World Map WIP - Comments?

[jtougas]

The red and purple "glow" (for lack of a better word) is the division line? It seems a little subdued to me. Also I think the large size of the empire names are a bit distracting. Even so as I said earlier this is a beautiful map.

[Khaalis]

I can easily upgrade the border glow. I had intentionally turned it down to go more "safe and subdued" but honestly wasn't sure. Originally I had it about 20% darker. As for the empire name plates... how large would you go? Would your opinion be different if they were the only names to be on the map? I haven't decided if I am doing each province in the empires on this map or if that will wait for continent specific maps. I was thinking to just keep the world map at higher level and do just the empire names. I want them visible and readable but not distracting. Is it the size or the color that is distracting?

Again, thank you for the input. Any comments are greatly appreciated.

[Depassage]

The final result is really good. Color borders glow are clear enough to understand it's about borders when you read the country names of the same colors...

I think you achieved a good result in this 2nd round map! Good work!

[jtougas]

I can easily upgrade the border glow. I had intentionally turned it down to go more "safe and subdued" but honestly wasn't sure. Originally I had it about 20% darker. As for the empire name plates... how large would you go? Would your opinion be different if they were the only names to be on the map? I haven't decided if I am doing each province in the empires on this map or if that will wait for continent specific maps. I was thinking to just keep the world map at higher level and do just the empire names. I want them visible and readable but not distracting. Is it the size or the color that is distracting?

Again, thank you for the input. Any comments are greatly appreciated.

I think darker might be better for what you are trying to achieve. Also if your planning on labeling this map the empire names being that large might be a good thing. It will differentiate between regions and cities.

[daemaree]

Just my opinion... I think you should go a tad bit brighter with the borders. The purple, especially, on the west coast, seems to disappear. The country names seem a little too bright and large, and I think it takes attention away from the actual art you've done on the map, but if you are going to add more labels and city names, I think they could be okay. Beautiful map! I can't wait to see more of this.

[Khaalis]

Thank you for the comments. I have decided NOT to add any further empire data on the map for fear of defeating the purpose of the topographic style. I'll use a different style to map each nation and its divisions, cities, etc. With that said, I have made changes to the borders to make them stand out more and to empire name plates to make them stand out less. How do these changes work?

[Khaalis]

Also , here is the first shot at a region map for one of the empires. Thoughts?

[jtougas]

I think you've got it with the empire borders and labels now. and your region map looks good as well although the color of the labels and the "hard" shadow feel a little out of place. All in all (and I'm repeating myself here ) This is a great piece.

[Khaalis]

Thanks jtougas. Do you have any specific recommendations for tweaking the name plates? Is the red too bright? Should I drop the shadowing altogether?

Also, do you have any recommendations on how to take a region from this map to use as the base for a new map? For instance, say I want to take a specific region to make it an entire map. Should I just drop a new layer, fill it with white, magic wand it and copy it into a new project?

Thanks again for all your support in this. Its made my first experience here much better than I expected it to be.

[jtougas]

Thanks jtougas. Do you have any specific recommendations for tweaking the name plates? Is the red too bright? Should I drop the shadowing altogether?

Also, do you have any recommendations on how to take a region from this map to use as the base for a new map? For instance, say I want to take a specific region to make it an entire map. Should I just drop a new layer, fill it with white, magic wand it and copy it into a new project?

Thanks again for all your support in this. Its made my first experience here much better than I expected it to be.

I think that the red name plates are fine but you might want to lower the opacity on the shadowing (or add a blur to the shadows to "soften" them a bit) If you can grab a chunk of the map with the "magic wand" tool that's how I would do it (it doesn't always like the anti-aliasing however) if you can do that and then re-size the new image you'd be well on your way.