Little Side-Project(s)

[CarnivorousJellybean]

For practicing everyone's advice on because I got so much great feedback on my world map (seriously thank you so much you guys). I want to try everything that was suggested, but in an environment where I have a little more creative freedom; the other map's being worked on with my boyfriend and he's super busy with exams right now - actually, I should be busy with them too, but I'm a master procrastinator - anyways, discussing changes with him is a very slow process.

Hopefully it's acceptable to have two WIP threads going at once. If not, let me know and I'll cease posting updates on this thread. This one'll contain various projects, but my first one's a realistic-ish coastline for an... oh I'm thinking North Atlantic-ish area (like Newfoundland). Very rocky, not much beach, a fair amount of hills. So here's my map so far!


Do you like the bellybutton hill?
There's a few points that feel a bit "shiny" to me, but overall, I like it so far. Tried using cloud renders to make the coastline a little more realistic (even using some photos of clouds) like Durakken suggested, made the coastlines less fractal than my other map's, figured I'd use a more realistic setting for my love of rocky coasts than an equatorial rain forest, and started with the hills this time instead of throwing in rivers willy-nilly! I'm quite proud of myself, actually.

Height map was made from a greyscale normal map I made out of a few compiled cloud photographs, then edited using Pasis' technique from his tutorial on the Blackwind Crater page, then textured with a tiling rock texture. Lots of fun work!

I'm not quite sure how to proceed to "cut" rivers into the landscape though. Still, any suggestions? I'm all ears!

[groovey]

Hi! I don't think there's any issue at all with you havin more than one WIP goign on. As long as one doesn't go too crazy spamming the forums with a fair amount of threads at once, I figure there's 0 problem.

The map itself looks gorgeous already, specially the sea.

So will there be no vegetation at all? Just wondering, since it seems like a pretty big area if the scale is comparable to Newfoundland.

[Meshon]

The bellybutton hill is cute, it actually looks a little like there's a whole torso there, perhaps some petrified being from long ago…

It looks like there's several places where rivers would be likely to occur on your map; as to putting them in there you could try starting with a line and then embossing it (down) to get an idea of where light and shadow will fall. Then I'd recommend just painting away until you love it. I'm really out of my depth and experience here though; I really need to do some regional maps one day soon!

Keep going, it's great! I find I get some of my best work done when I'm procrastinating on something else. Just… procrastinate in a balanced fashion

cheers,
Meshon