06- I've ditched & redone my Google Maps landgrab. It wasn't big enough, especially to the north where I need the town to spread some. Instead of just extending it with another Google Maps screenshot, I went and got Google Earth and stitched together four screenshots. It wasn't much better than just regular Google Maps, really. Just more fun.
07 - ... which means I had to redo the elevation map, again, which I don't mind because it's fun painting up thousands of cubic yards of earth with a photoshop brush. You guys ever move any earth? I mean, like with a shovel? It is seriously hard work. And I build all the Woadsbury elevations while sitting on my couch, under the A/C.
08 - Screenshot of the gradient ramp colors and the Curves Adjustment Layer. I drew ten straight lines in the Curves, to give the gradient that stair-step effect. I suppose I could have posterized my elevation grayscale, but then I'd have to keep posterizing it every time I edited the terrain, or I'd have to keep choosing different shades of gray to paint with, meh. This is way easier. Plus, any time I want, I can draw eight lines in the Curves Adjustment instead of ten ... or twelve ... whatever. This is totally the easy compartmentalized way to go.
09 - I have it in mind that I want to do six distinct "time snapshots" run along the bottom of a general area map. I'm not sure I'm happy with the layout, but this is what I currently have. I want to do not only the castle, but also the town, as they grow. Ugh, I hadn't intended to do a whole town map here yet, let alone six town maps. Ugh. My projects have a way of exploding in every direction, and I end up making huge concessions just because of time. We hates it, precious; we wants infinite time to work, yes!
10 - I'm including an "area cheat" in the top right corner: southern England, and a zoom-in of Woadsbury and the county seat, Northampton. I have room under the area cheat to put some notes, or maybe just the title. Who knows. I don't know.
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This looks nice.
