it soon.

Again, wonderful work. As usual.

[Immolate]

Self deprecation is just one of your better personal characteristics Ramah. Jezelf never did a map that I've seen that could touch Vaniya, which was your first effort. I'm not discounting Jezelf's genius. I understand that you stood on his shoulders, just as I'm standing on yours (though not as brilliantly!), so though he deserves much credit (which you gave him), it does not diminish the magnitude of your accomplishment. I've done this sort of thing before often enough, usually free-styling it, and the results didn't please me as much as this one does.

Anywho, here's the latest iteration of this continuing project, wherein I attempt to obliterate all the Ramah-inspired goodness of the map with chicken scratch. I will include the story in clear text once it's done.

### Latest WIP ###