Very nice start!
Thanks for joining our merry band of adventurers!
Feb / Mar '18 Lite Challenge: The Alveolate Isle
I have decided to give it a go on another challenge. This one, Map My World!, looks very fun and there are already a couple of good entries. The provided map is a great shape and I have decided it will be an island, probably about 500 miles wide, approximately the size of Iceland. Alveolate is a synonym of hollow, meaning deeply pitted. I'm going to try to see how I can incorporate that.
As for my tools, if you've seen my previous entries you'll know I have been trying different software, this time is no different. I have also upgraded my laptop. I am going to use Clip Studio Paint EX on a 2017 MacBook Pro. My Wacom tablet isn't compatible with the new operating system so any sketching will use my iPad and Wacom pen along with Astropad to mirror the Mac display onto the iPad.
For a start I have created a page border from a template and outlined the island, indicated the points of interest,along with adding blue for the ocean.
### Latest WIP ###
Very nice start!
Thanks for joining our merry band of adventurers!
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Wip 2
A small update. I have adjusted the coloring and the texture around the coast. I also added a hex overlay at 25 miles per hex. I'm not sure I'll keep it. I have found that Clip Studio Paint has a very large library of assets to download, mainly added by the user base. I've been looking through it and I'm not sure what I'll be able to use but it's at least helpful to see what others have been able to do.
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Wip 3
Another update. Played with the ocean some. Added rivers, my first real attempt at that. I'm sure I'll need to tweak them as I add mountains but I think for now it looks okay. I made the rivers on a vector layer so I'll be able to change them relatively easily. I like the vector trim tools in Clip Studio Paint, it made the river system much easier to create. Any comments are welcome.
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Wip 4
Okay it's been a few days but I have an update. I Have added a border and labels. The labels need to be rotated and fit better but in Clip Studio Paint I need to rasterize them first so I want them to be as close to the size and look I want before I do that. I have also made an attempt at mountains. I think I like the style but it may need some refinement yet. Any thoughts or advice is welcome.
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And also, I wasn't so happy with my pen on the iPad using Astropad so I picked up a used Wacom Intuos 4 on eBay. I already like it much better than my old Wacom Bamboo, I would recommend anyone looking at a tablet try to get the pro Intous over the consumer level, what ever they are calling them now. There are some good deals on older ones on eBay, you just need to make sure the driver will work on your computer before you get it, and make sure the pen is included.
Looks good. I like the simplicity of the map. The mountain shading doesn't quite work for me, though. But I don't know what to advise to improve it since it's a technique I'm struggling with.
Reading through these posts, I think the mountains are where everyone strugglesOriginally Posted by kenan
...The mountain shading doesn't quite work for me, though. But I don't know what to advise to improve it since it's a technique I'm struggling with.I agree they aren't quite working, it may be that the shading is to deep. I just now tried lowering the opacity on the shading layer to 50% and that seems better. I also plan on adding a color layer to add some whites, browns and greens to help differentiate the elevation and vegetation, maybe that will help as well. Thanks for the observation
The problem with the mountain shading is that the shadows are on all sides of the mountains. You haven't taken light direction into account. Pick a spot for the sun and make all the shadows consistent with that.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Wip 5
That was what I started out trying to do, with the Sun SSE of the island, if you can believe it. The shadows crossed the ridgeline and got kind of muddy as I tried to blend them out. Painting them in is not something to hurry through I guess
I have added more mountains and have tried a new method of shading the mountains. This time I duplicated the ridge layer, moved it to the upper left, changed blend mode to Darken, and put a motion blur on it. I duplicated that twice moving one down and right and moving the other up. I blurred both layers above the line with more blur on the second. The layer below I changed the blend mode to Add (Glow).
I think this turned out better but I'm not quite sure yet. And I still have mountains to add on the left half of the isle.
### Latest WIP ###
Very nice and clean map ! Not sure for the mountains, it's surely me but they seem somewhat inverted to me ? Perhaps the fact that the shadows are not going in the same direction ? Anyway good job so far, go on !
