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Ooh, there's a continental map! Love it
I quickly re-did the main continental map, for consistency with the updated style. To be completed all the rivers should be re-traced by hand (and many of them should also be adjusted/removed), and I should add forests, though at this scale it's not easy to depict them convincingly. However, since the first uses of this will be for minimal to show the placement of the main maps, I guess it could be acceptable.
Arya-Main-Continent.jpg
Ooh, there's a continental map! Love it
I like a lot the shape of your continent.
And, I'm not a big fan of this kind of mountains, but at this scale, it looks good. In particular on the big isles of south east and south west, where the progression seems more regular.
Looking very nice feanaaro. I like the color and texture of the ocean.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
Still "still trying", I am just very very slow on this.
Now, two slightly more elaborated versions of the political map. Which one does look better, with or without forests and geographical names showing?
Kelerion-ValleyPolitical.jpg
Kelerion-ValleyPolitical2.jpg
I like the "with" version best. The forests etc help to explain why a border is there, and not somewhere else. Great map, feanaaro!!
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The high-frequency detail on the background makes it a little hard for me to read in either version. Maybe a 25% opaque white layer above the terrain and below the map areas would help to reduce the background distractions? This would work especially well with a dark gray or brown outline on the coast and rivers, I think.
Thanks for the suggestion. I am not sure about the grey outline for rivers and coast. Anyway, does this work better in your opinion:
Kelerion-ValleyPolitical2.jpg
Alternatively, I could ditch the white layer and just diminish the bevel and emboss level for mountains (though that would make it tedious to switch from the political to the geographical map every time).
I am locally known for having problems pulling graphic elements out of visual clutter. My eye kept getting pulled to that high-contrast mountain block with the bold blacks in the lower right corner. The lower contrast background now reduces that effect for me and I can more easily see the labels and other elements. I might even go a little more opaque on the intermediate white layer to increase the contrast on the foreground elements (boundaries, terrain, rivers, coasts, and so on) compared to the background ones. Possibly going darker on the gray for rivers and coast (maybe pushing it a little towards dark brown) to up the contrast for the important elements on this map, but probably not all the way to black.
I think that I may be suggesting what amounts to two very different maps: a physical one with full saturation and few labels, and one where the background is present but muted in order for the purpose of the political map to be clear.
Waldronate, that was actually my intent, I just did not muted it enough in the beginning. The white layer is good, I am not sold on the grey border for rivers etc. though.
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