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Thread: Feedback for new mapper

  1. #1

    Wip Feedback for new mapper

    Hi, this is my first post but I've been lurking here a while admiring the fantastic maps and reading some of the tutorials.

    I've just started working on designing a world for a D&D campaign I will be running and I wanted to post one of the maps I'm working on to get some input and feedback on the style I'm using. Suggestions on how to improve it or critiques of my mistakes are welcome.

    My intention is to make a map that's very simple and uncluttered, at least for now (I may produce some more complex or stylized maps later on based on the basic ones). I'm also hoping that it's clear and easy to read.

    This is a physical map only at this stage. Once I have the geography mapped out I plan on using it to generate the history of the region one era at a time, so that I can add man-made structures later on. As such I don't have names for anything yet since I hope to name them in the language of the culture that settles there.

    The yellowish areas are deserts, the green are forests (largely dry tropical forests in this area) and the brown areas are two different levels of mountains. The plain textured areas are savannas and grasslands.

    This is centered on 25 degrees latitude and -45 degrees longitude, ranging approximately 5 degrees in each direction (the lines on the map are for five degree intervals).

    I'm working in Photoshop CS 3, based on data I generated with Fractal Terrains version 1.5 and I've used some of Pasis' textures from their mountain tutorial to construct this map.
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  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Welcome Aboard!

    ...and for having a map in your intro post have a bit of what we call 'rep' *bonk*

    It's a nice start, though I'm a bit confused as to what's going on with the rivers/lakes.
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steel General View Post
    It's a nice start, though I'm a bit confused as to what's going on with the rivers/lakes.
    Here's what I was thinking.

    Hopefully it makes sense and doesn't defy too many laws of physics.
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  4. #4

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    Here's where that map is in the bigger picture.

    It's map number 1. (the red square).

    I've also got a map here of where I calculated the major river systems would form.
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  5. #5

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    I like the maps and your are welcome Michaelk.
    http://www.cartographersguild.com/signaturepics/sigpic3377_5.gif

  6. #6

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    Thankyou Joćo and Steel.

    I realised that the rivers were rather bulging out where they joined which may have been why they were unclear, is this any better?
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  7. #7
    Guild Adept Naeddyr's Avatar
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    Is that an actual map projection I spy there.

    This looks good, it looks mappy, but not too mappy. Not if you're mappy and you know it clap your hands mappy, but an understated kind of felt mappy.

  8. #8

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    I look forward to seeing more.

  9. #9

    Post

    Quote Originally Posted by Naeddyr View Post
    Is that an actual map projection I spy there.

    This looks good, it looks mappy, but not too mappy. Not if you're mappy and you know it clap your hands mappy, but an understated kind of felt mappy.
    Thankyou.

    It's a Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area projection. (I love Fractal Terrains).

  10. #10
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Two things; 1 welcome. 2 your rivers need to be more squiggly. C it is perfectly clear to me. 82cpartV nice job so far.
    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

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