Bunjil

[Cardenaglo]

Hello everyone,

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on a map and have been lurking here for help and inspiration.

The map itself is of a portion of Bunjil, a planet in which several millions of people moved to because they destroyed the last one. Its inhabited by aboriginals ranging in all sorts of shapes and sizes that are intelligent but still very primitive.

Now, I've got the landmasses the mountain ranges done. I've also got the city/settlement placement and roads done. Now the big snag I've hit is tree placement. I'm using StarRavens "Sketchy Cartography Brushes" and when placing trees I feel like I'm either placing too many or too little.

So I'd love to hear on how to better place trees and would als like to hear critiques on the rest of the map.

[kacey]

Hi Cardenaglo, I'm no expert, I'm just learning myself, but I've tried using these same brushes before. I'm gonna get a bit nit picky on you so I hope I don't over step my bounds, I just see so much potential here, and much room for improvement.

In regards to you're trees, I prefer the areas where you've stamped them more closely together, it kind of hides the repeating nature of stamping brushes over, and over. If you find there seems to be too many in a particular area maybe try putting a layer mask over it and remove some of the trees here and there to thin them out a bit, or make them flow with the land form a little better.

In the areas where there’s less trees, or a single stamp you could try adding individual trees around the edges to extend them a bit or change the shape of the cluster to hide the repeating pattern of the brush. You could even mask out some of the trees on a single stamp to make them fit better within a particular area, or subsequent stamping.

Don't be a slave to the brushes, I find you have many areas where you're stamping overlaps other elements, or just doesn't fit you're land form, I even see areas where you've stamped over top of the coast line, and into the water... This can be easily remedied by adding a layer mask, or erasing the areas that overlap.

Some of your mountains, and roads just touch the coast line, I would move these in a bit.

I also feel like your coastline could really benefit with some more contrast between the land, and the sea. I would love to see a more definite outline on the coast, or maybe even a darker blue around the edges, or some wave lines. I think it would better match the hand drawn style of the brushes... And in regards to that, I think the definite black you've chosen for the icons is too dark, and makes the back round look washed out in comparison. A nice brown would look good, or you could even just lower the opacity of the icons a bit to make them a bit less stark.

One last thing is I think the composition of this map would look much nicer with a portrait orientation instead of a square, I find the top, and bottom coast is too close the edge of the map.

Sorry again if I went too far, or rambled on too much in my critique, but again I see allot of potential for this map, and I can't wait to see it progress. It look's like you've put allot of thought into the history of the people who live here, it would be interesting to know more about the cultures you've created.

[caribbeancasa]

So I'd love to hear on how to better place trees and would als like to hear critiques on the rest of the map.

I'd like to echo the sentiments that Kacey put forth. Your map has fantastic potential. It just needs a little more attention to the details.


Regards,
Scott

[caribbeancasa]

You might also try the 'Define Brush Preset' under Edit in Photoshop.

Open a 200 x 200 file with a transparent background. Use the tree brush once to place the trees in the middle of your file. Then go in with the eraser and remove several of the trees on the periphery, thereby giving the trees a different shape. Use the Edit>Define Brush Preset command to create a new version of the brush. Rinse and repeat to give yourself a ton of different shaped options and your forests will start to look more natural.

Good luck!

[Cardenaglo]

I'm gonna get a bit nit picky on you so I hope I don't over step my bounds, I just see so much potential here, and much room for improvement.

I welcome the "Nitpicking". You actually reminded me of areas that I needed to correct but never did.

In regards to you're trees, I prefer the areas where you've stamped them more closely together, it kind of hides the repeating nature of stamping brushes over, and over. If you find there seems to be too many in a particular area maybe try putting a layer mask over it and remove some of the trees here and there to thin them out a bit, or make them flow with the land form a little better.

In the areas where there’s less trees, or a single stamp you could try adding individual trees around the edges to extend them a bit or change the shape of the cluster to hide the repeating pattern of the brush. You could even mask out some of the trees on a single stamp to make them fit better within a particular area, or subsequent stamping.

I see what you're saying of the repeating nature. I'm definitely going to work with a few layers for the trees to change the shape of the clusters. Adding single trees around certain clusters also has a nice effect especially in the forests that are circled around with roads.

Don't be a slave to the brushes, I find you have many areas where you're stamping overlaps other elements, or just doesn't fit you're land form, I even see areas where you've stamped over top of the coast line, and into the water... This can be easily remedied by adding a layer mask, or erasing the areas that overlap.

Some of your mountains, and roads just touch the coast line, I would move these in a bit.

Now you've mentioned layer mask a couple times. I'm not entirely sure what you mean, could you explain?
I agree that somes mountains and roads go in to the water. I had forgot to fix em

I also feel like your coastline could really benefit with some more contrast between the land, and the sea. I would love to see a more definite outline on the coast, or maybe even a darker blue around the edges, or some wave lines. I think it would better match the hand drawn style of the brushes... And in regards to that, I think the definite black you've chosen for the icons is too dark, and makes the back round look washed out in comparison. A nice brown would look good, or you could even just lower the opacity of the icons a bit to make them a bit less stark.

I'm actually changing the palette and removing a couple of parchment overlays I used to correct the inability to properly distinguish the different levels of water. I also agree that the icons are a bit dark and will look into finding an opacity to make them seem less so.

One last thing is I think the composition of this map would look much nicer with a portrait orientation instead of a square, I find the top, and bottom coast is too close the edge of the map.

I changed this right away and it does make it look nicer. However now im not sure by how much to stretch the canvas

Sorry again if I went too far, or rambled on too much in my critique, but again I see allot of potential for this map, and I can't wait to see it progress.

Dont be sorry. I gained a lot of insight thanks to your critique and will definitely be using it while I rework the map to make it look better. Thank you so much

You might also try the 'Define Brush Preset' under Edit in Photoshop.

Open a 200 x 200 file with a transparent background. Use the tree brush once to place the trees in the middle of your file. Then go in with the eraser and remove several of the trees on the periphery, thereby giving the trees a different shape. Use the Edit>Define Brush Preset command to create a new version of the brush. Rinse and repeat to give yourself a ton of different shaped options and your forests will start to look more natural.

Good luck!

Thank you so much! I wouldve probably spent a while looking through google trying to figure this out

As for more about the people and cultures, each region is loosely based on old civilizations and their gods which I've made different groups out of. The aboriginals are very tribal and also loosely based on the mythos of different cultures but I'm still trying to ground it in real world animals. One example being the Mirka. They're essentially Yetis, hence the name Mirka, but I'm rooting them in large apes. The humans are also very technically advanced. So you have people with cybernetic enhancements ranging from a chip in your brain to most of your body being made out of metal. However power is hard to come by for one reason or another and only certain pockets have electricity and thus these becoming the more powerful cities. Though it is limited and most battles are still fought by foot soldiers. Whether they have guns or not is a different story. But yeah that's a bit of history there

But again thank you both so much for replying. I'll try to upload an update either tonight or tomorrow.

[kacey]

I'm so glad I didn't insult you, I was a bit worried. I can't wait to see the changes you've made.

A layer mask is just a way to remove, or hide parts of a layer without actually removing information, so instead of erasing something which you can't undo, you can change you're mind, and just hide it instead. If you paint with black on the layer mask it hides that part, and if you paint with white on the mask it makes it reappear. I'm sure if you do a quick Google search you'll find plenty of information on how to do it, and I bet there's a pile of YouTube tutorials as well, they can probably explain it better than me. It's really very useful, and saves allot of headaches.

It will be interesting to see the new pallet you've chosen.

[Cardenaglo]

So I'm still debating what palette im going to use. i might even use a green from the original landmass with a brownish inner glow.
From these three samples though the first one is the more cohesive of the three in terms of colors working together. In the second one i tried green but I've got mixed feelings about it and for the third the light color sorta merges with the coast.

Also don't worry about your criticism, it wasnt insulting. Even if it was I wouldn't take it to heart.

But yeah I'll upload the newest image soonish.

[Lingon]

I really like the off-white land color. Would be even better with a less bright glow on the water, and a slightly darker brown glow on the land, I think.

[Cardenaglo]

I apologize for it not being a fuller image. I messed up my save and had no recent backups and it took me a couple hours to get everything back to a workable state. I have to remember to make backups every time I save.
Anyways, the green one is out. I've yet to choose a landmass color but that's not that big of a problem as I can change the color whenever, but it will probably end up being one of these two.

For the layers on which I'm placing my trees and mountains I've made channel masks that way even if the brush does go off on to the water it wont appear on the water. So now the problem will be that the tree brushes get cut off and I'll have to go around the shore fixing that.

The trees in particular I took your advice Kacey and keeping the stamps close together when possible and when not using individual trees or small clusters to make it look less uniform.

As for the mountains on some stamps I'm both erasing overlaps and parts of the mountains and adding other mountain pieces to make them look nicer. In these images you can't see it though, sorry.

Lingon, in the off-white landmass I did as you said. What do you think?

[kacey]

Hey Cardenaglo, you're trees are looking much better, there's still a few I feel are a little close to the shore.

I agree with Lingon on the colours, tho if it were me I would make the off white a little warmer, at first glance with the mountains, and trees added it appears almost like a winter land, or like there's snow or something, unless this is what you intended. But like you said, you can fiddle around with colours any time.

I'm glad to see a definite outline on you're coastline, it looks much better.