Sanctuary

[DagobahDave]

The textures on these maps are great. Most of the time textures look unnatural and digital, but these look just right. How did you make them?

Stuff I also like are the measures you give, nicely immersive.
And well... I kind of like the crowdedness of names of the detailed map as well (though it may not be very aesthetically pleasing... it has more to do with storytelling)

Anyway, good job

Thanks!

For the texture, I just used 'spray can' kinds of brushes in Photoshop. I did a lot of dabbing here and there, manually changing the color, dabbing some more, and building up texture that way. It took forever. I didn't know about all of the PS brush options back when I made this. These days I'm sure I can do better in half the time.

My goal with the detailed map was to put something in just about every blank space I could find. In doing that, I started inventing all sorts of stuff to include in the setting. It was a really good world-building exercise for me.

Lots of things bother me about these maps. It's too dark. I think the line widths are too thick and cartoony. Each map needs the others to really convey what's going on. Pointy mountains don't thrill me. The names are tongue-twisters, and that's not good.

The rivers, however, they all go downhill!