Page 2 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 51

Thread: Criticism requested

  1. #11

    Post

    The first thing that jumps out at me is the artifacts from jpeg compression. I'll bet if you save it out again with a quality level of 80 - 90% it will look much nicer. I'm guessing this one is around 50 - 60%? Jpeg doesn't like areas of flat color very much, which is interfering with the clarity of your coastlines.

    I don't know how you're approaching your shaded relief, but if you're doing it with the overlay and dodge/burn trick, put your relief layer above the trees--that way the trees will appear to be on the slopes also.

    Beyond that, I agree with Ravs: some variation in the sea would be very nice. Make it subtle, though--you don't want the water texture to overpower the details of your land.
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

  2. #12
    Guild Member Asharad's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    80

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Steel General View Post
    Did you follow a tutorial somewhere? I wouldn't mind having the link to it if you did.
    I found a tutorial hidden on shadedrelief.com. I had been to the site many times before I found it. Here is the direct link.
    http://www.shadedrelief.com/retro/index.html

  3. #13
    Guild Member Asharad's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    80

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Midgardsormr View Post
    The first thing that jumps out at me is the artifacts from jpeg compression.
    oops. I didn't even look at that. Never fear, the uncompressed full-rez file runs about 107MB.

  4. #14

    Post

    Very good site. I just skimmed the article, so I apologize if what I am about to say was already covered there. Torstan suggested an improvement to this technique some time back--create a layer and fill it with a medium gray: 127, 127, 127 in RGB. Put that layer above all of your terrain layers and set its blending mode to Overlay. The new layer should vanish--all of the gray pixels are now transparent. Do shaded relief manipulations on this new layer, and they'll affect all the layers below them but they will not actually change any of the other layers. Your shaded relief will be completely non-destructive, and if you decide to add new features later on, they'll automatically receive the relief treatment without you having to do any difficult matching later on.

    For an example of how this looks under the trees, take a look at this image:
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	MenninsHallow.jpg 
Views:	76 
Size:	2.54 MB 
ID:	8752  
    Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
    http://www.bryanray.name

  5. #15
    Guild Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    United States of America
    Posts
    61

    Default

    This is very nice. I especially like the trees and the rolling hills.

  6. #16
    Guild Artisan landorl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Brandon, FL - USA
    Posts
    552

    Default

    There are a couple of points along the coasts and rivers that have some pretty straight lines, or sharp angles, which do not look quite natural, but I like the trees a lot.

    What is the scale that you are looking to do? It looks like a pretty small area based upon the trees.

  7. #17
    Guild Artisan Hoel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Skövde, Sweden
    Posts
    658

    Post

    I've used your trees in my project, check it out and see what you think
    http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3782

  8. #18
    Guild Member Asharad's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    80

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by landorl View Post
    What is the scale that you are looking to do? It looks like a pretty small area based upon the trees.
    This is a small area of a bigger map. I haven't put a scale too it, but I think this map is roughly 3500ft square. I plan for at least 256 more tiles, so the finished area would be about 10 x 10 miles (If I survive to see it finished - the task is looking larger and larger). I want enough room for 1000 players to live and explore, so I might have to make it larger.

  9. #19
    Guild Member Asharad's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    80

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Hoel View Post
    I've used your trees in my project, check it out and see what you think
    http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3782
    Nice job!

  10. #20
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    St. Charles, Missouri, United States
    Posts
    8,392

    Post

    Looks pretty good, I like that water.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

Page 2 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •