The archipelago of the tides

[Chronist]

The archipelago of the tides is a small archipelago off the coast of Maracasar. Many reefs and rocks lurk below the surface, giving pirates and buccaneers an ideal space to hide. The islands are wild and mostly uninhabited. Only on the central island u find a small settlement called Mastbruch.

The map was created from a mixture of inkarnate and photoshop

[trechriron]

Love it! I especially love the "crab isle" it seriously inspires adventure ideas. Also, I am so jealous of your sea color. It is in my estimation the most beautiful perfect sea color. You should make a swatch and sell it.

[Kellerica]

I thought it best to answer you here, since the visitor message text book is awfully small and this might get a bit long... (oh, and don't worry about the language thing, I'm not a native English speaker either, so we'll just have to make do )

To start things of, I'm a sworn Photoshop user, and I make all my maps with it from start to finish. I'm working with the latest CC version at the moment, but until recently I actually used the ancient CS2 version for years. So if you have an older version don't worry about it. I also use a Wacom Cintiq 22HD, so I do most of my lineart freehand with that.

Now, the lines you were referring to are usually called 'rhumb lines'. They were/are used in real maps as some sort of a navigating tool for sailors I believe (see this for an idea what they might look like on real maps), but I, as well as a number of other fantasy mappers, have adapted the idea of them for purely the purpose of decoration.

I'm assuming you were referring to my Northern Lands map when you asked about how to make them... That map is quite old by my standards by this point, I have learned a lot since then and the way I did them there is probably not quite how I'd do them now. But I'll try to break it down the best I can. You were right, they are set below the landmass level. Depending on the map, I tend to go with either a lighter or a darker hue than the sea, and usually I like to keep them pretty non-dominant and subtle - they are, after all, just decorations.

The color that I use for them again, depends on the map. It's really about just experimenting with what looks best (forgive me, I don't know how well you know your Photoshop, so sorry if I'm pointing out something painfully obvious here, but just in case). The Layer Style window and the Color Overlay option in particular is your best friend with this, since it's the easiest way to modify the color and tweaking until you find something that looks good.

In the case of the NL map, there is so so much about that maps color that is entirely down to the textures I used. These days I'm much better at manipulating the colors with adjustment layers until I get exactly what I want, but back then, I just kinda tried to work around them as best I could. Just to give you the general idea, I've included an image to show what a small portion of said map looked like without the texture. As you can see, the colors are really aggressive underneath the textures, as back then I hadn't discovered the ways of working around the textures with color adjustment layer. Do not do it like this. Can't stress this enough.

But here you can see, the rhumb lines were set to white, the layer style set to Overlay, and the opacity of the layer then dropped down to 20%. That together with the texture resulting in what you see on the final map. Here I used no Outer Glow, but in retrospect I probably should have. With that, I would have set the Glow color to be the same as the color of the layer itself, set the opacity to maybe 40-50%, and the Size and Spread both to 5ish, or something to that effect. But the thing to understand here is that when the textures contribute this much to the result, if you just copy this on to your own map, I'd say that there's a good 90% chance it won't work very well. You always have to find the thing that works with that particular piece you're working on. This should still, hopefully, give you some idea as to what sort of settings and things you want to be looking at.



Now, as for how to actually make the lines. It's fairly simple. My tool of choice for this task is the Custom Shape tool, my overall favorite thing when making decorations or heraldry. I've made myself a simple shape like this:


I basically just make one, place it somewhere, then make copies of and arranging them around until I they look good. Since I just use them as decorative elements, I pay no mind as to where they have to be in order to work properly (hell, couldn't even if I wanted to since I have no flipping idea how they actually work), whatever looks good is good to go. After I'm done with the lines, I usually like to add a few rings here and there among them, maybe circling the important islands or have one that has the compass rose in it. Here, too, I work with a custom shape, a simple ring with about the same width as the lines themselves. Once the entire arrangement looks good, I move both the lines and the circles to the same layer folder. This way, I can set Layer Styles to all of them at once, but still keep the different elements separate in case I need to change something later on.

That's just my philosophy with all map-making: never flatten or merge layers unless you absolutely have to. Keep them named and organized, use the layer folders because they are a godsend and help you keep everything in order. When I'm nearing the end of a project, I have usually at least half a dozen main folders with several subfolders within them. I.e. Base (subsections for Sea, Sea decorations, Land, Land decorations), Lineart (Coastal lineart, Rivers, etc.) Markers (Mountains, Forests, Settlements, Roads, Trails, etc.) Textures & Color adjustments, Border, Legend... and so on and so forth. It is chaos in the end, but at least a somewhat organized chaos

... whoo, hey ho for the wall of text. Hopefully this answered your questions even a bit. Do let me know if you need clarification on something, I'm not the best at explaining myself...

[Kellerica]

... how the hell do I remove those Attached thumbnails from this post?! Those are the two previous images that are not even supposed to be there!

[Mouse]

You need to edit and go advanced then manage attachments

[Kellerica]

Thanks, Mouse... Dang, internetting be HARD.

[MPG]

Now, as for how to actually make the lines. It's fairly simple. My tool of choice for this task is the Custom Shape tool, my overall favorite thing when making decorations or heraldry. I've made myself a simple shape like this:

I basically just make one, place it somewhere, then make copies of and arranging them around until I they look good. Since I just use them as decorative elements, I pay no mind as to where they have to be in order to work properly (hell, couldn't even if I wanted to since I have no flipping idea how they actually work), whatever looks good is good to go. After I'm done with the lines, I usually like to add a few rings here and there among them, maybe circling the important islands or have one that has the compass rose in it. Here, too, I work with a custom shape, a simple ring with about the same width as the lines themselves. Once the entire arrangement looks good, I move both the lines and the circles to the same layer folder. This way, I can set Layer Styles to all of them at once, but still keep the different elements separate in case I need to change something later on.

Brilliant! I've been trying to draw decorations and getting absolutely nowhere; Kelleri, you just made my weekend decorating the kitchen a thing postponed.

[Chronist]

Kellari many thnx i´m on my way to hamburg at the moment
im back in berlin at the end of the week than i will answer with the first of my experience ;-)
thnx so much for explaning me your way

[Mouse]

Hey Chronist

I see you are trying all different kinds of mapping tools. That's good. I have loads of different apps myself, though I have to admit that Inkarnate isn't one of them.

I don't generally like Inkarnate maps, though I can't put my finger on exactly why. They just never seem to really grab me and make me say 'wow' at all.

Having said that, though. I LOVE your fun imagination with the crab shaped island, and I would probably love to see this map recreated with a better resolution sea fill and higher resolution symbols being used - particularly the trees. The sea is a lovely colour - I don't deny that, but it does look a bit fuzzy (to me anyway)

[Chronist]

@ Kellerri Thank you so much for sharing your skills and advise. I will check your advises next week when i´m back on my photoshop workplace, so far i understood what you´ve done your explaination was fine to me and I've already figured a little bit of it myself but i´m sure, i will need some clarification soon as i start ding it ;-). it helps to know what soft&hardware u are using thank you for telling

@mouse thnx for your opinion, and of course you are right with your criticism. inkarnate is no highend mapping tool for sure. but it gives a roleplayer what he/she is needed making a map in very very short time without any special skills to own - it is a anyone's tool.

it will take some time before i start a recreation but who knows ... before i will finish my dd3 maps^^

and i also like the Carb iland a lot ...its called: isla cangrejo viejo