WIP - Map { Eshkura }

[Zarxiel]

So I've been working on this for the past couple days, mainly just the shape and what not. All of the mountains/rivers/lakes and forests I've done today. The look of the mountains are meh I suppose, but they're easy and fast and easy to shape how I like em. Also discovered a really fast way to make the forests, maybe not the best looking either but I think it gets the job done. I've probably spent the most time on the rivers, hopefully they're accurate to their flow, tried considering the angle of the land and river meet-ups and what not. Still lots to do [obviously] but even on what I've gotten done at the moment, still gotta add/tune things up a bit.

I'm also going to change that lake sitting between those mountains in the middle so it's edges aren't so rigid.



Edit: Had to lower the quality so the picture would load on here :/

Edit again: Not much different, all I changed was the mountains (Will probably change them again), the large middle lake, and cleaned up the edges of land

[Zarxiel]

Think I'm done workin on this for the day. Got a lot done, pretty happy with it. I like it loads better than the first one I made. Still I feel it can be improved of course, but not sure how. I'll continue to tweak it

Any opinions on the rivers/lakes? I'm not TOO concerned with 100% accuracy but I tried my best. Are the rivers and streams on the right a bit exstream? (ahehehe see what I... did there?

I think everything will fall together once I toss in roads/borders, names etc... I guess that's a given though.

Also, it's too bad it's such a big file, I have to set the quality down soo low just to be able to load it



Edit: Thinking now, some rivers are probably a bit thick for the scale I want - with the scale I want.. the thick rivers would be miles wide lol, I guess it doesn't have to be to scale river

[Zarxiel]

Not much different, haven't worked on it for a while but, I was messing with mountains in the lower right. Also, obviously cropped it down. I'm trying to come up with a way to do mountains that's both simple and not copied from others.

[Zarxiel]

Redid all the mountains, pretty happy with these ones.

Worked on a compass, I like it but.. at the same time I don't like it. I don't have a clue how to make smooth "wavy" lines so I was just stuck with using the Marquee tool and rotating stuff xD Not sure how I want to spruce it up either.

Also added a few locations. Have a brush with various 'castle' shapes. I'll probably end up changing those as well with something I make myself later on.

Still not sure what I want to do with the bottom right land mass. I'll probably take all that junk out.

[Micah Doulos]

Hi Zarxiel! I really like your map. I can tell you're still kind of new like me at doing this, but you're definitely more advanced! A few thoughts. The trees run into the coasts in a lot of places. When this happens the coast just cuts the tree in half or something. In my opinion this looks very tacky. With that said however. I really like the brush you are using for the trees. I've never seen trees placed like this before. I like that when the trees overlap they just seamlessly blend into one another, giving an excellent foresty look! Did you come up with this technique on your own, or did you find this somewhere else? I'd really like to learn how to make a tree brush like that. Pointers?

Aside from my envy for your tree technique. I also like your mountains, and everything else in general. The first thing that caught my eye about your map is the lines that outline your coast. I saw that on another map and I haven't been able to find a tutorial on how to create this effect. I'd really like to learn how to do that. Thanks in advance for anything you answer! Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to the finished product!

[Zarxiel]

Hi, Thanks!

Yea I know, I'm really lazy with the trees haha The technique I used was one I sort of saw in a tutorial about something else and just applied it to creating forests super quickly.

I drew a few different trees myself and saved them as their own brush. After that when I have the brush selected, you open up the brush menu in windows and you get a bunch of options, all I change is the "Brush Tip Shape" and increased the spread, and then I selected and increased the "Scattering". Then all you have to do is drag around a bit with the brush wherever you want and forests will pop up It's really quick. And about the trees being cut off on the coast-line, it's from the scattering going off into the ocean and then afterwards selecting the landmass alpha and inversing the selection to delete any trees in the ocean. -- Also I played around with the options on the trees, there's a 1 pixel black stroke, with a leafy pattern with I think overlay and opacity turned down and a green color overlay as well.

I might go in later and add in some trees that'll pop off out of the land, stickin' into the ocean. Also was thinking of doing that with the bottom of the mountains, so the trees don't just cut off around them. (The tree layers are beneath the mountain layers)

I hope that explains it well enough xD

And for the coast line, it's super easy. If you've got the land alpha, all I did was take the selection of the land, inversed it, and in a new layer, Modify-> Expand it by a few pixels, I did 3 I believe. Went to Edit-> Stroke and did I think a 3 pixel stroke. Then just repeat that a few times either in the same layer in or another, I don't think it matters. Just remember to account for the gap + the stroke when expanding again to evenly space them. So when expanding for the second line (If expanding from the land again), if you wanted a 3 pixel gap between the two, you'd expand it by 9 and then set a stroke again for however much etc. (The expanding is probably obvious, but I'm oblivious sometimes and screwed up the coastline the first time I did it haha) Course you could also reselect and just expand for how much of a gap you want + the thickness of the stroke you set previously.

I think my coastline is something like: 3 pixel gap, 3 pixel stroke, 3 pixel gap, 2 pixel stroke, 3 pixel gap, 1 pixel stroke.

Just gotta mess around with it till you get your desired look

I hope I made sense, I'm not great at explaining things like this without rambling.

[Zarxiel]

Created a bit of space between the forests and the ocean. I kind of like the border it creates, but I may try getting it right up next to the ocean.

Edit: Just noticed I forgot to replace some mountains xD

[Micah Doulos]

That's looking much better! Good job!

[anomander]

Amazing development. Now the map is looking great! Love the way you've done your rivers. Also, I like your coloring very much. The coastlines look authentic. Hoping to see the completed product.

[Zarxiel]

Thanks!

Replaced the small mountains/hills. Added in a road just to see how it'd look. Made a new compass, kind of like it but, may change the colors, Also fiddled with the mile marker colors, may change them again as well. Still got some mountains to put back into the East, and ofcourse the big empty space -- Gotta figure out what I want to do there. I have an idea though.



Edit: Was looking at the roads that go over the trees.. I'll have to find a way to make them a more defined pathway through the forests rather than just lazily going over them.

Is there even a technique to making roads? All I did was take a brush and increased the spread and dragged in some roads