Nostapyrax

[Larb]

I think fifty is going for a dense city like the Venice picture posted earlier in the thread. I've done similar on some maps of mine. Instead of gardens you tend to just get tiny little courtyards that act more as light-wells than anything else.

I do agree some of the really acutely angled buildings look odd and I usually try to avoid those.

[fifty]

Hi guys, thanks for the nice comments & let me see if I can answer a few of those questions!

ascanius -...how did you go about determing the shapes of the important buildgs? Was it just random or did you have something in mind before hand. Oh and I like the theater, I think it's a theater at least.

Yes, it is a theatre - called the 'Riot theatre' for reasons I won't go into here because myself and my RPG book co-author have run games in this city for quite some time we have a lot of detail about some buildings and their general location so in these instances I'm sort of creating what we've already described.

Others like the Pharos (a great lighthouse like structure) simply lend themselves to a particular look.


but for the rest, like Fortunes hall.

Gambling house and fest hall, I'm just making it up as I go!

THW - ...is there a reason the second last image has those triangular houses on the right-hand side? I think there are some other houses that are being distorted in some very odd ways (a pink house in the lower right of that same image, that is a pointy diamond shape, for example).

Something else that I am starting to notice is the significant absence of gardens (private or public). Is that a deliberate decision?

the little triangular houses are within a self contained area called an Iddimu - a place where Daemons and otherworldly citizens of the city can live in relative privacy - I was casting around for some was to make the buildings within seem different to the rest of the city and thought they would work as a little nest of trangular shelters.. as for the pink diamond house - yes I agree - it didn't look so bad until it was coloured - will come out and be replaced at some point!!

The lack of gardens is deliberate though, this area is the dense dock district, as I move away from this area I've tried to make the building a little bigger and grander, certainly when I move into other more wealthy districts I'll be putting in some gardens and parks etc..

GreatWhiteNorth - What's the scale of the map? You said the city was about 2x2.5 miles. How big is your document, and do you have a geographic scale in mind, like 1:10,000, 1:15,000 etc?

the document I'm working on is 5500 pixels tall by 7800 wide, I haven't thought about the specific 1:10,000 at all yet sorry!

[fifty]

Larb -I think fifty is going for a dense city like the Venice picture posted earlier in the thread. I've done similar on some maps of mine. Instead of gardens you tend to just get tiny little courtyards that act more as light-wells than anything else.
I do agree some of the really acutely angled buildings look odd and I usually try to avoid those.

Yep - certaily in this sectio I'm thinking dense Venetian streets - or even a crowded elizabethian London dock front, certainly not an area rife with gardens and recreational spaces. I have put on a few market stall areas and a couple of city squares for now though.

..and feel free to tell me about buildings that look wrong or 'wonky' in some way - tbh after a while I think I stop noticing them and they just get scanned over!

[fifty]

...still alive!

..and I have even been working on this on and off with a slight break of about three weeks whilst I finished the quick start rules we've been promising on Facebook.

I finished the last section of the "Haak" inner docks ward roofs, ridges and shading etc.. ('cept the posh bit still to do on the far right) and then put in lots of canal wooden 'docks' smaller bridges and really narrow 'plank span' bridges.

Then I decided I'd try a few ideas for changing the bright green 'turf' of the base land into something a bit more drab and inner city street.

Like most things I attempt this took a lot longer than I thought and 99% of my trials looked rubbish or would end up taking an inordinate amount of time ..even by this maps standards! lol

But after many hours I finally settled with colour & vibrance adjustment layers and then a layer with a multiply and drop shadow effect and a drybrush for the 'worn paths'.

This is the result so far.



I think they look OK? I can see that a bit of work might still be needed on the wider roads where the 'worn path' could do with being broader but I'm going to move on to the rest of the city for a bit and revisit this later.

[Ilanthar]

Impressive! I really like the way you added some dirt in the middle of the streets.

[fifty]

Thanks Ilanthar 😊

[wthrasherb]

Dude! This looks amazing! I haven't tried a city map since I've been doing digital maps, but I think I have found a "style" to emulate Unlike some of these hardcore "realists" on here (no offense meant), I could care less about things like a roof not being perfect in real life and such, as long as my finished product looks cool over all (and maybe has rpg application), and you sir (or ma'am? I can never tell with these androgynous screen names and no pic) have achieved a cool looking map. Excited to see the end result.

If I may ask, are you doing this mostly in PS or something similar, or are you using Illustrator (or equivalent) to do the building shapes and such initially?

[Falconius]

God almighty this is some inspired and inspiring stuff. I think I'll go knuckle down on my city project now...

[a.coldyham]

As soon as those pictures loaded in, this thread was followed. Great job fifty

[fifty]

If I may ask, are you doing this mostly in PS or something similar, or are you using Illustrator (or equivalent) to do the building shapes and such initially?

Thanks wthrasherb! - The map is all done in PS - the building shapes are just free hand pen tool utilising the shift key from start point to end point to get straight lines - then grey fill, then ridge lines, then colour, then shade, then highlight, etc..

I suspect there are quicker ways utilising other software - but I'm a rookie really so I just plod along with my simple ways!

Thanks too Falconius & a.coldyham, slow going so I don't update very often sorry - but if you have the patience to follow - I'll keep popping bits on as i do