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Thread: WIP continent map

  1. #1

    Map WIP continent map

    Been lurking around here for a while, and decided to show my never-ending WIP map of our DnD game.

    The map is made in Xara Xtreme, and all vector (apart from the monsters/animals/ships decorations, which are bitmaps that I shamelessly stole from different places on the web - map is for personal use only btw). I made a mask for every country on the map to make it easy to print seperate countries. I'm still trying to find a good way to represent different types of vegetation. Currently it only shows "forests" and a single swamp, but getting good results in both the continent-scale map and the country-scale map is tricky. Not too happy about the way the mountains are represented, but drawing them by hand in a perspective style is way too much work (and I lack the talent for that as well). I have seen some great tutorials on how to do them in Photoshop, but I really want to stick to vectors.

    Comments very welcome.

    Frans


    Click image for larger version. 

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  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    That's pretty good. Certainly opened my eyes about Xara (I was less than enthused about it). Good stuff so keep it up
    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.
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  3. #3

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    Photoshop and Xara require a total different technique. In both programs it's fairly easy to get horrible results, and for both getting good results requires some practice :-)

  4. #4
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    Looks good so far...

    GamerPrinter will be happy to have another Xara user on board.
    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.



  5. #5

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    Welcome to the Guild, Fransie! We Xara Xtreme users seem to be the rarest commodity. I've been mapping with Xara for three years, though using it for daytime graphics work for five or six. I have a couple tutorials creating map elements with Xara, plus you can check out my awards under my name, most of the Challenge awards listed involve Xara made maps. Plus I'm a pro fantasy cartographer doing regular commissions with several publishers (including myself).

    Again, welcome - and to agree with Steel General, "Yes, I'm glad there's a new Xara user onboard!"

    GP
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  6. #6

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    looking good. i'll be honest, haven't really heard anything thing about Xara, i'll be happy to see what it can do.

    Marc
    Visit my site for roleplaying at http://www.rpgrescue.com.

  7. #7
    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Pretty cool, I like the style.

  8. #8

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    Here's an update. The most important change is the way the mountains are represented. I'd like to hear your comments.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fransie View Post
    Here's an update. The most important change is the way the mountains are represented. I'd like to hear your comments.
    That's a nice style. I think overall the mountains get too dark in Marbuk, what i'm seeing outside of Marbuk works better IMHO.

    Also your transparent stroked type "Crescent Range" works very badly against the dark, busy background of your mountains -- and would probably still be a problem if you lightened the mountains.

  10. #10
    Guild Artisan Juggernaut1981's Avatar
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    The "Ink & Crumple" mountains don't quite seem to fit the other elements properly. I'm not sure exactly of the solution but I suspect it may end up being a "mountain range colour" or a "topographic-type" result.
    "Sacrificing minions... is there any problem it cannot solve?" - Order of the Stick


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