WIP: Fallen Shore

[Sharpsmile]

Hello all,

This is my first effort at a city map in Photoshop, and only my second Photoshop project. This area is a zoomed in section of the Hot Gate map I am working on.

The idea of the map was a flotilla/dock town that was built around giant ships that are now permanently docked and are used as major hubs in the town. I struggled with the dock design around the ships, trying to figure out how the docks might grow around them as they were retired for service.

I don't like the castle looking building on the land, that is going bye bye.


Hopefully the map is interesting, any advice or feedback is always welcome.

Started off with the land (still figuring out my line work).



Started messing with docks, ships, and added in some border elements from The Hot Gate map to help me hold it all together.




So I started adding in buildings and some district details, working on shade/shadow with the buildings around the largest ship.
- took out the paper banner at the bottom
- added in the pirate icon in the upper left (all of the corner icons represent different pirate factions that operate in the area)
- The giant gear/cog is a water pool for a dwarven submarine to come up in (dwarves like caves, subs are like caves, lets roll with it)
update 03/17/15 - this one is a jpeg *Thanks Azelor for the tip* lets see how it goes =)





So I went in and modified a bunch of the docking in the North East section of the map as well as a bunch of small dock tweaks throughout, mainly putting in boat access to some of the buildings.
- Modified Docking (really tried to take the advice about putting buildings over the edge to heart and see if I could make it work with what I had goin on, I hope it looks ok).
- Started some light/shadow work on the roof pitches
- started doing some drop shadow work, still plenty of that left
- I did go through and I started labeling the waterways, docks, piers, etc... that's hiding on a separate layer....I could post that if anyone thought it might be interesting to look at.
- tweaked some of the primary dock color patterns, I was trying to make the edge of the docks look salted, the rest of the wood is old and a grey/brown.
Update 03/19/15




Thanks all!


~Sharpie

[Sharpsmile]

Oh no, I meant to post this under City/Town forum. Is there any way I can move it?

Sorry about that

~Sharpie

[Domino44]

Very interesting idea! I will be watching this thread.

[Azélor]

You map is looking good I really like that style.

---

About your question:

The maximum number of pixels the image can contain is a little above 30 millions. Something like 5500x5500 px. So you can make the image larger if you want.

You almost at the maximum size (bytes) allowed for a file. You can see the limit in my signature as explained by the administrator a long time ago.

If you want to reduce the size of the file, you can export the file in jpg instead. Yes you do lose a little of quality technically, but unless your zooming at the maximum, it's almost identical.
Saving in jpeg at the best quality possible, the file is 2,33 mb instead of 4,66 mb.

Just make sure you keep the original file in psd uncompressed or whatever file extension your using.


Edit: PNG can make files smaller than Jpeg sometimes. It depend on several factors.

[arsheesh]

Ooh, this is looking promising. I love the concept behind this piece as well. Look forward to watching it develop.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[- Max -]

Oh no, I meant to post this under City/Town forum. Is there any way I can move it?

Sorry about that

~Sharpie

Moved it for you.

[Ilanthar]

Good concept, make me think of a novel with a great floating city made of a lot of boats. Good start, I like the way you did the water!

[J.Edward]

Again, nice style to start this one sharpie. It will be interesting to see how you do all the docks and buildings here.
I will enjoy seeing this unfold.

[Sharpsmile]

Moved it for you.

Thanks Max.

[J.Edward]

Hey sharpie, don't be afraid to have some of the buildings extending out over the water. A lot of wharf/waterfront/dock areas do have buildings where the roof line and the actual building is cantilevered out over the water. Sometimes it's for loading/unloading from boats using a pulley system up in the building.
I think it could add a lot to this piece since it is all docks.