Highmoon - First attempt at a town map

[ravells]

Nice map! My advice is to desaturate the colours...they are quite loud, especially the roofs of the houses. The fields are also very bright .... do have a look online at colour tutorials, whether it's fantasy or reality, having a consistent colour pallete really helps. A quick fix would be just to layer a colour on top of the entire map and lower the transparency. Noise is also a great way to add texture. I've had a play and it's by no means perfect but this is sort of what I mean

[Ascension]

I knew there was something tapping me on the shoulder about this but didn't know what it was until Ravs pointed it out...excellent color mod by the way. Overall the composition looks great and the execution is good as well but that one lil bit about color really makes it hum. I grant thee a Nice Job!

[Pandora]

The river could perhaps use a contour line to make it stand out a little more among the forest.

[goatdealer]

As always, you comments have helped me develop my maps (and skills).
It was also my thought that the map was too bright but I had no idea on how to darken it, as I almost exclusively use CC3 it was difficult to filter etc.
Ravells comments set me off to find out what desaturate meant in mapping terms with the final conclusion that maybe I need to invest in photoshop.

I sort of got round the problem by adding a grey layer which I then made transparent and blurred. I then finished the whole lot of with a touch of Spatial Matrix Processing to darken the map. I have also added a black blur to the river to make it stand out a bit more.

I think this is a far as Highmoon will go for now, I keep fidlding and its time to move on, as indeed have my players!

[Gandwarf]

Good job, goatdealer. I like how it turned out and I repped you for it.
I still wish you would post a higher resolution version. The map is blurry because it's so small.

Investing time in software like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro is never a bad idea. I saw some great maps which were started in CC3 and then finished in Photoshop.

[goatdealer]

Thanks to you all for your help and comments. I shall download gimp forthwith (though you do realize it will only lead to me needing more help).

Gandwarf: Many thanks for your rep and and assistance, in regard to the resolution issue, the simple truth of the matter is I don't know how!
I did these images by using the save as rectangular area jpeg option, I also tried screen dumping it but that was worse, is there a better way?

I am happy to send you the original fcw file if you want to see what I am doing wrong!.

[RobA]

Thanks to you all for your help and comments. I shall download gimp forthwith (though you do realize it will only lead to me needing more help).

We've helped a few people get familiar with Gimp, so no worries.

Just post and ask questions if you get stuck.

-Rob A>