Argontath - Work in Progress

[Ascension]

2000 is enough, technically - I could squeeze an entire world into 100 pixels - but I almost always start at 4000 for a continent. More pixels = more detail and I'm obsessive about detail. Fewer pixels = larger scale. The answer is up to you really, how much detail do you want. Blowing things up to do a zoomed in regional map is hard to do because you're wanting to add detail that wasn't there in the first place. PS can take a layer and enlarge it without too many distortions but if you go too big you'll want to run some blur on it to smooth out the blockiness, maybe also some noise to put some bumps into it. Normally I just redo a zoomed in map from start because I can deal with those headaches while the resizing stuff makes my head hurt and trying to fix things takes too long. Of course you also need different settings and techniques for that so maybe I need to do a tut on satellite mapping at regional scale.

[Valtharius]

Went with 5000x5000 for the continent of Tathis. Did some rearranging of mountains and finally put rivers down. This is about 8 hours worth of work right here... I seem to be picking up speed! I know the river system (and lakes) in the northwest area of the continent is wonky looking but it was divinely altered.

I am really enjoying this tutorial and with all the tweaking and experimenting to the settings, I am feeling much more comfortable!

Let me know what you think!

~Val

[Valtharius]

I had some time to think about things the last few days... I created hastily sewn together world map and was unhappy with the results. I had created preliminaries of the continents to experiment with the rivers, cities, fonts, etc... until I put together the final draft of the world map. I decided on a 7500x5000 map size so as to include all the continents and increase detail. I am to the point now of placing rivers... this should prove to be quite tedious and time consuming, but it is a labor of love! heheheh

Here it is submitted for your approval....



Thanks Ascension!

~Val

[Valtharius]

I hate borders... took me a while (a long time) to set them down as it was my first time trying it. Placed country name markers (so I don't forget lol) and approximate areas where the capitols lay for future reference when I go back and try stylizing the map. Just thought I'd share my progress.

~Val