Mapping Goat island - With real goats!

[lostatsea]

I've been there a few times though is has been awhile.(My sister lives nearby). The views are great . I especially liked walking through the tunnels (Caves of Wind) to get to the foot of the falls. The view from there is very different and MISTY. Nice job so far keep up the good work !!

[Jalyha]

THANKS!

I'm having a go at trying to recreate the overall *feel* of the area, but putting in my own touches. I hope I can do it justice ^.^

[Ilanthar]

OK, I have to ask... No humans on Goat Island, even men with a goatee? And what about satyrs?

[Jalyha]

Oh, I don't know ... I'd planned to make a settlement of some sort But there won't be a LOT of people

My goal is (although I'm finding it difficult) to make the land visible and beautiful again

Satyrs... maybe I hadn't thought about it!

[Lyrillies]

I heard SATYRS!
I vote in favor of satyrs. Satyrs everywhere. Especially on Goat Island! SATYRS!

The map is coming along great by the way, I really like where you're going with it!

[Jalyha]

Thanks!! It's definitely taking on a life of its' own Kind of scary really!

And now that my Lite Challenge entry is finished, it will be taking over my life as well, I'm sure

I'll think seriously about the satyrs ^_^

[Jalyha]

Okay, I'm kind of stuck. Well... not really stuck.. there's other things I can do, like work on the water, while I figure this out, but....

Okay here's what I'm trying to do:



A - needs to be a high cliff... higher than the falls to the north, that recedes (either in a gradual slope or as steppes - "B" )

C - The land here juts up again, from the lower ground south of A/B

D - nearly as high a shelf as A

E - lowest point on the land.

F - A big hole/valley/crater/something in the ground

So I'm wondering if 1) This will work? and 2) Any ideas on how to make it look that way?

[Lingon]

The most common ways of showing elevation are height curves or shadows and highlights. I think you mentioned sometime that you are used to painting other things than maps? In that case I guess shadows would come naturally to you

[Jalyha]

I CAN DO SHADOWS !

I'm mapping from a funny angle.. makes it hard to think

okay be right back with a testing/type update.

Alright.. tested 2 different types of shadow effects near the north tip and 1 on the largest mini-island... does it look... cliffy?

[Korash]

I would say that the northern one looks more "cliffy". For a better blend with the map itself, I would think about putting the cliffs as an overlay, but as is it does suit the surrounding more that the island.

For the other changes in elevation, you could sculpt the land mass by using layers of shadow to show the lower parts of the land, and thereby emphasizing the higher...This is a tutorial that I liked that shows a good way of doing that. If you are interested there is a PDF of that right here. Scroll down to the Photoshop related tutorials and it is the second one. The technique is basically the same regardless of software, providing that you can use layers and set opacity.

**EDIT
I am sure that other techniques are out there through out this site, but that is the one that comes to mind first.