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Thread: Map of the Kingdoms and Principalities in Aran & Ilan

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  1. #1
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Default Map of the Kingdoms and Principalities in Aran & Ilan

    Okay, I really hate myself for doing this, but... I'm re-rebooting my Twin Kingdoms map.

    I know. I'm sorry. The only excuse I can find (and it's a poor one) is the fact that I'm still slaving away at my novel, so as long as that's not finished, the map can be considered a work in progress as well. Poor excuse indeed...

    Still! Before I show you guys what progress I've made, I assume it wouldn't be a bad thing to showcase some of the previous iterations of this map.


    1. The less-than-impressive beginning (a badly drawn map on a piece of paper, photographed and clumsily coloured in)

      Erhaniell%u00252520%2526%2520Ilya.jpg
    2. The first "final version" (in the magnicifent Arsheesh-style, though not nearly as perfectly executed)

      51685d1359578585-map-twin-kingdoms-aran-ilan-awi_relief6.jpg
    3. The second "final version" (this time a hand-drawn type of map, completely from scratch)

      AWI_handdrawn_overhaul14.jpg



    It looks like I'm going back and forth between the hand-drawn style and the more satellite-like style. And my newest version is no exception to that rule! While I liked the look of the mountains and the forests of my last final product, I still missed something in the lands between the rivers. There still was a sort of emptiness. A feel of desolation, of non-definition if you will.

    So I set about drawing out the relief map of the place. In excruciating detail. Took me several months! Then I kinda dropped the project (my girlfriend started complaining about the lack of attention, and not unduly so!), but since this emptiness kept bugging me, I kept waiting for an opportunity to pick up the mapmaking business again. And that opportunity finally presented itself the past two weeks. With the kind permission of my SO, I dedicated a carefully measured amount of time to the re-re-rebirth of my map.

    It's not finished yet - not by a long shot. But the most important work, the foundations of the map so to speak, have been laid out, and now I can really start drawing in the details.

    So this is it. My current work in progress:

    AWI_handdrawn_overhaul15.jpg

    Let me know what you think!

    All the best,
    C
    Last edited by Caenwyr; 01-07-2016 at 09:41 AM.
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  2. #2
    Administrator ChickPea's Avatar
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    Welcome to the Church of the Never Satisfied!

    I like your new version so far and will enjoy seeing it filled out. Your previous hand-drawn map was very pretty, so I'm looking forward to seeing you top that.
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  3. #3
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    I loved your previous version, but I think I'm going to LUST this one.

  4. #4

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    Hehe, welcome to the club! I also love your previous version, and I'm curious to see what you'll do with this new one.

  5. #5

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    Is the relief work hand drawn? It's gorgeous! I can see why it would have taken you so long. I'm excited to watch this develop.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh

  6. #6
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arsheesh View Post
    Is the relief work hand drawn? It's gorgeous! I can see why it would have taken you so long. I'm excited to watch this develop.
    Not hand drawn directly, the shading etc are computer-generated. But I did draw the contour lines for the DEM file manually. Which was a pain in the ass, I can tell you ;-). You can find the stepped version below. Unstepping the file took another titanic amount of work, but ultimately I arrived where I wanted to be: the bump file that I used as backdrop for this map.

    A sample of the (stepped) DEM file:
    AWI_relief-revamp.jpg

    I've also had the opportunity to work on the map a bit. No huge leaps, but some progress at least.

    • Tweaked the rivers some more, so they look more natural.
    • Adapted the terrain map, so some areas seem more rugged than in the previous version, while others now seem more habitable.
    • Added the towns and cities and their icons (decided to go for simple dots of varying sizes instead of the more elaborate icons I used in the other version). The font size for the city names is rather small, but any bigger would demand too much attention (and I want people to stare at the terrain, of course!).
    • I also played with the oceans a bit: darker tones, and a nice little Lagrange grid. The subcontinent you see on the map is about the size of Europe, and I hope the grid helps convey that message.

    As always, thanks for your great comments and suggestions! Let me know what you think of this WIP!

    AWI_handdrawn_overhaul16.jpg
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    Guild Expert johnvanvliet's Avatar
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    But I did draw the contour lines for the DEM file manually. Which was a pain in the ass, I can tell you ;-)
    odd that is normally very easy and fast
    i used a "posterize" filter to drop the 8 bit dem copies ( 255 tones) to 12 tones

    took 30 seconds
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  8. #8
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Well yeah, but what I actually did was the opposite: turning an image with 16 different grey levels (the one I posted above) in one with 256 (the smooth bump lighted version you see in the map). That's a rather more complex process ;-)
    Last edited by Caenwyr; 01-06-2016 at 04:28 PM.
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  9. #9
    Guild Journeyer AzurePlanet's Avatar
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    I like a lot all your "final" versions!
    And especially the last one: since I used the same technique to get my DTM, I see your point.
    Did you also apply an erosion cycle to the raw DTM?

  10. #10

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    Ah I feel your pain, as a fellow novel writer whose pretty much obsessed with the world building (thankfully still hasn't gotten in between me and my own SO). I love the maps you've created, especially the mountains! Keep in the good work and hopefully I'll able to read your novel admiring one of your 'final' maps. Now I have to go and redraw some house crests, because few of them have the same charge as some of yours

    Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

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