February 2013 Entry: Crescent Island

[Gamerprinter]

I like the basic look, though I am not a fan of the clouds. I know from an airplane or satellite view clouds might be seen, but a map shouldn't be a satellite photo. I would spend more time putting details in the subsurface terrain beneath the waves, rather than playing with the sky.

[Larion]

What kind of texture would you recommend for beneath the waves? I played around a with a few just barely but nothing looked right. As for the clouds... Somehow, I feel that they tie the whole thing together. Without them, the map seems a little... bare. Granted, an underwater texture would help fill that void, but only if I can do it right... and I'm still a learning haha. Would it be kind of the texture you'd see on the bottom of a swimming pool from the way the light hits the waves and scatters the light?

[Gamerprinter]

What kind of texture would you recommend for beneath the waves? I played around a with a few just barely but nothing looked right. As for the clouds... Somehow, I feel that they tie the whole thing together. Without them, the map seems a little... bare. Granted, an underwater texture would help fill that void, but only if I can do it right... and I'm still a learning haha. Would it be kind of the texture you'd see on the bottom of a swimming pool from the way the light hits the waves and scatters the light?

I use this image (provided below) as a repeating pattern, though not too small or too many repeats. I apply it as a transparent layer to view what is beneath it - in this case as the sea floor.

As for clouds, to me, that is something between the viewers eye and the map area - it blocks the view, so why would you want to include it?Afterall a map is not supposed to be a photograph of the ground, not literally anyway. It's supposed to be a representation of a given piece of geography, don't block the view, if you don't have to.

GP