Reply With QuoteLooks good for a first map. The city symbols, however, look somewhat out of place compared to the rest. Too straight and clean.
Venera I
Sdraste,
or something like that means "Hello" in Russia. This ist my first map. I will use it for a story I am writing. I learned it a hard way to use maps in stories. Once I wrote a bigger story but somehow everone who read it lost the point of the story and didn't know where the whole story take place.
This was the motivation for my new story to start with a map.
I read a lot of tutorials (and yes, I read the tutorial about creating rivers in a righ way - I just messed up with it). The difficulties for me were the mountains, the details (like caves and and wrecks) and labeling. The "Wind Rose" in the upper left corner is from Google (I just couldn't find the tutorial where someone shows how to make an own one).
The colours and the design in whole refers to one of the maps of "Schwarzkreuz". Before this version my map was in bright colours etc.. But it didn't fit in the dark style of the story. I wanted something with more mystery and sadness like in the game "Castlevania" (the very first stage on the XBOX 360 version). The paintings there made me think: Awesome shiet man!
MAKING THE ISLANDS:
I filled whole map with water and then added a second layer (the island) and filled it with a brighter colour. An effect (contour or something and glow) is used to make the coast looking brighter in steps.
The rivers and coastlines were all cut out with the lasso. This made most fun for me.
The rest was easy going but took a lot of time.
Finally I think I finished the map within two weeks ... but was not that focused on that work. Also wrote the plot and the charachters for the story.
By the way: this map is just a part of a larger world which will be made in future. But first I have to finish the plot for this area.
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The story is about lot of species. (I won't tell too much because I am paranoid ^_^)
TO THE MAP:
So I tried to make different places in style. Sinara is a desert with rocks etc. except the "Kristallsandland" / Crystalsandland. There the sand is so fine that its like fine crystaldust. Storms in there kill everyone. The goddess of fire called "Kira" and her oblation temple is there but unreachable for people.
Toro is country without a capital city ... but ruled indirectly by an 14yo vampire girl. She is bound to the castle because of the rituals in the "Kloster" in Toro. She seems nice and kindish but also can get really cruel. Noone really knows if she is a 14yo vampire or just pretend to be 14yo. Toro is a little racist. They don't like nonhumans. The forest has also magical powers which are the reason why Toro is still independent while having no government.
The "Tote Insel" / Dead Island (oh shiet ... I think there is a game called this ... is it a copyright problem? I guess not because I'm hot ^_^ ... no I'm not). There is a witch of a species called Ild (kind of birds) and owns a slave (human). She makes chaos etc. so the island should look scary (tried to put a myst there and a swamp but failed so hard).
Venera is a wet, cold and forest(ed?) island where a species (kind of snakes) live. They are wise and strong. But they are not really religious ... more scientific.
Warlom is a cold and dark country full of humans like vikings.
Nagamali is something between Warlom and Toro. A typical human country.
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Map in the attechment.
Looks good for a first map. The city symbols, however, look somewhat out of place compared to the rest. Too straight and clean.
The map itself looks great, but I'd say the text doesn't fit very well (being able to label up a map is an art in itself though tbh and can be very hard). Still, very good though.
Yoyoyo,
nice words dudes ... now I'm full of power ... I ... I could stand up from my chair ... ah ... no ... too lazy. Maybe need more positive comments ... or negative (I don't mind, I just replace your posts in my mind with things I would like to read).
Yep the labeling stuff is not that good. I tried other fonts but they all looked weird'O'wesome. Tried to write by hand ... but this was one of my worst ideas.
To make the cities I had two options. First I could draw them by hand and so I could add different details like churches etc. (which I now have as extra symbols) ... this way the whole map would look more "consistent" in style. But the scale could be destroyed so I decided to make a citiy-symbolizing which give no clue about the size of the city.
Maybe I will remake it someday when I start with the northern part of Sirana.
Now I also recognized that I have no legend for the symbols ... lé me are so moron.
I agree with the above comments. The map itself is quite nice. The symbols and (large) text are a bit lack-luster and don't really fit the hand-drawn style of the map however. Still, nice job on your first map.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
Okidoki.
Symbols and text. Okay ... next time I'll stun you all with an awesome map. ^_^
The eastern part of Venera I.
Ps, it's the way i thought the map would help me. I finished yesterday the chapter 5. In every chapter I have 6 subchapter (or something). It is really easier with a map to write a story and making crossings between the charackters.
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