Second serious attempt

[mrtweek]

This is my first post and my second serious attempt at a map. I've been using Photoshop for a number of years and playing role-playing games for just as long. Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

[torstan]

Very nice - and welcome to the guild!

Nice broken landmass shape and I like the overall colour scheme.

The bright edge highlight and shadow on the landmass makes it looks a little raised out of the water. I'm not a fan of that bevelled look - but that's a matter of taste. Some of the smaller lakes look like they could do with rivers, but that again really depends on personal taste and style. I like where you've gone with the mountains and the forest texture it great! So the next step is labeling

What are your thoughts on it? I'm guessing you've been thinking a lot about this as you've been doing it. What have you got stuck on or what do you want to push further?

[mrtweek]

The bevelled look was kind of a "that looks neat" kind of thing. So, I'm not too attached to it.

I agree with the rivers comment. I'm having issues getting them to 'look right'. When I do them, they seem too smooth. Any suggestions? I'm just using the eraser tool with a Wacom Tablet, if you're wondering.

Also, I like how I did the mountains, but they're just not quite there for me.

[torstan]

Stick up the version with your river attempts and I'm sure we can chip in

For the mountains - what scale are you working at? That'll help determine the resolution you're looking at for individual peaks - or just an overall rugged area.

[mrtweek]

Here is a second version with some rivers added, snow on the mountains, got rid of the bevelled look and stroke, and did some coloring on the forests.

Not sure on the scale, but by looking at the rivers, pretty far away. I'm thinking I need to use smaller textures with the mountains. Thoughts?

[torstan]

THe rivers look good to me stylistically. You can brighten them up a little. It helps visibility, and in satellite views rivers often look like bright silver ribbons as the light catches them.

One simple mistake to catch is that rivers only join as they run to the coast, (almost) never branch. A mini delta is fair enough, but the big fork at the top left of the forest is unphysical. in the same way, lakes only have one outflow, though they often have many rivers running into them.

For the mountains, I agree. An extra level of texture would help here. How are you doing the overall light and shade for the mountains? It looks like a bump map created with a large soft brush. If thats the case I'd recommend going back over that bump map layer with a sharper brush to give more definition to the mountains.

I like the combination of textures you've used so far.

[mrtweek]

I'm not a geographer, so I'm not too attuned to what is unrealistic when it comes to rivers and such. Thanks for the information.

So far, the mountains are one texture with an Emboss/Bevel over it, colorized, and white airbrush underneath for the snow. I'm getting ready to post another map I did that will be used for a fantasy game this weekend. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

[torstan]

Will do. If I miss it send me a pm and I'll drop round and check it out.

As for the rivers - I learned it from others on here. i'm not a geographer either. It's just a handy thing to pick up