Village of Belirus WIP

[Yandor]

Well heres a continuation of my isometric attempt, heres a few of the structures I've attempted to make, I happen to like the docks thing and the castle, the buildings, I think seem to be better, and will try and mess with more later (trying to find a simple effect that looks good, and easy to change and add.) So you know all of this, is pretty much layer effects, and other simpe things, the drawing and other stuff that I've done I've tried to make it as a layer style for that simple effect I'm trying to get

Anyways thoughts opinions anything would be great, oh and I know the dorky buildings look huge compared to the castle

[Yandor]

Well I'm nearly finished, need to just finish up the tents in the market, add in a few more paved roads, and find out some way of adding in "fancy" homes for a noble section... Other then that this thing is near complete, heres an updated section

Ideas, problems, opinions, anything would be great!

edit: hehe I can see a few mistakes just by looking at this example, like tents sticking out when they should be under shadows, anda few buildings are like that too =D

[pyrandon]

Wow, Yandor--you've done a lot of work! Nice going!

I think my main issue with this map stems back to RobA's question some posts ago: is this an artistic or realistic map? In this most recent version the roads & fields (for example) are very symbolic, wheras the houses and grass appear representational. This is jarring overall.

I do like the iso view you've been able to produce in the walls and trees--very cool, with much potential!

Keep going, this is a good map!

[Yandor]

Thanks Pyrandon! I've been putting in more things, like the tents and other random things, because I just couldn't pin what it was that didn't "fit". I'm new to this kind of thing, and I'm shooting for an artistic view I guess, and with the roads and crops, I'm at a lose to make them fit with the buildings and grass, some pointers, and what may work, or any ideas would be grand, but until I get it to work, I'll keep experiementing

[pyrandon]

Yandor, I'd say run this through one or more filters. The artistic community gets really uptight when anyone relies on filters, but for the purpose of melding things together stylistically--especially if you are shooting for the neighborhood of "art"--filters work perfectly for combining and smoothing things. You pay a price for this--generally that price being loss of crisp edges and realistic qualities, but if those are not your intent for your map, then it's no roadblock at all, eh?

The attached is an example of what I mean. In PS I copied your map into two new layers, then ran the watercolor filter on one layer, the paint daubs filter on the other, then I set the top layer to about 60% fill so you can see both together. Then I merged these layers, ran a slight blur, and put the original layer on top set to "screen" blending mode.

The results aren't great, and this could use a lot of tweaking, but I hope from my 5 minutes of play that you can see my point that filters can tie together your work in an artsy-fartsy way.

Just an idea to play with. Take care!

[Yandor]

hmm interesting, never thought of using a filter on the entire image, ha thanks Pyrandon! I'll have to mess with it and experiment around with it when I finish off my tent/market area. Thanks again for the help!

[Yandor]

Well, I found some new textures, and things decided to try them out, and well what does the attached image look like to you guys?

I was attempting maybe a marsh kind of deal, but kind of looking at it more, looks like a thin, alpine forest... meh whatcha think?

[pyrandon]

I agree: that's much more a forest than it is a marsh.

[mmmmmpig]

create a new layer and fill the that area with a brown. Apply the sponge filter and then delete the lighter color. then you will have puddles of brackish water amid the dark green foliage. Play with the opacity and such.

That is one thing I would try. I am typing this from my couch, so I have no idea if it would work.

[Yandor]

I'll probably be using it as an alpine forest thing, but mmmmmpig I tried your method hehe kind of fun messing with it (had some wicked awesome colors in there) but heres the end result in the "attempt" so any better at looking like a marsh? or should I give up and try doing it another way?

P.s. I fixed the roads up a little bit too, just so you know