The Known World

[bengaijin]

I've spent a fair bit of time working on the map's aesthetics - still in Illustrator. I've tried to replace the vector-heavy quality of the original with something a bit richer and more naturalistic. To do that I've done a lot of work with inner and outer glows of various sorts, feathered edges, colour adjustment, and line quality. I've also added another layer of overlaid texture to the image and punched up the text by turning it white and pulling the shadow in tightly to frame it. A little bit of the depth of the image seems to have been lost in reducing the file down to a practical size, but I suppose that's standard.

I'm pretty pleased with it. What do you all think? What more should I do?

[industrygothica]

I love the feel of this map. The colors are wonderful, and I love the clean lines. The only things I'm not really feeling are the forest and mountain textures. Don't get me wrong--it's a good map like it is, but I think it's got the potential to be truly great with a little more attention to those areas. Again, that's just my opinion; the next guy may completely disagree with me.


-IG

[bengaijin]

The only things I'm not really feeling are the forest and mountain textures. Don't get me wrong--it's a good map like it is, but I think it's got the potential to be truly great with a little more attention to those areas.

I agree. They're a bit clumsy in relation to the subtlety that is emerging elsewhere on the map. They suited the original vector model fine, but their time is past. I think I would like to replace them with something a bit more painterly, maybe a bit more literal. I'll sift through the tutorials and see what I can find... It seems like most of the other maps on this site are oriented to photoshop/brushes as a way of achieving textures. Is there a strategy better suited to illustrator that anyone knows?

[elemental_elf]

I really like this map. My only glaring issues would have to be the forests (which you said you shall correct) and the mountains (they feel a bit repetitive currently, I think the map could be truly stunning with a little more variety and some clever use of shadows).

EDIT: Opps, I mean repetitive, not represent, lol (stupid spell check)

[industrygothica]

I agree. They're a bit clumsy in relation to the subtlety that is emerging elsewhere on the map. They suited the original vector model fine, but their time is past. I think I would like to replace them with something a bit more painterly, maybe a bit more literal. I'll sift through the tutorials and see what I can find... It seems like most of the other maps on this site are oriented to photoshop/brushes as a way of achieving textures. Is there a strategy better suited to illustrator that anyone knows?

Is there a reason you don't want to do the mountains in Photoshop? I think Pasis's mountains would look really great on this map if you could find the right texture.

[Ramah]

I don't mind the forests, I can see how they suit the style of the original you did. The mountains could do with work as you know but the thing that I would change the most on this would be the little spotty texture you have for the desert. I dunno, it just makes me think of 8 bit computers or Atari 2600 graphics or something.
Other than that I think it's a lovely map. I really like your landmass shapes.

[bengaijin]

Is there a reason you don't want to do the mountains in Photoshop? I think Pasis's mountains would look really great on this map if you could find the right texture.

The only reason I would be looking to continue in illustrator is that I have everything neatly layered and easily editable in that program. I'm afraid that I will lose all of that if I switch it over to photoshop. There isn't a way to keep layers between platforms, is there?

...Just looked up how to export a psd. I'll move it to photoshop.

ps - desert dots are fixed. I'll post once I've done some work on the mountains and forests

[industrygothica]

The only reason I would be looking to continue in illustrator is that I have everything neatly layered and easily editable in that program. I'm afraid that I will lose all of that if I switch it over to photoshop. There isn't a way to keep layers between platforms, is there?

...Just looked up how to export a psd. I'll move it to photoshop.

ps - desert dots are fixed. I'll post once

Glad you figured it out. I have no clue how to do anything in Illustrator. I was actually considering hitting you up for a tutorial when you were finished.


-IG

[bengaijin]

I have no clue how to do anything in Illustrator. I was actually considering hitting you up for a tutorial when you were finished.

I'd be happy to set one up. Though I don't really know what I would include. I'll think about what might be useful and look at some other tutorials to get an idea of how to structure one.

[su_liam]

I really like the continent shapes, although, to my mind, they look like some sort of polar azimuthal projection with the (north?) pole being centered roughly at Absalom island.

I'm moving in the opposite direction. Trying to integrate Illustrator into my very raster-oriented approach. I've been inspired by the HandsomeRob tutorial and atlas, although my work is still very different.