The continents look great but the cloud effect looks like the land is 'floating' above the clouds. I think the problem is that there is no cohesion between the cloud layer and the landmass layer so for me the cloud effect doesn't really work. Maybe if you put the cloud layer on top of the land layer and used large but semi-transparent drop shadows so they looked like they were floating above the land?
I'm not sure about the scale of the map but if those are continents then the clouds seem to be in the big side....might be worth using the twirl filter (if you're using ps) and make some spirally types?
Sorry, I don't mean to knock your map, just trying to give you ideas for alternatives.
We might get more done if we focused on making up kingdom and city names rather than messing around with mountains and watching youtube videos.
Ravells - The landmasses are floating. This map is for a campaign setting my friend and I have been tossing around for several years.
http://heavensgate.wikidot.com/gaia
Last edited by NymTevlyn; 03-27-2009 at 03:18 PM.
What are they floating over? Presumably, if they were floating in the sky over another planet then would you see such blue sky between the clouds? Or would you see a smudge of land? If there is no actual land mass beneath the clouds then again, would the sky be so blue? Or would it be more of a whirling maelstrom of cloud?
I really like the land masses you have and Pasis' mountain technique is maybe the best I have seen it used, but I personally think your earlier cloud techniques look better than the current background.
Maybe if you combined the two? Those higher, wispier clouds along with those earlier, lower ones, so there is a lot more white and grey with maybe just a hint of blue or whatever colour is appropriate.
Last edited by Ramah; 03-27-2009 at 03:45 PM.
It's an oxygen/nitrogen gas giant, if such a thing is possible. There is no core planet the deeper you get. There are other skylands deeper, but that low, the pressure and heat combine with other forces to create an Elemental Chaos and volcanic activity is very much alive in the lower depths of the planet. It's one of the sources of additional organic and mineral matter in the upper atmosphere as the sulfur and all that other stuff drifts on the winds.
There are basically three habitable tiers:
- The Heaven's Above
- Heaven's Gate
- The Abyss Below
HA = Angels and other celestial beings. Wind and water elementals, ice and lightning para-elementals.
HG = Your bog standard humanoid races and smaller versions of all the elementals, though fire and magma are very rare.
TAB = Demons, devils and elemental forces that prefer to exist here. Mostly earth and fire elementals and smoke and magma para-elementals.
Altered the hue and saturation of the continental colors to something a little more ah, mild. Not so bright and green. Got all the kingdom names done in Westeros. Just need to come up with a bunch of capital city names next and then it will be "playable". Not sure what we're going to do about forests though. Don't want to make them cover up too much stuff.
We've also completely forgotten that Westeros is the name of the continent in George RR Martin's books. Time to come up with something new! I thought it sounded incredibly familiar.
Last edited by NymTevlyn; 03-27-2009 at 04:42 PM.
I don't know whether it's the colour change alone or the fact that you've dropped the grid below the clouds, but either way the islands don't seem so pasted on now. Looks a lot better. Nice one.
Danke! I thickened the lines on the rhumb lines, giving them some more weight beneath the clouds. I think it really helps to bring out the depth of the map. Going to try some small clouds floating above the skylands, set in out of the way places that won't cover up anything important.
Ok, adding forests. I think they look pretty good myself, but it helps to get other opinions.
And my latest WIP with rivers, mountains, and forests. Along with names for a lot of places. Still need some capitol city names and something for the HUGE mountain in the middle. Also, I added some hue/sat adjustment layers to the mountains. I think the new colors really blend well with the overall theme of the map.
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