the coastline has been bothering me too. i keep playing with the ocean layer, but can't get it to do what I want.
the only issue with a sandy beach is that most of the areas are not going to have beaches. I'm going to keep pondering on this. Thanks for the input!
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"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
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Pimping my worldmap here. Still WIP... long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of what I've done so far...
Well I am knees deep in labeling this bad boy, but thanks for all the kind words you guys. To be honest I just gave directions and a base, CM is the artist on this one
In answer to the beach question... for most of the shot I think at this height beaches wouldn't be seen really.
Correct me if I am wrong.
BTW, while "crater bay" as it has been dubbed (actually Serovin's Bay ) is amazing... check out that ridge on the eastern side... WOW!
That still blows me away.
Back to labeling
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I can't see the new map at work but the comparison to europe has me wondering.....Waaaaay back when Runequest put out a new boxed edition they included a map of their known world. For all intents and purposes it WAS a map of Europe. England, Norway, North Africa and all. Just colored and relabled. Now I do not have the Warhammer map at all, but given the above example, I am not too sure how much infringement there would be if you modded the H*ll out of it, unles you maintained their own additions/mods to the original Europe based map.
Maybe Gameprinter or other publishers may think differently (and I would give them more weight than me meself), so I hope they will wade in with some advice. My two cents is run with what you got and maybe seek some legal advice from someone in the field of intelectual property law. I loved what you two had done wit the other ne and would HATE to see it get put aside because of something like this.
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Please take my critiques as someone who Wishes he had the Talent
Well, you're right, technically speaking. At this range you wouldn't be able to see beaches unless they were miles wide. However, at this range mountains don't really look like that from above, either. What I find nice about the style is the evocative, artistic representation with the appearance of looking real (i.e. mountains that look like what we think mountains would look like from above, as opposed to how they actually look from above. Personally, I'd use the same modus operandi on the coastlines. Either way, it's your guys' map, and it will still look great at the end.
I think, therefore I am a nerd.
Cogito, ergo sum nerdem.
Check out my blog: "The Undiscovered Author"
It's the story of a writer... follow me in my simple quest to get published, and share your own writing stories, adventures and writerly tips.
Pimping my worldmap here. Still WIP... long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of what I've done so far...
I agree about the beaches not necessarily being visible (depending on scale), but I find that a 1-2 pixel "beach" helps to define the coasts and keep them from getting "lost".
Just something that oozed out of the cesspool I call my brain
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maybe i'll play around with it, toss in a few beaches here and there, arrange for a few cliff faces (ack, what did i jsut set myself up for there, the plateau was bad enough).
Enough to stand out the coastline, but not overwhelm it.
And as to scale, if we're going with a full-accuracy, those rivers would be what, 20 miles wide?
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
LOL!
Okay I will continue to label and just paste in whatever you come up with as the new background!
Nice work on the borders/cartouche shrinkage btw
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I have a thought on the coasts, but I'm not sure how well I can describe it without examples. I'll do my best and try to put up an example later.
It looks to me like your forests are a layer of noise with an emboss filter run on them, making them look like a bumpy texture with the light shining from the NW. At the borders, it looks like this is simply cut off without keeping with this texture.
It may look a lot better if you were to create a second emboss layer that affects the border of the forests/land. This will highlight the edges of the forest along the coastline in a manner that is consistent with the texture itself. Similar bevels can be applied to non-forest coasts and the borders between forests and plains. In my experience, it makes the coastlines look much more natural.
the forests are actual texture, tossed in with the pattern stamper. then some layer effects (bevel/emboss mostly) added to bring out the 3d effect (much like the pasis mountain tutorial which is what they are based on). So.. close
And now that you mention it, I did forget one of my typical steps, which was to select the coastline, feather it to 3 or 4 pixels, and delete the forest layers right on the edge. Let's see how that does....
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."