I do, but I'm biased.
What about this fake DEM version? Do you guys like it better than fuzzy caterpillars?
I do, but I'm biased.
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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I like it better than the caterpillars as well, but it could be just because I've been looking at Nat Geo maps my whole life and that's closer to how they do their political maps
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
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When you say you tried the mountain icons, do you mean you tried something like Ramah's Vaniya, or just representational little triangles? The fake DEM looks nice, but if you're going to be continuing along with the same style as the original map, I don't think it will fit in very well.
Yep. I actually tried with Ramah's brushes and with hand-drawing my own mountains, and in both instances, the number of political borders and text on the map, combined with the mountains, made it impossible to read. Simple triangles, I thought, looked too, well, simplistic.
I thought I'd try this one in a more modern style, but we'll see how it goes.The fake DEM looks nice, but if you're going to be continuing along with the same style as the original map, I don't think it will fit in very well.
Update. Next thing to do is change the ocean, and get rid of the rings.
You know, I'm just not very sold on the fake DEM look. I'm not sure it really works without going full-on sat-style. I guess a good question might be, if this is a political map, are the mountains even really necessary on the end product? They're certainly necessary for getting everything in the right spot, but I'm not sure you need to show them to anyone but yourself. I mean, if you're happy with them, by all means keep them, but give it some thought
I like them, but the soft-shaded DEM mountains and the concentric-lined coastlines don't match so well. The lined coastlines feel antique-y, whereas the mtns and coloring look super-modern. I'd try a gradient-style coastline, see if you like that better with the rest of the map.
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
For what my opinion might be worth, I think you should go back to the caterpillars. These mountains just don't fit with the rest of the map.
I think I'm going to run with this and see where it takes me. I'm happy with the way it's turning out.