CloudFangs First ATTEMPT!

[Slylok]

how do people go from this to finished and cleaned line work? do you just go over them? is there a tool to use that cleans things up?

I've yet to find an efficient way to do this. Depending on the size of the drawing, I either use the pen tool to trace the lines then stroke it with a round brush with the size jitter set to pen pressure and the "simulate pressure" box checked. OR I use the round brush at full opacity and the eraser and ctrl+z. OR you can duplicate the layer 3-5 times which makes the most prominent lines really prominent and then erase the straggling lines.

If you find a better way id love to know

[CloudFang]

will let you know if i figure something out... i keep hoping someone will be like.. oh yea, select all then apply this filter.. lol yea right!?

anyway heres updates...

[Domino44]

It keeps looking better and better!

[arsheesh]

Agreed, this is looking great! The line surrounding the land seems far too thick however - but perhaps its only meant as a placeholder?

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[CloudFang]

Man, been away from this for some time!!!??? lolz. Anyway, I set out trying to figure out how to create a much more interactive map. I started learning flash and figured out how to bring the map in and make it scrollable and zoomable to where your mouse is located! Win for me i think. The problem then became as I zoomed WAY in things got very blurry. Making the image larger than 450 ppi seemed crazy so I took the map to illustrator. Now the map is becoming a vector creation. I still want the feel of the raster textures so Ive been playing with transperancy overlays and stuff... But the map is much better in terms of scale.. Its still obviously not real world accurate but the size of a single peak is no longer equivalent to an entire country.. haha. Anyway since im blasting ahead with full steam now i figured i would post some images up for critique. Please dont feel like you need to be nice, i can take it. Heh.

So first up are some photoshop images of the "feel" im trying to create.






Next up is the map in vector. Along with a close up to show my new approach to mountains.. I made a ton of vector mountains and am now pasting them in to the areas (green) that ive decided will be the mt ranges... So far so good..





Finally, these are some of the icons im playing around with using to pin point cities and towns.



The idea, is for things to become more and more visible as you zoom in. I.e. Only the most populated cities will be visible at full view but as you zoom in more and more of the towns/villages will become available based on zoom % in the code. Also, I plan to create buttons for density overlays and have the cities and towns eventually show city maps as you roll the mouse over them! A pretty ambitious project but my test code seems to be working so far?! So im excited.

After the MTs. are finished I plan to re-vector the lakes/rivers to be a bit more detailed. I did it on one of them and it looks much better. Then the coast line will get cleaned up and re-worked to match the level of detail..

Let me know what you guys think!

[CloudFang]

Getting a bunch more of the mountains pasted in and its looking good, but i figured i would ask for any critique and corrections or advice particularly on mountain range placement before i finish the mountains and move on? The green circled areas are the proposed mountain ranges... Any suggestions or does this seem somewhat believable?

Thanks as always!

-earl-

[wthrasherb]

CloudFang, I'm intrigued by your idea to make the map more interactive. I too have been considering this ever since I saw someone manage to get Google Earth to work with maps they had made with Campaign cartographer (and such) and each time you zoomed in on that map it went into a more detailed look just like Google Maps/Earth does. I'm not trying to do a Google Earth thing necessarily, but I would be interested in collaborating on a project like this (for the sake of me learning something new), if you would like some assistance. I have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, so I have access to the tools. I can't say that I have that much experience with all the apps, but I figure things out pretty fast (and I have a lynda.com subscription to teach me along the way). I think Anna Meyer did some kind of vector/Illustrator work with her absolutely amazing Greyhawk maps. You can find her page here. Maybe you could contact her and get some input.

I know most of this thread is about a year old, but I agree with Slylok about getting rid of the rough line work. Put the sketchy stuff on one layer and trace over it on a new layer, modifying brush and blending setting as needed. Also, you might get some "smoothing" by adding a gaussian (sp?) blur to a duplicated sketch layer and then duplicate the blurred layer a few times then merge all the duplicates together and see how that turns out. Since that post was so long ago when you asked that question, I'm sure you've found what works for you since then.

Keep up the good work!

[Chick]

At the northern end of the eastern coastal mountains, you have two ranges at right angles to each other. Normally, mountain ranges do not meet at angles like that.

Also, if you could use the CG image posting rather than photobucket, it would be much easier to see your images and be able to help with them. Photobucket is a pain. For example, I can't see your rivers in enough detail to comment on them.

If you want zoomable clarity, you should probably use resolution in the 1200 ppi range. When you save it to post, reduce the size and use a low jpg quality, and the clarity will still be reasonably good.

[CloudFang]

@ wthr - hey man, thanks for that link! AWESOME. I have only seen a westeros map that is slightly interactive so this is an awesome resource for me... One thing i got to work for me was zooming in to mouse position which is more effective than a central type zoom like on this map. Her work is beautiful but it stops zooming long before i want mine to go. And already I see some pixelation, which is the problem I was having and why I chose to switch to a vector type map, the scaling and imagery stays really clean and sharp even when i zoom in to 1 single mountain on my screen! Doesnt quite look as nice, but im working on ways around that too... Would love to collaborate and work things out... pm me and i will send my email.

@ chick - perfect thanks! what do you suggest? get rid of the west/east smaller portions and continue going up/down with those ranges?

[Meshon]

I'm always happy to see people using Illustrator for maps, mostly because I like to do it! Although I have to admit that I've never used Photoshop with a tablet, so partly I'm just scared of new things... I have one question. Where did your cities go? They were absolutely incredible, so detailed. I love the one on the water. I'll be looking forward to seeing your vector progress!

cheers,
Meshon