1st map, WIP CC/Feedback welcome

[LEOVIIIIV]

Hey everyone,

Just posting a WIP concept map for a game mod.

I stumbled across this site a few weeks back and I was blown away by the wealth of information on here.

I have done conceptual art for a while, but this is my first map ever. I couldn't have gotten this far without this site.

Would love to have CC/Feedback on this as it is my 1st.

Will post credits for tutorials/tools that helped me along on here as soon as I can find the source again :/

[LEOVIIIIV]

Credits:

RPGmapmaker : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-Jyf4AhY8

(Great tutorial, I used his preset brushes and altered them slightly for this map)

Aniron, and Ringbearer fonts

[ratqueen]

Looks great so far! Do you plan on doing all the little details for the entire map? Are you using the RPGMaker program to make this?

[DanielHasenbos]

Great map LEOVIIIIV! It's looking great so far and I can hardly wait to see where you take this! When I zoomed in and had a look at Eriador the first thought that came to me was something like 'he's getting this all in the wrong position!' but then I realized you were combining Middle Earth and Europe/Asia Minor and you are doing an amazing job on it!

-Dan

[Tom]

Really cool!, keep it up!!

[joaodafi]

I loved your map, the appearance of mountains and trees is beautiful, the rivers and the continental shelf quite match with the map style, you could consider reducing the size of the font, taking into consideration the image resolution.

And these red borders, I do not know why but I did not like them.

[LEOVIIIIV]

Thanks to all!

Long story short, our team was planning on making a 100% accurate map of Middle Earth (in-game, for the campaign map). Turns out the toolkit for modding the campaign map in game is severely limited. So we are trying to make ME fit into Europe, lots of compromises to lore accuracy as well as terrain realism:/

Ratqueen - I am using just a preset brush pack made by RPGMapMaker that is available for free download. You can find a link to it on this site I believe, although I cannot remember where at the moment. Yes I will be doing the same level of details on the entire map

Daniel Hasenbos - Thank you! I'm sure LOTR purists will try to crucify me on the forums

Lesopeso - Thanks!

Joaodafi - Thanks! I must admit, the style is heavily credited to RPGMapMaker, with some inspiration from various other artists on this site.
I will try lowering font size for settlements to see how it looks, but at the end of the day I am subject to the team directors descisions. (Part of being a hobby concept artist
The red borders I do not care for either, I have been trying to think of a color that would work. I have these in red for now to stand out, there are also roads, major terrain labels, etc that are not shown on this post. I have tried white, black, and dark brown, but these colors either do not look good, or blend too easily making it a hard read.

[DanielHasenbos]

Middle earth actually has a lot in common with european history and culture. Gondor Cor example, shares many similarities with the Byzantine Empire in its declining period, so placing Gondor over Greece and West-Turkey actually makes a lot of sense (: sorry for going off topic, but AS a LOTR fan I really like this concept!

[waldronate]

http://geocurrents.info/wp-content/u...ddle-earth.jpg is a popular ME on Europe map.

[LEOVIIIIV]

DanielHasenbos - Thanks again! Ill keep posting progression updates, any imput is welcome

Waldronate - I am guessing this is Europe at a much earlier time. Maybe it is just me but I am failing to recognize notable modern coastlines/features.
Most maps I see of ME transposed on Europe are usually during the end of the 3rd age. Nice to see someone include the rest of ME before the 2nd age. Thanks for the link.
Would love to tap your brain for knowledge of cartography etc. Have read some of your posts and you seem very informed on the subject. I will be doing more maps in the future for myself, I enjoy drawing them more than I ever thought I would.