Map of the Dawn Republic

[Phanues]

Hi guys - i only recently registered, so i thought i'd post a WIP for a fantasy map I've been working on for the last week or so.

The map is for the Dawn Republic, an area used in the Yogscast D&D stream, a Dungeons and Dragons series being played live on the Yogscast Twitch channel every Sundays from 5pm GMT.
If you enjoy watching people play tabletop games, or D&D in general i can highly recommend it, as it's a fun series to watch in my opinion.

The DM, Mark Humes had uploaded a basic map he whipped up for the viewers to his Twitter : LINK
Since the map was pretty basic, i figured i wanted to create something a bit more high spec.
I started out on creating an old looking parchment map, but i quickly scrapped it because i ended up making it in too low a resolution, and was not satisfied with having to use Photoshop brushes to detail towns/mountains/trees on the map, i wanted a more hand-drawn feel to it.

I've already spent quite some time on this, and while i did not keep track of all the things i did along the way, i did at least save out some separate stages of the process.

Progress collage :

1. First i created an alpha map, using the tried and tested method of rendering a layer of difference clouds, increasing the threshold and cutting out parts of the new shapes to use as coastline.
2. Next, i filled in the landmass and sea with a bunch of basic colors. I also stroked the coastline to give some preliminary definition where the water dropped off from shallow to deep.
3. The colors were a bit too bright to my liking so i subdued them a bit. Here you can also see my newly defined brush colors which i keep on a separate layer.
4. Still not being happy with the colors, i swapped things around. the lands to the right of where the mountain ridge is going to be is mostly grasslands, while the area off to the right is a desert biome, which is now reflected in the colors. i also added in some yellowish highlights along the coast to denote beach areas. I also created a swirling pattern on the sea layer to give the illusion of currents.
5. Here i added in a pretty basic bump map to lend the terrain some relief. I toyed around a bit with it in Wilbur, though since the rivers were already defined, there wasn't much i could do with those.
6. I started blending the colors for my landmass a lot more and bringing out some more saturation. i reduced the texture on the desert area, and blended it in with the grassland - keeping the highlights in places where the landscape is supposed to have some hills.

Where i'm currently at :


A lot of work has happened in between the last step of the collage and this picture - i created the mountains myself - i used a 1px brush to block in the general shapes on 3 separate layers - one layer for the base mountain shapes, one for the ridge running from peak to peak, and another layer for the secondary ridges that run down the mountain. I then selected each layer, made a work path out of it, and on a new layer used the stroke+simulate pressure technique to make the mountains appear more hand-drawn.

I also re-did the wave lines in the sea, for a more gradual change from shallow to deep water - also adding a repeating sine wave shape to the outer rim of it.

The forests are made by a liberal application of some splatter brushes, use of the Noise and Crystallize filters in Photoshop, after which i use a scattering maple leaf brush to generate dotted shapes and add some more Noise + Gaussian blur.
Wen i was satisfied with the basic shape, i added an inner shadow to simulate roundness in the canopy, a drop shadow off to the bottom and left, and on a new layer i selected the canopy shape and used a 2px stroke with a darker green color for a nice outline.
I then created some highlights in the trees by duplicating the layer, using the plastic filter effect and setting the new layer to exclusion on 70%fill and 40% opacity.

To do :

• Finishing the mountains, i'm currently in the progress of adding the final shadows and highlights.
• Defining hills - though the hilly areas are already somewhat defined through the bump map, i think i'll try and draw them in as well to see how that looks.
• Adding in locations. - I'm still contemplating on if i want to create icons for each location, or simply use simple representations like circles. i would prefer the former, but the latter is a lot simpler to do.
• [Optional] I'm still not completely sold on the forests as i have them now. A hand drawn forest might look better next to those mountains. it's not something that has a priority for me at the moment though.

Software used : Photoshop CS5
Image size : 4093 x 2647, 300 DPI (started out with 4100x2650, new size is after some cropping.)
Time spent so far : anywhere between 6-9 hours over the course of a week.

If any of you wishes to share their thoughts/critiques, that would be greatly appreciated.

[Josiah VE]

Looking pretty good, I like those forests, interesting techniques.

[Phanues]

Thanks, i wasn't sure about the outcome at first but i have to say they are growing on me.

After working on the map some more throughout the day this is where it currently stands :



I added shading and highlights to the mountains, and created a bunch of icons to denote my locations.
Icons were made by combining and editing the custom shapes in Photoshop, the house shape for example is just the arrow shape flipped upward and a hole cut into the bottom to make a 'door' shape.
The icons will serve for now, i don't have enough information on the locations and how they look to create more in depth ones right now, though i might come in to change them later.

Likewise, the banner with the legend is only a placeholder - i'll likely go into illustrator and create one that feels more '3D' later on once i am happy with the map base.

[Phanues]

This is where i ended up after working on my map today :


- Added in the sandbars on the hills, using a technique i gleaned from someone showcasing how they drew their deserts that i adapted for my own. (though in the tutorial they use an ipad+apple pen, i only have a mouse to work with.. :p )
- Also added in the locations for the hills, and did a quick shadow/highlight pass on them - i don't want them to 'pop' too much so they overshadow the rest of the map's elements.
- Redid the banner - i created the base in illustrator, the text on it is a placeholder that will be replaced eventually.

I feel like the technique for the trees i used is not right for this map though - i tried making the clumps appear more in perspective by adding a row of tree trunks, as can be seen with the top left forest, but it just does not look right.
The method i used would probably work well for top-down maps that are a bit more zoomed out, but i think i'm going to have to go in and draw some actual tree masses.

[Josiah VE]

I absolutely love how this is looking.

A few thoughts: to me the sand dunes look seem too much in a line, but I like the swirls, it gives kind of a whimsical feeling, I don't know if that's what you were going for but it looks nice. As for the mountains, they seem too crisp compared to the rest of the map and the contrast between the mountain colour and ground colour is too sharp, maybe make it fade a bit more?

And what's with the labels? Most are simple icons and two are more 3d looking.

[Phanues]

I know what you mean with the dunes looking too uniform - i blame the fact that i was zoomed in throughout the whole process, so it was only after i hd finished and zoomed back out that i noticed.
I'll try to break the dunes up a bit, but i really don't want to re-draw too much of it.

As for the mountain color, i should be able to change that quite easily, the color comes from a single color filled layer on color mode, so i can just change the color i filled it with. i guess i'll try to bring it more to a darker brown-grey color to match the desert and transition area into the grass a bit more.

The icons are like that because i'm not a 100% sure yet what to do with them. i drew in the basic label looking ones as placeholders (so i don't go and draw in hills and other details in places where locations are going to be) and the two 3D looking ones were a bit of an experiment with how that style would look.

What i think i'll end up doing is either ceating some more detailed 2D label like icons in illustrator, or just create some low poly 3D models in maya for some proper detailed isometric icons.
Making models in maya might take more time but i think it might be worth the effort.

[tilt]

Hi Phanues, lovely work.. I like the overall color scheme although it is a little on the dark side on the right side of the mountains. ... One thing I think stand outs are the icons - way to flat in contrast to the rest of the style. But I can see in your own post that you're thinking .. looking forward to seeing how it ends

[Lingon]

This looks great! Lovely style. The forests are really nice but as you say, more top-down than the rest. More horisontal detail should bring them into perspective. If the lighter color is in its own layer, it'd probably be enough to edit that a bit to get the right look.

[Phanues]

Thanks for the insights guys, it helps a lot to have a pair of fresh eyes to look at things - when I've spent the better part of a day working on an image i tend to lose focus of the details.

Here is what i've ended up doing so far :



- Redid the forests. the only thing that was kept was the original shadows layer. i drew out the shape of the forests again , trying to stick to the original shape, followed the contours of major tree structures with lines, and added some tree trunks and small raises in the the terrain for them to 'sprout' out of, though you might be hard pressed to see since the pic uploaded in this post is only at 50%, you can probably see the effect the best in the trees near the coastline.
I also balanced out the colors a bit and applied some new highlights to the trees, and brightened up the ground around them - i feel like being overshadowed by the trees, the area immediately surrounding the forest would have less vegetation like grasses/bushes growing there.

- Added some detailing to the banner, just some scrolling and a sun logo, but it makes it look a lot better in my opinion. all effects applied to it are on separate layers, so i can still make edits to the base i have in illustrator (like changing the text on the scroll.)

- Did some heavy duty masking of the dune layers, removing some of the repetitive lines there in an attempt to break up the shapes a bit more. I'm satisfied with how it looks now, and to be honest it's probably as good as it's going to get.

- Blended in the mountains - Followed Josiah's advice and brought the coloring of the mountains more in line with the desert and the strip of 'dirt' that separates the bottom of the mountain range from the grasslands.

To Do :

Icons - Like mentioned by tilt, they feel very flat right now, even the 'semi-3D' ones i made. i feel like any kind of 2D representation is going to have the same problem. I'l either continue the semi-3D approach, just adding a lot more detail and hand-drawing the shapes instead of using the ones provided by the shape tool, or go the extra mile and actually model some low polygon objects such as houses/castles/forts/towers to use. (though that would likely add a few days of work, since i am a beginner at 3D modeling at best.)
Roads! - I've made some attempts at placing roads, but nothing i was 100% satisfied with as of yet. i'll keep playing with it until i get it right.
Compass rose - I've ditched the idea of placing it on the banner itself, i'll probably add in a relatively small one in the sea area above it instead.
Place name markers - something for when everything else is finished, i still need to add text to all the markers. i've allready grabbed a few free for commercial use ones that i like and plan to use, though i might have a look around for a few more if the look isn't entirely what i desire.

[Phanues]

So i've chosen to make models for structures to use as location icons.
The first one I've started on is a medieval-style house/cottage, since it's the structure that will find it's way in most of the icon representations of towns on the map.

The advantage of creating the various structures as 3d objects is that once created, i can quickly edit the parts it is made up of to make a ton of variations on the same type of structure.
I can shift around,duplicate, or even hide entirely the various parts like the doors, windows, roof tiles, basement hatch and shack.

I wasn't able to work on this yesterday, but i spend a good part of my Saturday getting it to where it is now. Keep in mind i still need to assign materials/textures to the various parts, which is why it still appears in greyscale.



You might think that I've gone a bit ham on the detailing as a lot of it will be lost with the small size the icons will end up being, but i did this on purpose so the icons can be used in future projects as well.
It's something that is a long way off still - but making an actual 3D representation of a fantasy town map is something i am interested in doing eventually.

This list is more of a placeholder for myself to keep track of my progress and plans, but i did include some background info on what i need the various parts for.

modeling TO DO:

Houses :
- Stone ramshackle house - current WIP
- Thatched roof variant.
- L-shaped stone house
-'ruined' house - for use in the ruins to the north

Tower - one design to spice up some of the larger towns, and 2-3 of elvish design. (In the setting the map is for, the Elven races live in towns surrounding their spires - each spire having a different theme of autumn/winter/moon, etc.)

Castle/Fort - 2 stone castle variations - one for use in the capitol Talis'val , 1 for the city of greybelt. 1 stone fort variation, 1 Dwarven style Fort/city variant.
(Interchangeable for the most part in style, once i have the parts for one i should be able to rearrange them to quickly build the other. However, i also need to create a 'Dwarven' mountain fortress - the city of Aramount is a dwarven fortified city, built into the mountain. not sure on what to go for stylistically to indicate the dwarven origin of the structure yet.)

Dock/Ship (the capitol and 2 of the other cities are near the sea, and would have docks. i intend to reflect this by having a dock/ship included in the representation for those towns.)

Wall elements (many of these towns have a wooden or stone palisade. i'm planning ot creating a few pieces of wall which i can combine in my desired shapes.)