May 2011 Challenge Entry - Silmencia

[ravells]

Cheers Guys!

Thanks for the crits Tigon: making the trees semi transparent was to intended to show the rivers beneath them, otherwise they would have just vanished under the trees and the Tree Thing doesn't allow for such fine control that you can position trees very closely on either side of the river. (probably me not using it right). The lake labels are a little hard to read, partly because they are so small...I just like the slight air of mystery that by making labels which don't really matter so much very small, that the map gives the illusion of being bigger than it is and the map is meant to look a bit distressed anyway (my excuse, I'm sticking to it) . But....I can never resist a fiddle so I've brightened up the lake labels a bit, made them a bit larger and make the map a bit bigger....hopefully that should sort it...

They really are right when they say that the last 10% of the map takes 50% of the time!

### Latest WIP ###

[Master TMO]

Yer WIP didn't Werk. WIP it again.

[Ramah]

making the trees semi transparent was to intended to show the rivers beneath them, otherwise they would have just vanished under the trees and the Tree Thing doesn't allow for such fine control that you can position trees very closely on either side of the river. (probably me not using it right).

Well if you wanted the forest to ignore the area where the river is you would need to alter your template so that the area where the river is remains clear. You would need to give it a little space either side too or the trunks could still be placed so close you couldn't tell the difference. The program views wherever you paint your template as fair game to place a tree trunk. With just the river kept clear those trees that are in front of the river will probably still cover it with their foliage, unless you made a larger gap below the river (again, the program works out where the trunks go and not the top). So to combat this (if you want the river completely uncovered) would be like I say, to make the clear space around the river large below it or to go into the options and check "Strict Template Constraints" (I think) - this will make it so that a tree is only placed if ALL of it is inside the template.

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing. I should probably have taken more time to think through what I wanted to say. Hehe.

[ravells]

Ramah, in the pantheon of coolness. You do realise that you are Kelvin zero. (hey I'm quite proud of that Douglas Adams-ish comment which I just invented). You have thought of everything and bundled it in such a small and elegant package. I'm just amazed that the Tree Thing has not become a natural tool that everyone at the guild reaches out for if they want the Tolkien tree effect. Dang...maybe I should have just kept it as our secret!

Truth to tell, I'm really getting a bit sick of fiddling with this map now, so I'll put your advice into the next one!

[Ramah]

Well I'm very glad you like it and are getting some use from it Ravs. It's a pity I cannot dedicate more time to working on it but I have to lay it aside for months on end before I finally manage to get back and have to relearn what the hell everything does. When I stopped work on it last I had made it so that the forests had a faux perspective effect with smaller trees at the back and larger at the front. This meant completely rejigging how it saved the trees in an array as the rows at the back held far more trees than at the front. This was all working but I ran into some problems with positioning looking a bit crap on certain lines as the change in sizes etc. meant that every now and again the lines would sync up somewhat and would look terrible... Ah well, hopefully I will sort it next time I get onto it. Sorry for taking this OT.

The map looks great.

[ravells]

Not OT at all! I just wish I had your talents, but in the absence of that, I am so very grateful that you share your talents with all of us.

[Diamond]

Not OT at all! I just wish I had your talents, but in the absence of that, I am so very grateful that you share your talents with all of us.

What he said. I really need to make use of Tree Thing one of these days...

And Ravs, your map, as always, is the bee's knees.