GP's point about the town being oriented to the lake, and not the page, totally slipped by me. Nice catch. 14, wow. I was drawing cars and busting my shins doing bike tricks, got my first D&D adventure while laid up then as well. Think of how far ahead of us you will be by the time you get to be our age (many of us are old fogeys in our 30s and 40s). Excellent work.
Last edited by Ascension; 10-13-2009 at 11:10 PM.
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
Okay....
Get your docks over your woodcut pattern and make them 100 opaque so the pattern doesn't show through. Redraw your waves using a soft brush, not a pencil.
Like the road and the town itself, all of the building are at precise right angles to the map. That is unlikely and it draws the eyes.
The shadow on the rooftops is odd, somewhat random. Consider letting PS draw the roofs by adding a 15 px soft chisel bevel to the buildings instead, and use global lighting so all of the light comes from the same direction. Barring that, put some analog buildings in using Butch's method for that since it's so fast, then do the bevel and see how the light is supposed to fall and use that as a guide for hand-creation.
Consider using a higher-opacity glow on the forest labels so you don't get so much bleed-through of the pattern from behind. You might also like the effect better if you use a smaller glow.
It's funny how even a simple map can really be refined by using subtle techniques and attention to detail.
I dont know that much about PS, just enough to do basic map kind of stuff, so uhh, how do you do all that global lighting and soft chisel bevel stuff?
Eabrek23
-"All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us."-
-J.R.R. Tolkien-
This is the window for the Bevel & Emboss layer style.
Style has some options like inner bevel, outer bevel, emboss, pillow emboss, etc.
Technique has some options like smooth, chisel hard and chisel soft.
Depth refers to how much the bevel interacts with the light source, higher numbers = darker shadows and brighter highlights.
Use Global Light sets the light source for the whole image if checked, unchecked means you can change it around for different layers and different effects.
Gloss contour refers to how the highlights and shadows ripple, default is this no gloss contour.
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
Oh yah the layer stules menu, I knew that heh.
-"All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us."-
-J.R.R. Tolkien-
Ok I tried the bevel idea and stuff, but I dont really like it. It looks too 3D-ish and I'm going for a hand-drawn look. I liked how they were before, except the shading of course. I could try the bevel thing again if anyone has some tips or techniques to make it look more hand-drawn.
-"All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us."-
-J.R.R. Tolkien-
Tell ya what, instead of fixing the old map completely, Ill just be sure to put all of this nice stuff you guys have suggested into the new one I'm making, and maybe later, I'll remake the Taerinar Map. The one I am currently working on looks like it will turn out very nice, especially the colors. I'm hoping to get it on the site by the end of the week or middle of next week. But please keep posting comments on this one if you notice anything so I can carry it over to the new one. Thanks everybody.
-"All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us."-
-J.R.R. Tolkien-
I wasn't suggesting at all that you use a bevel, I was just posting that to show you the Global light thingyNo harm no foul. ciao 4 now.
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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