February/March Entry: Lokasenna (Loki's Wrangling)

[Greason Wolfe]

Seeing as how there are only two entries so far, I figured I'd give this a shot just to mix things up a bit.

The map I have in mind is a fairly simple one (although, whenever I am involved in something, it's never as simple as it seems ). It is based of the Poetic Edda - Lokasenna (Loki's Wrangling), which tells the tale of Loki's punishment after slaying Fimafeng (one of Aegir's servants) and repeatedly insulting the gods. It is suggested, at the end, that Loki's struggle against his bindings as venom drips upon his face, is the cause of earthquakes. It is very likely that I will take some creative liberties with the story (since there is some question as to whether or not Loki's punishment is connected with this particular incident) as well as the map, seeing as how I couldn't find a good topographical map (or DEM file for that matter) related to Hlesey Island (commonly thought to be Laeso Island in the real world).

I banged this early WIP together in about an hour. It's nothing special at this point and is going to need a bit more work, obviously. The scale will probably change a bit, and the labels, as they stand right now, are there more as bookmarks than anything else. I'll be adding in a few more rivers and other terrain features as well as more detailed labeling once I've settled on where things are going to be. I'm not expecting this to take more than another week to wrap up, but, as I said earlier, when I'm involved, things never go quite as expected.

GW

### Latest WIP ###

[Greason Wolfe]

Ran a test render in Terragen after a bit more work on the rivers and lakes, just to get an idea of how this might end up looking. It's okay, so far, though a couple two or three of the rivers give the impression of flowing uphill in a few areas. I'm thinking that this is, for the most part, an optical illusion that will correct itself once I start laying in the other terrain features. I'm looking forward to giving my new TG texturing ideas a chance to shine with this, and, if needed, work out a few bugs.

GW

### Latest WIP ###

[Ascension]

That looks pretty good.

[Rythal]

looks great so far! could definately steal the show here

[Greason Wolfe]

Eh, I'm not particularly happy with this render, but it gives me a better idea of where things need to go. I'll have to rework the masking a bit, and trim back on some of the "noise." Still trying to decide on the placement of other terrain features, but figured I would share the progress, even if I'll be taking a backwards step to fix the things that are currently nagging me about this map.

GW

### Latest WIP ###

[torstan]

Glad to see some Norse myth make it in here. Looking good!

[Greason Wolfe]

At this point, I've straightened out most of the issues I had with the coloring and texturing (part of the problem came from the angle of the lighting), and I'm much happier with the results. I'm still not 100% happy, mind you, but much happier than before. I might still tweak a few things in the rendering process, but, for the most part, I believe I've laid down a pretty good foundation for the remaining terrain features I intend to include in this work. I'll be adding in more vegetation and forests next, well, the major forests anyhow, and changing the existing snow distribution such that it better matches the placement of rivers and lakes. Depending on how all of that goes, I may even try to add in a little wave action along the shores. Assuming all of that works out as planned, I should be ready to start labeling in the next couple of days and have this wrapped up sometime this coming weekend.

Oh, and the story behind the myth, of course.

I've been thinking about that a bit. I'll be using the Lokasenna as the basis for the myth, with a few twists. One of the things that's nice about working with myths and folklore is the fact that they are somewhat mutable things. If they are passed down in written form, the changes are generally subtle. If, however, they are passed down in oral form, the tales could change with some significance from generation to generation and family to family. And that is where I'm headed. I've got just a bit more research to do on the myth in question, well, not so much research, but defining/adapting some Old Norse terms. My hope is to give the prose a bit more flavor and make it more easily read. Fortunately, I can work on that during my slower periods at work.

In the meantime, here's the latest render in all it's glory. It's a bit bigger than before, and I set the camera just a bit closer to the surface in hopes of getting a little more detail than before (namely being able to see the narrower rivers better). The only real problem I see at this point is the coloring of the water. For some reason, I lost the darkness I had before. There's no reason for this loss that I can see at the moment, but then again, it's not really a problem, per-se. We'll see what happens with the next render. If I haven't found a solution by then, it's no big deal in my book as I happen to think that the current coloring lets the water stand out a bit better than before.

GW

### Latest WIP ###

[Greason Wolfe]

So I ran a test render applying my new texturing technique for the forests in Terragen. I was both pleased and disappointed at the same time. Pleased with the way the texture looked, but disappointed by the distribution. It wasn't quite as quick and clean as I thought it would be. Still, it gives me a good idea of where the technique needs to be tweaked. I'll be running a final render, with a new distribution sequence, tonight while I'm at work and should be able to label it in the morning and, as the saying goes, post an 11th hour final version of the map along with the back story. For now, however, here's a sampling of the forest texturing as rendered by Terragen.

GW

### Latest WIP ###

[Steel General]

For me, the issue with the forest texture is that it noticeably 'tiles'

[Greason Wolfe]

And now for what should be my final image update. I'm not 100 percent happy with it, but what can I say, I've done my best in what little time I gave myself for this challenge. I've got a bit of editing to do on the back story, still, and I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that the threads will still be open tomorrow as I am desperately in need of sleep before having to go into work tonight.

GW

### Latest WIP ###