Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 15

Thread: [WIP] The Middle Kingdoms

  1. #1
    Guild Member Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Pennsylvania, USA
    Posts
    54

    Wip [WIP] The Middle Kingdoms

    This is a work in progress map for the Middle Kingdoms, called such because they sit perched between the two major Imperial powers of the day. It's lacking a legend at the moment and needs some refinements, but the details are pretty much finished. The cities and mountains are in the right places, and I don't believe any of my rivers will earn me more than a minor citation from the River Police. This map is part of a larger work in progress covering the whole continent, which my planned series of novels spans. This section is merely the setting for the first novel, which I have finally begun writing in earnest. Please give me your comments and critiques.

    Credits here go to Quabbe for his mountain brushes, Gidde for the ink bleeding technique, and Harold's Fonts for the Dominican fonts I used for the labels. This map was made primarily in GIMP, with the labels made in Adobe Fireworks and copied over.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	middle-kingdoms-large.jpg 
Views:	191 
Size:	400.5 KB 
ID:	54217  

  2. #2
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor - Max -'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    France
    Posts
    4,220

    Default

    Looking good but the mountains and labels are way too blurry.

  3. #3
    Guild Expert Eilathen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Kurald Liosan
    Posts
    1,334

    Default

    I like the landshape a lot. Almost Diamond-material But i have to agree with Max, the mountains are way too blurry. And a bit too big, imho (i don't know the scale of your map, but it looks like quite a big region).
    I'm trapped in Darkness,
    Still I reach out for the Stars

  4. #4
    Guild Artisan Freodin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    513

    Default

    I'm not quite sure if the mountains are too blurry, or the coastline/rivers are too blocky. But there is a distinct difference between these two features that contrast too much for me to really appreciate this nice map.

  5. #5
    Guild Member Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Pennsylvania, USA
    Posts
    54

    Wip

    So I stroked my rivers and coasts again with a different brush (I love my Bamboo) to try to get them a little more in line with the mountains. I also messed around with the ink bleeding to get the look I liked but with a little more clarity. I'm still not completely satisfied with the rivers and may need to go back through them again, but I feel like the coasts are pretty good now. I also added a 10px kerning to the city labels to keep the letters from mashing together when I bled the ink. I think it's an improvement, but still some work to do. Any suggestions for solving the river problem are much appreciated

    As for the scale, I feel like my mountains are appropriate in size. I'm not putting scale in this map because I simply don't prefer it aesthetically for a fantasy map, but my rough calculations have the land area of this map at slightly greater than the size of South Africa. So, it's not a particularly large area.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	middle-kingdoms-2.jpg 
Views:	196 
Size:	422.7 KB 
ID:	54263  

  6. #6
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor - Max -'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    France
    Posts
    4,220

    Default

    I really saw mointains blurry. they're better but still blurry a bit. Did you use them at higher or smaller size that the brushes are set?

  7. #7
    Guild Expert Eilathen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Kurald Liosan
    Posts
    1,334

    Default

    Still blurry, i agree Max. I really hope you can fix that, because this map has great potential.

    As to size - well, to each their own, i guess. Southafrica is more than 1000km east-west and as much north-south. I still think these mountains are out of proportion.
    I'm trapped in Darkness,
    Still I reach out for the Stars

  8. #8
    Guild Member Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Pennsylvania, USA
    Posts
    54

    Default

    You guys were right. Somewhere along my process (I'm not sure where) my brushes went really blurry. I dropped the original on top of the map (pre-bleeding) and it was a massive difference. So, I guess I'm going to have to redo my mountains, but that's not really all that time consuming. Thanks for prompting me to look at that. And while I'm at it, I'll look into the mountain size as well. Maybe the Alps as a reference, as that's kind of the closest RW parallel. Are the labels better though?

  9. #9
    Guild Member Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Pennsylvania, USA
    Posts
    54

    Default

    Sorry to double post, but I think my biggest problem is fixed.

    I finally think I fixed the blurriness of the mountains. I compared the map from the last post to the one from this post side-by-side and the difference is incredible. Might not be perfect yet, but it's massively improved.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	middle-kingdoms-3.jpg 
Views:	126 
Size:	1.95 MB 
ID:	54339  

  10. #10
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor - Max -'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    France
    Posts
    4,220

    Default

    It's better yea but it's still blurry :/ Shame because Quabes mountains are looking great and they don't deserve that blurryness :p

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •