The Moonwater Coast (experimental Photoshop/Wonderdraft hybrid)

[Wired]

I've expanded on my experiments with Wonderdraft by creating a set of preliminary custom assets. My main idea was to check out and see how much I could streamline some of the more teduous and time-consuming processes of map-making. To that end I created a set of mountain assets as well as coniferous, decidous, and mixed trees. I also imported half a dozen custom water textures to change the often blotchy look that vanilla Wonderdraft has.

As for the final result, I can say that about half of it was done in Wonderdraft (terrain, mountains, forests, beaches, ocean and coast), the other half in Photoshop (shading, details, decorations).

The assets weren't perfect as I was just using them to play around, but I'm really happy with how it all turned out (and how little time I needed for it!).

Moonwater Coast Full.jpg

Here's a short process image:

233943627_973875810070997_1581242644127467630_n.jpg

The map itself shows a northern colonial region where new settlers come into contact with a mix of human iron age clans, tribal goblins and orcs, hidden dwarven cities, and elven ruins.

[KaiAeon]

Lovely map. It reminds me of Pern.

[Wired]

Lovely map. It reminds me of Pern.

Thank you!

[Arimel]

Really nice map. The Marrowfly moors sounds like a nice place to take a stroll .

[Ilanthar]

Great map! Really love the general look and subtle colour shading of lands & waters.

[Francissimo]

Beautifull map!
It really makes me want to try to play with wonderdraft, seems like a very usefull tool.

[Wired]

Great map! Really love the general look and subtle colour shading of lands & waters.

Truth be told, half of that probably comes from the textures used in Wonderdraft, but yes, it did come out nicely.

Beautifull map!
It really makes me want to try to play with wonderdraft, seems like a very usefull tool.

The basic functionalities certainly are nothing to sneeze at, and if you create decent assets you can really push the quality up and the needed time down.

[Marcolino]

Beatifull map. Curious to explore the Moonstone Tower.

[Kellerica]

It's quite nice! I can still definitely see the Wonderdraftiness of it (now there's a word...), but it's a lot more you thanks to the custom assets.

[Wired]

It's quite nice! I can still definitely see the Wonderdraftiness of it (now there's a word...), but it's a lot more you thanks to the custom assets.

Thank you. There are definately limits as to how much you can achieve with Wonderdraft, but with decent custom assets I found you can push those boundaries quite a bit. If nothing else there is a good way to streamline some steps. But the moment elements that are tailored to a specific map are needed, it's back to Photoshop (cliff are what immediately comes to my mind, for example).