(WIP) Acur Coasts... (part 3)

[Pixie]

Part 3.. (of, at least, 5)

The previous two WIP's from this collection started off at an advanced stage. This time, I thought I could post the first steps as well, just out of curiosity for you lurkers

My world map isn't all done, in terms of fine detail elevation, but most of Acur, which is the largest continent is. From that detailed elevation map, I made a colored, relief-shaded, version. This one:

relief_painted_mainmap.jpg
I posted a 800px wide map, but the original is 7 times bigger. This file is in equiretangular projection and it spans 90º W to 90º E of the 0º meridian and from the North Pole to 45º South.


From here, on to g.projector to choose the best projection.

zelandyi_coast_gprojectordetails.jpg
I take note of the settings and export the map with and without graticule. In this case, the shape of the coast placed a problem. Being oriented in a SW-NE fashion, it is forcing me to show too much land and too much ocean...


I solved this by rotating the map, after I imported it into PS.

graticule_added_rivers_drafted.jpg
Once I get to this part I start to draft the rivers and plan the human geography in my mind. The final tool for that is to consider the climate.
climate_layer.jpg
Projected, rotated and cropped from earlier work done at full-world scale..

And this is where the Work In Progress is at the moment...

[Tiluchi]

Wow, as usual this is impressive! Thanks for showing us a little of your technique, as I'm sure those of us with similar projects were curious how one of the masters does it. Out of curiosity, how did you do the relief shading? Manually or with a tool I'm not familiar with (there are lots of those)? I doubt I'll end up with an elevation map as detailed as yours, because, well, nossa senhora. But no worries if it's a trade secret

Looking forward to see where you go from here!

[Pixie]

Out of curiosity, how did you do the relief shading? Manually or with a tool I'm not familiar with (there are lots of those)?

I use the bevel effect. The trick was initially posted by a user that seems to have deleted his account (Nathan) and it consists in a couple of steps:
I stand corrected, Nathan is active!

1 - create a duplicate of your altitude layers (elevation must be done in separate layers, not a multicolored one) and add the effect "Bevel and Emboss".
2 - use the same settings for the bevel of each layer, except the color used for shadow (dark in higher altitudes to white at sea level) - these settings depend on the scale of your map, but "less is more" in this aspect.
3 - create a layer from those effects, deleting the duplicated altitude layer.

The group of layers you just created resembles a relief shading... It's easier to see it as a relief shading if you place them over a plain 50% gray background.

I've ben doing this for a while and now normally I create three sets of relief shading with different settings, and then mix them at different opacity levels. Although in some areas the result looks good, others not so much. For example, the inland plateau in that second map of my previous post, it looks too much like a bevel effect.
Oh, and let me state the obvious - it won't work with few elevation levels and the more levels, the better it looks

[Sizeman21]

I enjoyed this. Seeing the behind the scenes of great Map making skills. Good work.

[Straf]

This is a fantastic insight into your superb style Pixie. Obrigado!

[Pixie]

... Revitalizing this thread - here's two more steps:

The human geography, which starts with spreading people around.
For this I used a drafty layer with a lot of rivers, basically, every large source of water for irrigation and a very rough layer with notes on climate/biome. The biomes part doesn't need detailed mapping. The rivers, well, wherever I set them now they will stay - these maps are to become cannon for the area, but not all of the rivers shown here will be present in the final piece.
cities_over_climate+water.jpg
This area is quite particular. It's a 3000 km by 300 km strip of savanah, with a sharp but not overly wet rainy season. Then a strip of foothills, with a more moderate climate and then a plateau, which is cooler and gradually less wet until we reach the inland steppe (and, further north, lies a huge hot desert). Basically it can hold quite a lot of population and it can hold it everywhere. I had to pick some places for the regional population hotspots and that wasn't easy. I still haven't developed a lot of history for this area, so I had to rough it and the one thing I was sure was that the capital was going to be in the plateau.

Then I had some fun (I played Rail Road Tycoon for so many hours very long ago that I love laying down railway networks)...
railroads.jpg
This is all draft, but it helps to understand how the country connects and how the economy works. This region will be a major producer of cotton and textiles in the coastal plains, wherever water is plentiful and an industrialized developed/developing country in its hinterland, oh, and an exporter of raw minerals, as it controls a gigantic area to its north. So, sea ports will be extremely important and railroads need to lead to them. But also, a large parcel of the population lives inland and they travel around too.


And here's my third step of this process... naming/labeling.
labeling_incomplete.jpg
I try to come up with different flavors for the regions, this time, weird, long names, with a hint of India, but mixed with other made-up-rules. As I keep playing with words, some combos strike and stay, others aren't so good.. I still need 7 words, any suggestions?

[Hustle]

This is a really well-made map. It has such an "official" feel to it.

Also, thanks for explaining your relief shading above. I was going to ask the same question.

[Ilanthar]

It's still looking good, Pixie. Will you combine the different informations together?

[Pixie]

Hey again.

City naming is over and I'm having fun laying down rivers and roads, but "hobby-time" is short these days. There's still a lot to do, not the least fixing the coast which is very pixelated as it stands.

@Ilanthar: I'll include railways and borders, possibly/maybe provincial borders, but I neither have the plan or a working idea about how to convey climate/biomes on a map like this.. it's just background info as far as I'm concerned.

current_progress_02.jpg
...larger than the previous previews but still under the size of the file I'm working and compression took a bite on the quality.

I hope you like it and I'm all ears for comments and critique

(afterthought..... Some time ago I discussed with a couple of community leaders (among others) the possibility of using one of my maps as a base for a monthly challenge. Would a map like this spark your creativity, or is it too much of a finished piece?)

[Pixie]

Nearly finished the labeling... not just the cities, but also rivers, a lake, two islands, mountainranges, deserts, etc... there's still the issue of the small coastal sand islands, which aren't named. I think I oughta make some names and label them, but I didn't manage to tackle that yet.

There's also a lot more of linework since the last version. Railways are properly marked, the lake Sonzo, more rivers, a retraced coastline, airport and seaport symbols, international borders...

It's reaching completion, I guess. There's still some details to refine but most of the next steps are pure cartography - making a border, a legend, a scale.
labeling_done.jpg