Request for aid on a city map

[pyrandon]

Hello, friends:

Below is a link to the city map I am currently creating. I would greatly appreciate your input on it. I am specifically interested in your thoughts on the map's style, for my goals in creating this map were:

1) to develop a system of efficiently/quickly drawing city maps
2) to utilize a style that is at once artistic, useful, and attractive


Anyway, thanks for your help!

http://www.ormonds.net/rpg/westaven/.../Cities/Fasdal

[EDIT: updated above link & info; 3-31-07]

[ravells]

Hi Don!

My thoughts:

Use of space
The use of negative (roads, town squares etc) and positive space (structures) looks very convincing to me. The roads themselves look organic and I love the little alleys as well.

Colour and line
I really like the range of colours you have used to suggest contours and the fractally edges to them - did you do those by hand using a custom brush? My only very minor, purely subjective, nitpick is that the land colours look slightly more desaturated than the sea colours. Below is a hypsometric colour pallete I sometimes use which you may find useful:



I also really like the black outline you use only to the right of the lakes and coastlines to indicate the direction of light. The building textures fit really well with the scale you've employed.

Composition
Looks great! No comments.

Suggestions:

Use the burn tool to suggest shadow under the woods or maybe a drop shadow - not sure if drop shadow would be too obvious. Also the same to the right hand side of the walls to be consistant with the light direction. You might also want to use a complimentry colour to that of the background in your text so it will stand out more (but that's a matter of taste). More suggestions of vegetation (like in the north eastern corner of the city) would look good too perhaps around the lake.

I would love to see a tutorial as to how you go about producing your maps, they're very professional.

I didn't take too well to the scribbly map...it looked a bit too much like a photoshop filter had been applied to it whereas with the first one it looked much more hand painted.

best

Ravs

[Naryt]

I would love to see a tutorial as to how you go about producing your maps, they're very professional.

I'll echo that request.

Signed
~~Mr. Fancypants Graphics (awarded by Don for this scrap of parchment)

[Robbie]

Dood! Impressive stuff that!

Seriously...looks good...I would like to see a pre-posterization version though. If ya have one. And yes...thirding the request for tutorial.

And ravells...That color chart is quite useful...I may have to assmilate it myself...

[pyrandon]

Thank you so much, friends, for the input. I have updated the map a bit, using many of Ravells's wonderful suggestions.

(BTW, Rav, you are hired as the official input guy for all my maps! Wow! What a wonderful & thorough list of observations/suggestions. Thank you 1,000 times over! Very, very helpful! A couple of your points I could not incorporate into this map because it would take a slash & cut edit, but next map...)

I am still quite interested in input on this map; I am not considering it finished by any means. I'm being especially picky since I plan to use this map as the "style guide" for other city maps I create; your help is much appreciated.

Below is the link to the "plain" version of the city map, as requested:

http://www.ormonds.net/rpg/westaven/...sdal_plain.jpg

Thanks again!

PS: If I ever get this map right I'd be honored to try my hand at tutorial writing. I've never done it before & have no idea how to go about creating one.

PPS: Naryt really is Mr. Fancypants--he's the graphics equivalent of plaid disco bellbottoms & bright red parachute pants seamed up into one chic package!

[ravells]

My pleasure, Don!

Ah, I see - you got the fractally effect by posterising the colours. Gotcha now I must borrow that idea, the effect is really pleasing!

Tutorial writing for your maps? I suggest when you undertake a new project you take lots of screenshots during the process and then stitch them together with a narrative explaining what you are doing at each stage, how you do it and why!

cheers and looking forward to seeing the next iteration.

Ravs

[Robbie]

Yeah, ravells is a pretty thorough guy I can never follow one of his critiques with anything better...heheh...I do liek the effect...

I'm not 100% sure about the style you used for the city blocks...you can't really see individual buildings that well, and I'm a big fan of individual buildings, but that may be due to my love of CD2. I've seen maps of that style before with shaded city blocks, and although they look great, that part just doesn't sit 100% well with me...but don't let that discourage you...its just a personal preference for me thats all.

[ravells]

Yeah, ravells is a pretty thorough guy

Awww [blush].

[Kepli]

Awesome map Pyrandon