First time creating a map, feedback and help needed !

[CartoCooper]

Hey Cartographers guild, i started this topic to design a map for some fun with friends. However i actually like to keep working on this 'world'.
I made a small part of it, but right now i'm working on the whole land of where the old map was. You can read the old op below, please do give feedback about the zoomed out map and the old op !
Right now i am working on this:

More about this in #7



This is the old OP:

Hey cartographer guild, this is my first time here ! Sorry if this is the wrong part of the forum or if do anything else wrong.

I started on making a fantasy region map (For my buddies and i, we like to do political roleplay), however, i have no experience with this kind of map creating.
So i was wondering if you could give me some feedback on it. Its still very work in progress, but i wanted to see if you could already help me in anyway..

Right now only the north west is worked on (the most important part), i placed i think all the mountains there. I just have to add the rivers..



The image is 3000x3000, if the icons are too small you could try clicking on the picture for a bigger version.
Do the mountains look realistic enough for a fantasy map ? How many rivers should i place ? Any ideas for the rest of the map ?
I plan on making the northern part, where there are already mountains to be a bit northern/European-ish temperature.
Then past the middle (at the neck-ish part) a more jungle/warmer, and then at the under borders desert.
At the east side i wanted it to be a bit crazy, mix the temperatures.

I made this so far in GIMP. If the mountains are placed in a totally stupid way, i can just delete the layer and start again ,
If there is any program you think i should better use, please say too !
The mountains and icons and all were from a brush pack i found, so i did not make them.

[Chick]

This is really quite good for a first map post! Congratulations

There is a thread in the Tutorials section on getting your rivers in the right places: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...627#post258627

Read that and you will have no problems

GIMP is a very good program for you to be using, and there are also lots of tutorials on GIMP techniques around here, so go searching a bit and you will find more than you can digest

I'll look forward to seeing your map with rivers and climate when you are ready

[foremost]

Hey there.

First off, chick was right; it's a great first map (and a first guild post). I liked the texture of the background you used.

Just a few things I noticed:

1) It was difficult to tell the land apart from the ocean. Some of your borders ended up looking like rivers, which is what threw me off. I'd recommend either shading the water/land slightly or adding extra lines to your coast to help admirers tells the difference.
2) With regards to the picture below, I couldn't tell what's going on here. If it's a bridge to the island, you might make that more clear. Alternatively, if it's a natural land formation, it probably shouldn't exist. It would be highly unusual to see that go on naturally. If it's a man-made wall of earth to protect the harbor or something, that would be a massive project. Anyway, I can't tell what it is
3) The map is overall in a pretty dark tint. Do you think it would look better if you made it lighter?



Anyway, hope I'm not coming off as too harsh or critical. This map has great potential and I also look forward to seeing further progress on it
Foremost

[Ascension]

In regards to the mountains that depends on the scale of the map - how many miles across is it? I think once you separate land from water you will see that this landmass shape is pretty haphazard and unrealistic unless the scale is about 100 miles and then you'd have far too many mountains. If the scale is meant to be 1,000 miles or more the landmass becomes wonky. Landmasses are based on being a part of a continent so you kind of have to keep that in mind - continents don't meander around. Keep a foundation of plate tectonics in mind and plan your landmasses around that. You can make a continent kind of funky but at a certain point it becomes unrealistic even for fantasy. If the only purpose is to roleplay a type of Axis and Allies game then you can disregard everything I said and just have fun moving tanks and planes around. That was always my favorite part. Ph and making the sound effects. "vrrrrooom" "kathoomb kathoomb"

[CartoCooper]

Sorry for the really late reply, i had some personal things going on :$
I made a bit of progress, i added rivers (Hope they make basic sense..), and added a few colors to it to make it more obvious what is land and what isn't.


And for fun, here is the faction map we had in mind..


It may not be a very logical map... however i think i like it
Any feedback is of course wanted :3

This is really quite good for a first map post! Congratulations

There is a thread in the Tutorials section on getting your rivers in the right places: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...627#post258627

Read that and you will have no problems

GIMP is a very good program for you to be using, and there are also lots of tutorials on GIMP techniques around here, so go searching a bit and you will find more than you can digest

I'll look forward to seeing your map with rivers and climate when you are ready

Thank you, i think i learned a bit how to do it. I still think rivers a very hard to do tho..

Hey there.

First off, chick was right; it's a great first map (and a first guild post). I liked the texture of the background you used.

Just a few things I noticed:

1) It was difficult to tell the land apart from the ocean. Some of your borders ended up looking like rivers, which is what threw me off. I'd recommend either shading the water/land slightly or adding extra lines to your coast to help admirers tells the difference.
2) With regards to the picture below, I couldn't tell what's going on here. If it's a bridge to the island, you might make that more clear. Alternatively, if it's a natural land formation, it probably shouldn't exist. It would be highly unusual to see that go on naturally. If it's a man-made wall of earth to protect the harbor or something, that would be a massive project. Anyway, I can't tell what it is
3) The map is overall in a pretty dark tint. Do you think it would look better if you made it lighter?



Anyway, hope I'm not coming off as too harsh or critical. This map has great potential and I also look forward to seeing further progress on it
Foremost

You were right about the little land thing, i thought it was kinda ugly too, so i removed it I made a few changes to the lighting. Maybe this will make it easier to see

In regards to the mountains that depends on the scale of the map - how many miles across is it? I think once you separate land from water you will see that this landmass shape is pretty haphazard and unrealistic unless the scale is about 100 miles and then you'd have far too many mountains. If the scale is meant to be 1,000 miles or more the landmass becomes wonky. Landmasses are based on being a part of a continent so you kind of have to keep that in mind - continents don't meander around. Keep a foundation of plate tectonics in mind and plan your landmasses around that. You can make a continent kind of funky but at a certain point it becomes unrealistic even for fantasy. If the only purpose is to roleplay a type of Axis and Allies game then you can disregard everything I said and just have fun moving tanks and planes around. That was always my favorite part. Ph and making the sound effects. "vrrrrooom" "kathoomb kathoomb"

Too be honest i don't know anything about scale. I think it should be pretty large, however. Big enough to be different types of climates. However small enough that it's not even close to say Europe or something. I may read into tectonics plate and such, but maybe ill just finish this one and see if i can do it right the next time
And that's the best part about it !

Thank you three for all the feedback, i think it will really help in the future

[CartoCooper]

So i redid all of the mountains and textures, and followed a tutorial on creating better mountains.
I also deleted the outlines around everything. The only lines are rivers now. Tree's are also in this one !



What do you think ?

[zeichen]

though I like the frozen region, I actually think post #5 maps look better. I really liked the hand drawn look that you achieved. You definitely have some natural talent. Keep at it and I am certain you could make some really professional quality maps.

I definitely prefer your hand drawn mountains but that is mostly because I cannot ever do it justice. I just don't have the control I need with a mouse to do line drawing and with my arthritis I will never hold a pen again. Probably why I moved to sculpture, but even with any limitations we have, there is always a way to achieve your end result through different methods.

Add some bump maps or at least do a few more shades to give some more depth.

The coast line needs some work. Perhaps add hand drawn contour lines.

Keep up the good work.

[CartoCooper]

So i wanted to make a zoomed out map of where my previous map was.
And i made this:

The old map is in the middle of the upper part of it.
I'd say the scale of this is around... Europe ? Even smaller most likely.
On what can i improve, what is unrealistic and what are things i should think about next time ?
I am going to color it all, i think..

though I like the frozen region, I actually think post #5 maps look better. I really liked the hand drawn look that you achieved. You definitely have some natural talent. Keep at it and I am certain you could make some really professional quality maps.

I definitely prefer your hand drawn mountains but that is mostly because I cannot ever do it justice. I just don't have the control I need with a mouse to do line drawing and with my arthritis I will never hold a pen again. Probably why I moved to sculpture, but even with any limitations we have, there is always a way to achieve your end result through different methods.

Add some bump maps or at least do a few more shades to give some more depth.

The coast line needs some work. Perhaps add hand drawn contour lines.

Keep up the good work.

I personally like both of them as much.. ill think i will work on both just for fun.
I didn't draw the mountains my self, i used a pack for that. I am thinking about doing the map over again in hand drawn look and make the mountains myself.

I am still new at this and tried messing around with the bump maps, i think i will make it work with all the tutorials here I'm already happy about the ones i have now, even though they are a bit crappy

Thank you for the tips and opinions !

[Chick]

You've done a very nice job with the coastlines, they look very realistic. Maybe a little bit more jagged and less rounded, but overall excellent.

I also like how you have used the textures and colors, extremely attractive combination. This map is going places!!!

[CartoCooper]

So i colored a lot of the terrain and tree's now. I also added rivers and marked with red where i want to add mountains.
I'm not sure if the mountains and river locations make sense. I think the rivers are good but not sure if the mountains are in the right place.
This is the map with colored terrain, no trees.



And here is with trees and future mountains marked in red.



I made a few size adjustments to some things. First of all the small 'lake' with the islands has been made smaller. Also one bay has been filled with terrain, it made it look a bit weird.

I want to make a location map with the map from #8, i think that "clean" style is much better for locations than with textures.

You've done a very nice job with the coastlines, they look very realistic. Maybe a little bit more jagged and less rounded, but overall excellent.

I also like how you have used the textures and colors, extremely attractive combination. This map is going places!!!

Thank you !
I will make the coast line a bit more jagged if i can find a good way to do that.