September Entry: Rackham Gap

[dorpond]

Ooooooo... I really like this one! I love the textures and overall feel of it. I really like the swamps and the earth under the water, however, if I could make one suggestion, it would to make the glow less. It almost appears as if there is a light on.

Also, it is a bit tough to tell the difference between the forests and the swamps - the textures look a bit too similar.

Fantastic map though! Bravo!

[Ascension]

I thought the same thing about the swamps, I'm trying to add some "blue-ish-ness" to it somehow. I used the same exact layer styles for the forest and swamps except some more blue color in various places. I'm still experimenting on them, maybe incorporate some filters instead of styles. What I'm trying to get is something that has little blue squiggles surrounded by a dark greenish blue, but at the same time still be able to see that river flowing through it, without either being too bright or too muddled.

[Ascension]

Here's an update...I really like where this one is and am ready to put the finish graphics on it unless I've overlooked something.
What I've tweaked:
1) Worked some more on the rivers (lightened them just a tad in some places, darker in others).
2) Total rework of the swamps, splitting them into a marsh (in the north) and a swamp (total rework of the layer styles as well).
3) Removed the glow and strokes on the text and changed the colors to quasi-blend into the terrain and still be legible (at 100% zoom).
4) My textured forests and wetlands made the land look kinda naked so I added a layer of bushes to cover it up a bit.

Not sure if I want to add things like borders and roads and stuff like that because I haven't found a way to do that yet that doesn't detract from the artwork.

### Latest WIP ###

[Ascension]

Da Gap iz now opin fer yer bizness. By dat I meen owr bizness. Bring yer spyces, tobaco, and fruts. Bring yer licker, yer wimmen, an yer guns. Bring anyting ya want and weel do owr best to take it off yer handz at a fare pryce. Tink yer brayv enuff? Weel find owt.

~~Jack~~

This one be done. I'm not much of a graphic designer so the frame and graphics are just kinda average. I put in roads, sea lanes, borders, a 5-mile grid for land distances and 5-mile circular grid for sea distances. The size of the map itself 4000 X 4000 so every 40 pixels is a mile. If my math is right (which it rarely is) then each pixel = 66 feet. Not sure I could put in semi-detailed cities at that scale. I might try in the future and if I get it done before the deadline I'll upload it. If anyone wants this map without labels and graphics (so you can add your own) let me know as I have the topography in its own image and I will keep this file on hand for a month or so.
###Latest WIP ###

[Ascension]

Oh, P.S. - here's a list of the things I didn't create: the corner scrolly bit doohickies are a Photoshop custom shape from a set called "fancy borders", the banner thingy is from a brush set called "17th century boy" both from the Adobe Exchange, the compass is from the compass pack I got from here (can't find the link though), the font is called "Tagliente", and the flags come from flags.net. So, uh, I guess I really didn't create all that much after all, just the map. Maybe I should fix that and redo all the borrowed bits.

[Steel General]

Other than it being a bit dark (which I always say about your maps ), this is really well done, love the forest texture.

[Ascension]

Here's a lighter one. I think it washes the colors out a bit but c'est la vie. Everyone seems to have a hard time seeing my stuff no matter how much I tweak my monitor so I just added a layer of white, 50% opacity, and set to soft light.

###Latest WIP ###

[RobA]

Here's a lighter one. I think it washes the colors out a bit but c'est la vie. Everyone seems to have a hard time seeing my stuff no matter how much I tweak my monitor so I just added a layer of white, 50% opacity, and set to soft light.

Are you on a mac? make sure you set your colourspace to sRGB for saving, this should make it the right brightness. Historically there was a big difference in monitor gamma (1.8 for macs vs. 2.2 for pcs) but that should be going away. I think now colourspace is the biggie for explaining big differences in image brightness.

-Rob A>

[Ascension]

Mac, no...I got snagged by the delicious pizza instead.

[mmmmmpig]

Love the page tiling and the water effects. This is one fine map.