Durandr: A Commission

[jtougas]

This is a commission I took to re do an existing black and white map. I started by tracing the land form layout of the original map and have begun to add textures. The client explained to me that the very North of the map is covered in Lava rocks and lava streams (AKA Mordor). I decided to start with the texturing there as it is proving the most difficult to create. There will mountains in that area as well. As always feedback is requested and appreciated

Durandr Draft 1.jpg

As this is a commission All rights to this map belong to the original owner.

[damonjynx]

Nice work thus far. Looking forward to the next post to see how it progress'.

[jtougas]

Nice work thus far. Looking forward to the next post to see how it progress'.

Thanks.

I wasn't happy with the lava texture and after (what seemed like) hours of searching I decided to make my own. I like this one better but it might be a little too large. Mountains will be next. I have included a version of this with the original "overlaid" on top so that you can get an idea of what the map is going to look like. As always feedback is requested and appreciated

Durandr Draft 2.jpg

Durandr Draft withoverlay.jpg

[jtougas]

I decided to do the forests and save the mountains for last as it will be easier for me to get a handle on where everything goes that way. I also worked on the details of the "lava" fields on the North of the map. I think it turned out pretty good As always feedback is requested and appreciated

Durandr Draft3.jpg

[jtougas]

Here is the mostly finished product. There were a LOT of mountains on the original map that I had to replicate. I will leave this post here until the client gets back to me to let me know if they need anything else.

Durandr Draft4.jpg

All rights to this map belong to the owner. This map may not be used or altered without the owners permission.

[arsheesh]

JT, nice job in your selection of patterns. One critique I would offer however is that in places the patterns could be blended (faded) a bit more. I think the clearest example of this is in the north-eastern portion of the land mass where you have desert-canyons right next to forests, grasslands and ... (not sure exactly what the brown pattern is representing). Here I think the transition between terrain types is quite sudden. I'm sure there are probably several ways to make transitions (particularly when using textures), but one method that I often use in my more photo-realist maps is to create a layer mask over the different types of terrain and then to take a fuzzy round brush set at low opacity and gradually begin to blend the two types of terrain together (I've outlined this method in more detail in the "Defining Climate Zones" section of my Eriond tut). I would also recommend using this method (or some other equivalent method) to blend the transition from lowlands to mountains, as the transition here is a bit sudden as well (it's more noticeable in the north-eastern section of the map than the south-eastern section). That said, congratulations on the commission!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[jtougas]

Thanks arsheesh and I have in fact gone back and re-read your tutorial. The upper part of the map represents lava (I've been having a hard time getting that right) The client asked to me add snow to lower part of the map and I realized that I had never modeled snow before. As I often do I just set off and kept trying things until I got something that I think looks pretty good.

Durandr Draft5.jpg

[jtougas]

The client asked me to add snow to the entire region I like the effect. The forests and mountains were tough to get just right but I think I'm close. I've also added the few rivers that were on the original map and added the roads.

Durandr Draft6.jpg

[jtougas]

Here is the final update with a new lake and roads added.

Durandr Final.png