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Thread: Orston

  1. #1
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    Wip Orston

    This is my first attempt at fantasy cartography. This was mostly following RobA's tutorial and still needs some labeling. I'd appreciate feedback on the look of the terrain and how to make it better: the mountains took forever and the trees still don't feel right.
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    Last edited by Dragtroll; 05-22-2011 at 08:29 PM.

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Not bad at all, the mountains could use a bit more definition (and maybe a color change).
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  3. #3
    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Looks good. You could try shading the mountains to get a bit more definition from them. Another thing that I do is to duplicate the mountain layer and try various layer styles to make them "pop" I generally use overlay set to a medium opacity but your results may vary. I would also consider shading your forests to get rid of the very regular edges. Overall it really looks good. Nice job.
    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

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  4. #4

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    Hey for a first map it's looking really good Dragtroll. Since SG and JT have already covered the mountains, I'll just throw in a suggestion about the forests. Looks like you are using my tut. One of the problems with the original tut (one of these days I'm going to get around to updating it) is that you end up with hard edged forests that don't blend in all that well with their surroundings. Later on I developed a method for helping to blend them in a bit better by adding individual trees. If you scroll down toward the bottom of the trees tutorial thread, you'll find the method I suggest for doing so. Other than that, looking good man.

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  5. #5
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    Thanks for the speedy feedback. I've added to the mountains and added the single trees to the forests. I decided to draw symbols in Inkscape rather than fuss around with my dingbat fonts, so the new town icons are a bit less fancy. I've realized that the text looks a bit plain and the forests still look a bit odd. Criticism? Suggestions?

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  6. #6
    Guild Member Sergei Zybin's Avatar
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    May be little enchantment of mountains by colorwork?
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  7. #7
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    I recolored the mountains to some degree and generally like the outcome. Aside from meticulous labeling, a border, compass rose, scale, and fancier text, is anything desperately missing?

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  8. #8
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Any roads or political borders? If not then you hit all the marks above.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
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  9. #9
    Guild Master Facebook Connected jtougas's Avatar
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    Looking good. You may want to try a blur on your mountains to get rid of that "ridge" on the top of them (unless you like it and thats fine too. ) I think your forests look very good now.
    I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....

    Finished Maps
    Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)

    Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.

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