Mapping attempt need critique

[ukie]

Just wanted to hear your thoughts.

1.jpg

[Freodin]

The mountains are a little blurry in comparison to the forests. Given the overall crisp look of the map, you could try to sharpen up the mountains.

Anything else..... very nice! Are the rivers hand-tapered or did you use a script?

[ukie]

Thanks. I'm yet to find a good way to make mountains in PS6. Tried Arsheesh's Gimp/Wilburn (his map looks phenomenal) but coulodn't make it work even close. So I guess trial and error it is

I used Shape Dynamics for rivers with different diameters and lengths.

[ukie]

Untitled-2.jpg

What about this one?

[Nian]

I'm not the biggest fan of this "bevel and emboss" layer style you are using on the main land (I guess you used it to give some elevation to the shore) but imo it is not needed or maybe lesser the strength of it.
I also agree that you could try to sharpen the mountains somehow. =]

[arsheesh]

I agree with Freodin and Nian; the mountains are a bit blurry and the bevel and emboss along the shore is too steep. Otherwise, not bad so far.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Midgardsormr]

Loving that mountain! It looks like there's a little bit of a pinch of some kind along the ridgelines. I'm not sure if that's coming from a heightmap or a bevel contour, or what, but if the very tippy-top of the ridges were slightly less bright I think they'd be pretty close to perfect.

Try adjusting the bevel highlight colors on the land and forests. Right now they're looking a bit like they're carved from plastic or clay. We're not really seeing light reflecting off a surface here, we're simply seeing the aggregate stronger lighting on the lit side. Does that make any sense at all? Anyway, instead of a white highlight, I think it should be closer to the color of the landform being illuminated.

Also, I think I liked the spread size on the trees better in your first image. The second makes them look a bit too much like hills instead of trees because the bevel spreads out so far from the edges. Sorry, I'm not sure of the exact names of the controls I'm talking about; I don't have PS in front of me at the moment.

[ukie]

Thanks for the feed back. I'm gonna play around a bit and post a couple of tries later on.

Would you say the crisper the trees the better?

[Midgardsormr]

To a point. You generally want all of the elements of an image to be similar in terms of sharpness unless there is a reason for the variation. That will help to create unity and make it all look like part of the same image rather than pieces from multiple sources.

[ukie]

lol its a constant battle each element looks good on their own but when you put them together it looks like poopoo

what about this one?

Untitled-1.jpg