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Thread: WIP: The Sundered Coast and Nearby Territories

  1. #1
    Guild Journeyer Facebook Connected Cirias's Avatar
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    Wip WIP: Eshar and the Sundered Coast

    Hi guys,

    I thought I'd share my first WIP here on the forums. I've made a lot of maps up until now, but I've never documented my progress as I go along. I think it could be good fun and hopefully you lovely people will leave some feedback too

    This map came about as a result of wanting to try out Ascension's atlas tutorial for PS, except I'm using GIMP. I've used his excellent tutorial as a base and then basically experimented and used a couple of my own techniques. The map depicts the coastal/bay region of the continent of Eshar. The continent extends further south and to the extreme north, where it's pretty much inhospitable to human life.

    I'm already quite a way through the project, but I've kept some WIP images, so I'll post those first then show my progress as I add more settlements, then labels and finally some final touches and adjustments.

    Enjoy!

    WIP 1: Getting the basic shape of the landmass and islands and colouring the sea.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP1.jpg 
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ID:	65979

    WIP 2: Basic terrain colours and a "shelf" around the coast.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP2.jpg 
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ID:	65980

    WIP 3: Mountains and mountain colouring.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP3.jpg 
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ID:	65981

    WIP 4: Some added elevation with hills and forests. Also snowcaps for the mountains.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP4.jpg 
Views:	62 
Size:	1.83 MB 
ID:	65982
    Last edited by Cirias; 07-25-2014 at 04:37 PM.

  2. #2
    Guild Journeyer Facebook Connected Cirias's Avatar
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    WIP 5: Added some rivers and country borders.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP5.jpg 
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Size:	1.86 MB 
ID:	65983

    WIP 6: This is where I'm currently at. Added a longitude/latitude grid and labels for bodies of water. Also beginning to add settlements. Capital cities are those star-shaped red, white and black icons. Cities are the larger white circles and towns are the slightly smaller ones. Next step is to finish adding towns and then add villages. Then comes the big task of labelling everything. I want to try and label every settlement and produce a detailed map. I'm considering a nice border and maybe a panel at the bottom/side containing some history for the various nations.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP6.jpg 
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Size:	1.92 MB 
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    Anyway, let me know what you think!

  3. #3
    Guild Journeyer Facebook Connected Cirias's Avatar
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    WIP 7: Update which included adding in more rivers (having realised I had nowhere to realistically put settlements). I also changed the placement of one or two capital cities and I've added a handful more cities and towns. I'm working on the final few towns and villages now and then it's on to labelling.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Atlas WIP7.jpg 
Views:	81 
Size:	1.95 MB 
ID:	66005

  4. #4
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Meshon's Avatar
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    Hey, this is looking cool! I like the fact that I can see underwater, it makes me hope that you'll put a ruin under there somewhere! What is the scale of the map? I'm guessing large, but it would be nice to have a little marker to tell me how big an area I'm looking into.

    Thanks for this.

    cheers,
    Meshon

  5. #5
    Guild Journeyer Facebook Connected Cirias's Avatar
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    Thanks for the feedback! It's about 300 miles across, 2000x1300px in GIMP. I hadn't thought about the coastal ridges as showing the underwater, but that's a pretty cool way to view it. Who knows, I may end up sneaking in some sunken ruins just off the Shattered Coast

  6. #6

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    It's looking very good. There's a certain regularity to the bumpiness of the built-in noise that comes with GIMP. If you want to try a less regular noise generator, try felimage noise. It's a free download and a definite upgrade.

  7. #7
    Guild Journeyer Facebook Connected Cirias's Avatar
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    Thanks HBrown, yeah the noise is bothering me too as it's quite pronounced when you're viewing the map zoomed out. I have Felimage but haven't used it for terrain texture yet so I'll give that a go. Thanks for the advice!

  8. #8
    Guild Member BlackChakram's Avatar
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    Have you tried dropping the contrast on the noise? That might help mute it from the far-out view but still let you keep enough detail when up close. Your mountains and borders look excellent. Really nice use of the subtle border outlines!
    “What is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs. ”
    ~~ Terry Pratchett

    - My fantasy gamebook
    - My old Traveller actual play podcast
    - My upcoming DND cloak and dagger actual play podcast

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