Viridia - a regional map again!

[jshoer]

That border is looking really great! Adding the variation of different types and colors of vines was a great choice.

It's also a cool style you have going on in general, accentuating prominent flora in different regions. Is that an eye between those two trees?

[Francissimo]

amazing work you have here, your workflow is like a tutorial so thanks for sharing

[Caenwyr]

So glad I pop in i just the right moment to see this.
What a magnificent progress. This is spectacualar. The north canyon with the mountains is probably my favourite spot

Thanks Rafal! Glad to hear you like it. It's a spot I went a bit bonkers with, so there's a "secret" path under the eastern rim going all the way from one end to the other, and a few cave entrances that are almost invisible in the darkness. But I know they're there so I'm secretly quite pleased (^^,)

Hey, I'm sorry if this was asked before, but – are there going to be any labels? I should guess so from the style of the top left corner but it really strikes me as missing for now.

Ooh yes, there's gonna be labels alright. In fact in my update below the first labels are already there. The map isn't gonna swarm with them, but there's gonna be a good few. In one of the next updates!

That border looks great!
I really like the way you've integrated it with the map.

Hey thanks BKH!

That border is looking really great! Adding the variation of different types and colors of vines was a great choice.

It's also a cool style you have going on in general, accentuating prominent flora in different regions. Is that an eye between those two trees?

It's a portal, but shhh, it's a secret! ;-)

amazing work you have here, your workflow is like a tutorial so thanks for sharing

Well I'm glad I can be of use! You'll find the invoice in the mail

------------------

Alright, update! Now, it's been a while since my last post in this thread because I've been incredibly busy, mostly due to the corona crisis. Nope, I'm not one of these medical professional heroes, blessed may they be! Corona is keeping me busy in a different way: both the wife and I got the opportunity to work from home fairly early so we jumped on that, and we're keeping the toddler home too (daycare is still open but call me paranoid—I don't really trust that place right now!). Toddlers, as we all know, are time consuming little monsters. I hadn't expected so much of my newfound spare time to go to the little one but I wouldn't dare to complain! In light of the news reports coming in on the spread of the disease, growing grimmer by the day, I don't think I can complain about the fact that we get to spend a ton of time with our little one, even if we can't take her to a petting zoo or whatever. The weather's been exceptionally nice these past few weeks so we've spent a good deal of our free time in the garden or strolling around in the neighbourhood (the usually already quiet streets are now so empty of traffic to the point it's almost apocalyptic!), supplemented with a fair bit of work in the garden, on the house etc. You know how wives can be when they discover you have extra time on your hands. So yeah, mapping is kinda on the backburner for the moment, but hey, so be it! So many people are falling ill now, and so many others see their livelihoods threatened by these containment measures that I don't think "getting a bit less mapping done, but spending way more time with the family" is in any way a bad evolution. I just thought I'd mention it here, since this forum is first and foremost about mapping.

Still, while I don't worry too much about my own little family (I'm the oldest at 36, we're all perfectly healthy and we're basically self-quarantined), I'm worried about all the other people out there that still kick ass in the real world. Many of you guys, no doubt. So I would like to take this opportunity to send out my well wishes, hoping we're all gonna get through this a bit ruffled maybe, but otherwise fine. All the best to all of you! I really mean it. You guys are a bunch of really kind people, many of you I've liked from the first time I ever read a post of you, and I wish you the best of health. Yes, I know I'm rambling but I wanted to say something, even as uncoordinated as this. You know what I mean, right?

Okay, maybe a bit on the map itself? As you can see all the Xyla (magical trees) are there now, and they all have labels. Client also wants the prominent forests to have their own distinct colour (identical to the Xyla foliage colours), but I haven't found a way yet to do that in a non-ugly way . So that effect will be for a future update—if I succeed in getting it better!

Viridia (40a).jpg

[Caenwyr]

Wow, more than 3 weeks since my last update here huh? Well what can I say, busy busy busy. Mostly family busy, but I daren't complain.

Alright, changes since my last post:

1. I added a name plate! Yeehaw! Designed some curly, loopy, vaguely threatening-looking lettering and then destroyed it with tons of green goop.
2. changed several Xyla insets:
   
   • fattened up Crocea a bit so it there's a bit less negative space now;
   • added a bunch of floating islands to Aeris;
   • and a flight of birds next to Ignius;
   • completely redid Chloro; and
   • added some dark and stormy skies to Ebenus.
   
   
3. enlarged the canvas a tiny bit (I hated how "Ebenus Birch" threw a shadow that touched the edge. Neurotics will be neurotics!)

And I guess that's it! All that's left now is the labelling, and this thing is DONE!

Viridia (43a).jpg

[Kellerica]

Wow, I had fallen out of touch with this thread, but you have been doing some amazing work while I was looking away! It's looking fabulous.

The only minor thing that my eye catches, there are a few tiny slices of white pixels that are visible in some places on the frame.
Like these, for instance:
Untitled-1.jpg

It's by no means a huge thing, but my personal neurotics catch these right away
I don't know what your workflow is like, but I usually handle little tweaks like this by just having a layer on top of everything else named "Fixes & tweaks" where I simply paint over these these minor issues manually. I used to actuallt go hunting in my layer jungle for the culprit layers and edit those, but finally realised I saved loads of time and sanity by just doing them by hand...

[QED42]

Turned out awesome! Very impressive.

[Greg]

Yeah, this is looking really nice. The colours you're using have such a rich vibrancy to them and the border/title design look great!

[Caenwyr]

Wow, I had fallen out of touch with this thread, but you have been doing some amazing work while I was looking away! It's looking fabulous.

The only minor thing that my eye catches, there are a few tiny slices of white pixels that are visible in some places on the frame.
Like these, for instance:
Untitled-1.jpg

It's by no means a huge thing, but my personal neurotics catch these right away
I don't know what your workflow is like, but I usually handle little tweaks like this by just having a layer on top of everything else named "Fixes & tweaks" where I simply paint over these these minor issues manually. I used to actuallt go hunting in my layer jungle for the culprit layers and edit those, but finally realised I saved loads of time and sanity by just doing them by hand...

Hey Kell, you have keen eyes I must say! For this particular issue I went back to layer #4238 and fixed it there because I'm a control freak (and I want to be able to tweak effects layers that are situated all throughout my stack of layers without those "handiwork" corrections no longer fitting the surroundings), but your tip is really helpful for things discovered at the very end of the process! This is one I'm gonna take along! Thanks!

Turned out awesome! Very impressive.

Thanks QED! Not entirely done yet though. Client still doesn't like the way the mushrooms look (still too male member-ish), so I'll have to redo them entirely. Not in this update though!

Yeah, this is looking really nice. The colours you're using have such a rich vibrancy to them and the border/title design look great!

Thanks Greg, glad you like it!

[Caenwyr]

Okay, update!

I reintroduced the coloured forests per the client's request, but subdued them enough for them not to look too jarring and saturated. And I added the labels!

There's now 8 little numbered golden disks on the map, referring to identical disks at the top of the circular insets. These are the locations of the giant trees, as you probably guessed.

Viridia (44b).jpg

Any remarks or suggestions? Let 'em come!

[jshoer]

Overall, this piece looks amazing and I love it.

I have two nitpicks: First, I wonder if there's a good way to make the numbered medallions more prominent on the insets. Maybe if they were above the upper labels? Second, I'm not a big fan of the arrows. They just don't quite combine with the style for me.

Great work!