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Coming along beautifully Coriolis!
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
I made a few client-requested fixes, re-worked the climates, and the physical geography is done (I think)
I experimented with a new approach to doing ocean effects. Thoughts?
Coming along beautifully Coriolis!
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
Ok, so the client likes color and climate, but he wants the western part of the southern continent to be desert. Since there are no barriers to justify a desert there (not that deserts HAVE to have barrier mountains; the Sahara has no such), I think I'll elevate the terrain along the western and southern coasts there, turn those into deserts, and turn the current deserts into prairie/grasslands. I'll work on that this weekend.
In the meantime, I've been working on some logos to be used with Arsheesh's Heraldic Shield tutorial, something I've been wanting to try for marking territories and decorating. Here are some of my inkspace creations associated with this map (I'm a little under halfway done putting together the heraldry for the various nations)
Last night and today, I went back to my land sculpt, added in a new mountain range, airbrushed it in, re-WILBUR'd the rivers, re-colored the climates, and re-blended them. I also gave the deserts a smeary look with the smudge tool.
I keep saying that I think I'm done with the natural geography, but at this point, all I'm looking to do is fine-tune the colors. Any pointers would be appreciated.
Now I need to get the heraldic shields done.
This has been coming along great! As far as colors go, your previous deserts looked more natural color wise. Maybe lighten this new desert up a bit, and have the bit between that and the fields be a little less yellow. And do some blending. Right now it's really stark transitions.
I used a low-mid opacity grayscale layer over my color layers in previous versions to dilute the colors. I'll throw that back in, and yes, do some more blending.
On the decorating side of things, here's the heraldic shield I came up with; I'll be swapping the heraldry in and out.
I did some climate color re-balancing, lightening the deserts and toning down the yellow of the central prairie. I also did some blending between the climates.
I also did a lot more heraldry, but I'll insert that later with the labels.
Love the changes! That river through the desert is very well done with the fertile ground around it and the blending. Keep up the good work.
Here's the latest version of the map. It's about 99% done. I still need to add a few more cities in the central plains, and a town or two on the odd islands away from the mainland, but I need more info from the client on the names and placement of these cities to finish.
Notes on this version:
+The city labels are pretty small; you need to be zoomed in all the way to read them.
+I opted to use 3D-style icons where possible, as if someone had some fancy-looking baubles and mini shields and fixed them on the map. Arsheesh has a pretty good tutorial on making this style of icon
+Every nation has its own heraldry, and I use this heraldry in lieu of a national label. The shields are a little obscuring, but the client will have an unmarked "natural geography" map as well.
+Skyfast is a country that consists of a single mountain-city and a bunch of airborne cities (like a civilized Avatar floating mountain). Its shield doesn't appear on the map, though the city icons (and the larger capitol icon) are based on the shield's heraldry.
+Vorlantis is an underwater realm of amphibians who control huge stretches of the ocean. I made a single town for them, and I will probably add one or two more, so they can have trading islands and a penal colony/prison island. I can't think of a better way to mark the territory of an underwater realm, so I just put in extra heraldic shields in the ocean.
+The frame is an improvisation off an Arsheesh tutorial.
Ok, so file upload is refusing to work properly, and I'm having to resort to photobucket, which won't display the image in its full definition.
Any suggestions/corrections before I finish this and send to the client?
Last edited by Coriolis; 09-13-2013 at 05:49 PM. Reason: Picture would not upload, had to use another site.
Love how this turned out. The only part I'd have done differently myself is maybe give the shields/banners/crests and the ocean a bit of graininess to them to match the rest of the map (the terrain and border). It's still VERY well done, but a little more texture on the crests and water would have tied it together that much more.
Great work though!
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