Calidar: The Republic of Osriel

[Thorf]

Two versions of the same map to share with you today. The first is my regular style. For the second, I put the terrain from the first into a 3D plane in Photoshop, then tweaked and stretched the 3D layer until it covered the same area as the original map. 5 hours later it finished rendering and I replaced the terrain with the 3D render.



Both probably have their uses. The perspective one is great for seeing the shape of the mountain ranges at a quick glance, including which peaks are highest. But at the same time, the perspective mountains hide things like lakes and rivers behind them. I'm thinking I'll keep the top down view for my main maps, and make something else with the 3D renders — thematic maps showing migrations or other information, probably.

The question is, which do you prefer?

Edit: I wrote an article about this with a cool Juxtapose JS widget over on my web site: http://www.thorfmaps.com/perspective...raphical-maps/

[ChickPea]

That's pretty cool with the 3d render! I like seeing the individual peaks. It really helps to sell the idea of 'mountains'.

I don't have PS and doubt if this is available in Gimp, but perhaps you could outline briefly what you did, so that others can try it? Five hours though.... :O

[Daelin]

I totally agree with ChickPea, the "raised" mountains look way cooler than the flat version. You've definitely got a cool technique going there, and I'd be very much interested in leeching from some sweet inspiration from it!

I will say, though, I'm not too fond of the labeling, specifically the names of the nations. I find the bright white drop-shadowed font somewhat distracting and, to me, it doesn't really blend naturally with the rest of the map. In regards to the rest of the map, it's pretty dang good-looking. The color palette is agreeable and the title scroll and legend are a nice touch, as well.

Great job!

[Voolf]

Cool map Thorf. Very nicely done.

ChickPea, i would say its done with bevel and emboss in Layer options which unfortunately Gimp does not have.
The rised muntains to me, seems like he just stretched them vertically.

[The_Sleeping_Dragon]

Both are quite stunning

I agree with Daelin's helpful comment ie
The mountains look much better in version two not least you have been able to draw glacial ice on the peaks which gives the mountains better definition - the draw back is they are permanently in summer so you may wish to do a winter version too perhaps?
The font and colour used for the names might want to change? LeCourier's Table of Legibility might help as it gives you legibility options for fontinage on green, blue backgrounds etc

Best wishes

The Sleeping Dragon

[Josiah VE]

Beautiful map! Everything is excellently done, the terrain, the coast, the rivers... I do really like the 3d mountains, it's very neat. Especially the ones in the top left corner, those are my favorite!

[Mouse]

Wow! Those are some steep mountains indeed!

I prefer the first style. The second one is just a bit too vertically exaggerated for me

[Thorf]

First, thanks for all the comments!

That's pretty cool with the 3d render! I like seeing the individual peaks. It really helps to sell the idea of 'mountains'.

Top-down mountains, while great for many purposes, do leave a little bit to be desired in terms of visualisation. I agree, it's very nice to be able to see the individual peaks clearly, and it's much more obvious how high each peak is.

I don't have PS and doubt if this is available in Gimp, but perhaps you could outline briefly what you did, so that others can try it? Five hours though.... :O

ChickPea, i would say its done with bevel and emboss in Layer options which unfortunately Gimp does not have.
The rised muntains to me, seems like he just stretched them vertically.

I'm afraid it's quite a lot more complicated than that... First I created a design for the DEM (height elevation data) in Photoshop. Then I eroded it in Wilbur. Finally after colouring it in Photoshop (using mostly masked gradients) the vertical exaggeration is provided by a 3D layer.

The 3D layer itself is a depth map plane formed from the DEM layer, using the map as a skin. Usually adding perspective would make the map turn into a trapezoid, getting smaller as it extends into the distance. But instead of doing this, I scaled it to fit the size of the original map after changing to orthographic mode and adding some vertical height (Z axis) to exaggerate the mountains. The whole map is now a render of a 3D object — hence the render time I mentioned.

I'm sure you could do something like this using other 3D programs, such as Blender. I use Photoshop because that's where my map is being made, but the final 3D layer is composited anyway, so really it could be done in another program without any problems. The biggest problem may be with scaling it to fit the exact dimensions of the map, I suppose.

I totally agree with ChickPea, the "raised" mountains look way cooler than the flat version. You've definitely got a cool technique going there, and I'd be very much interested in leeching from some sweet inspiration from it!

Thanks!

I will say, though, I'm not too fond of the labeling, specifically the names of the nations. I find the bright white drop-shadowed font somewhat distracting and, to me, it doesn't really blend naturally with the rest of the map. In regards to the rest of the map, it's pretty dang good-looking. The color palette is agreeable and the title scroll and legend are a nice touch, as well.

The fonts are locked in at this point, I'm afraid — they're part of the product identity for the setting. But I agree with you, the province names are a bit over the top here. I'll have another pass at these when I revise this map in the future. Thanks!

I agree with Daelin's helpful comment ie
The mountains look much better in version two not least you have been able to draw glacial ice on the peaks which gives the mountains better definition - the draw back is they are permanently in summer so you may wish to do a winter version too perhaps?

You're absolutely right — I hadn't even thought of this. I've added seasonal maps to my list. Thank you very much for the suggestion!

The font and colour used for the names might want to change? LeCourier's Table of Legibility might help as it gives you legibility options for fontinage on green, blue backgrounds etc

Thanks very much for the link. This is something I'm always struggling with.

Beautiful map! Everything is excellently done, the terrain, the coast, the rivers... I do really like the 3d mountains, it's very neat. Especially the ones in the top left corner, those are my favorite!

I've been looking forward to mapping out that one — Araldûr — for years now! I made the DEM back in 2014, and it was a lot of fun sculpting all those mountains. It's finally near the top of my list now.

Wow! Those are some steep mountains indeed!

I prefer the first style. The second one is just a bit too vertically exaggerated for me

You're probably right — I can easily dial down the effect to something still visible but less extreme. Thanks for the feedback!

[AdventureDepot]

I like both, slightly prefer the raised mountain one

I like the style, I love german names for maps and the coast is also cool.

*thumbs up*

[Ilanthar]

As everyone (it seems), I prefer the second one. It's a very nice improvement of your excellent style, Thorf .