New Dawn of the West (redesign)

[Coyotemax]

Well, for those of you who have been following this epic journey, it's finally come to an end. And as with most journeys in my experience, the real joy is in the travelling, though the destination is worth it

So, AslanC requested to have someone redesign his hex based map New Dawn of the West, and I happened to be the one who ended up getting involved (there's a story behind that too, but that's for another day).

I was feeling inspired, and between a few tutorials and my own previous self taught experiences, I figured I could make a decent job of it.

I have to say, AslanC was patient with my design process, I admit I could have done more comparisons between this version and the original hex grid, but I was so eager to keep things moving, I forgot to once I got the elements in the general locations That having been said, I learned a lot from this project, how to keep things organized and listed, keeping a set structure for filenames, and so on (and a few things I'll do differently if I ever do this sort of thing again). And i kept notes on what I did so I can recreate things if I do a similar map in the future. I also pushed my system and learned a few things about how photoshop works with my system in particular, and how to work around a few things (having 400 separate text layers slows down the machine, but if I close the preview/navigation thumbnail, it solves the speed issue since it's not constanty updating that.. as an example...)

This also gave me the opportunity to add in my own original artistic elements, which is something I'd been planning on doing in a piece for some time now.


Thanks for the words of encouragement from everyone who spoke up, and Thanks to AslanC for providing me with a great experience! (hopefully he adds a few notes about his half of the design experience..)

So without further ado,
The New (but not necessarily improved) Dawn of the West!!

[Gandwarf]

Well, can't rep as it seems I recently repped you
Really nice map. Love the border, layout, colors and symbols. Good pick of fonts too and I like the way you used some different (soft) colors for the labels.

The only nitpick I have is that some of the mountains and hills look a bit sparse. I would have liked to have seen the symbols placed a bit denser. Not that they look bad now! Certainly not. No, you can be really proud of this map!

So, you are now available to redo some of my maps I guess?

[Coyotemax]

Actually I specifically went out of my way at first to leave as much room as possible room for the text, but afterwards we were adding in extra hills and mountains..

There may be possibility of filling in some things, but that's up to AslanC at this point

(If you seriously want me to work on a map, I could consider the request..)

Oh, and..
Fonts:
Celtic Hand on the cartouche (to match the border art)
Calligraph 421 for the Towns, Cities, Countries, etc (elegent and as close to handwritten look as I can get without getting fuzzy at these sizes)
Cataneo for the water features and mountain ranges. (it's a simple and elegant italicized alternative to times new roman, heh)

[Gandwarf]

Ah, that's why I like the fonts. I have used Celtic Hand myself extensively

Did you create the symbols yourself or did you find them somewhere?

And actually, there is a map I am thinking of having converted to a different style. So I was semi serious
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2977
It's a bit of a weird map though... no seas, continents or great forests
I think I need to do some more labeling as well.

[Coyotemax]

The mountains are from a brush pack I found on this site (i *think* they were these ones..)
The trees are from a variety of nature brush packs (I got a cd from a friend with about 700 megs worth of brushes - no mountains though!!)
The whirlpool is from a japanese ukiyo-e (sp?) painting of an area of rough sea (found it on google, after slogging through about 40 pages of whirlpool brand dishwasher picutres, heh)
The rest of the art is my own original work.
And overlaying the entire image to bring a consistency in texture and tint, there's 2 parchment textures I created from half a dozen other paper textures.

Names and continent supplied by AslanC

[Gandwarf]

Good picks then, the symbols work great together.

[Coyotemax]

Oh, i almost forgot, after a comment about the swamps, I gave up looking for something usable and created my own brush

[Steel General]

Fantastic work...congrats on a great job.

[AslanC]

Let me say this... I have been so close to this setting and it's evolution since 2000 that I have become intimate with its details.

When I finished my Hexmap I was happy that it was done. The campaign was ready to go and I could start.

Then this event took place. Coyotemax managed to give me some insight to my own created world that I hadn't seen before. Together (with a lot fo back and forth as those who followed the WIP thread know) it evolved and evolved and is now a thing of beauty.

For the first time in almost a decade this world seems more real to me. A place full of adventure and mystery for my players and I to explore together.

Thank you Coyotemax for being an astoundingly creative, patient and talented partner on this leg of the journey!

2009 has been a really bad year for me. I lost my mother to cancer in February. I lost my job to lay offs in May and I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes at the end of June. Other than the woman I love coming into my life, it hasn't been a great year at all.

I say the following without a hint of exaggeration or hyperbole...

THIS has made my year!

Thanks for putting a big dumb grin on my face and the faces of my players!

The Fortknights (We play every two weeks, get it?) salute you and offer you honourary membership!

[Gamerprinter]

Great job, Coyotemax!

I think its time for you to create a City Map for Kaidan - for this month's mapping challenge. I'd like to see you give it a go. More therapy for the back I think!

Nice job on this map, though, really nice!

GP

PS: I repped you with my +10 Epic Rep Rod!