For what it's worth, I've never found anything worthwhile on cloud tuts and I've yet to figure out how to make good ones myself. If you find anything decent, link it here so we can try it.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Ive found a couple, but they seem to be more useful for closer up shots. Still, they show how to make some nifty cloud brushes, and how to paint clouds from scratch. I may use the video tuts for my town maps. Most promising is the jpeg tut. I'm going to try out this method and get back to you guys with the results.
Here are all the links:
Making a wonderfully flexible cloud brush
Painting clouds into scenes from scratch
Original tutorial the jpeg was excerpted from
A couple tries on clouds
Taking some concepts from the tutorials I found, I've finally made clouds! What do y'all think? I was hoping to use the clouds to obscure lands unexplored by the main character's people. Also, in figuring out where to place clouds, i have placed down markers for the prevailing wind currents. I'll be uploading those soon too.
P.S. For some reason the third image didn't load a thumbnail, but I didn't mean to hide it in any way.
Those turned out pretty well. I think the style of the first version looks best with your map, but #2's got a certain something too. Only thing I'd do with 2 is maybe add in a bit of gray to simulate storms, etc.
I prefer the cloud shapes from the first one, the "streakier" one. Looks more realistic as large scale weather system. But I prefer the lightness and fluffiness of the second. Is there a way to combine the two? I'd like to see that! :-)
Some of the Nittygritty
Okeeeee, not sure how factually legit these are, but here are some wind currents! It's important how I build these so I can decide from which direction the Conquerors discovered Paidixira came from. The main method I used to decide these currents was to make loops around the edges of major bodies of water, veering out of the way of land masses, then ascribe a direction of rotation based on hemispheres, and lastly, fill in any gaps between loops with either a "wind tunnel" or "hurricane strip". This was probably the bluntest, quickest way i could have made these approximations of very complicated systems, and it was advised by no real experience in meteorology. Tear it apart!
P.S. the key for Megalaos is
White: Main Wind Current loops
Cyan: those wind tunnel thingies i was talking about
Red: hurricane thing
Blue: some kind of evaporation uptake something
gah, my inexperience is horrific!
P.P.S the cyan clouds on this Paidixira map are just that: cloud placement!
I like te second concept of the clouds the most.
By the way, I really do like the structure of Paidixira.
Are there towns/ villages?
John64 brings up a great point! I do have towns laid out. The problem is, on the world map adding cities makes the map look far too busy. Sooooo, ive made country maps. These countries are all supposed to speak the same language, but between them they have developed different dialects. They each as well have a different patron god. So far I just have 2 (Makitan and Tambria, patroned by Aphrodite and Athena respectively), but I'm hoping to do all of them. Whaddyall think?
Oh, to clarify a little for the things you might not understand before I have my legend, here are some important naming and typographic distinctions.
1 Capital ciies are in all caps. Across the board.
2 In Tambria, a Fatel is a kind of religious center and fort. They are pretty much abbeys with better armaments. These forts are often built around religiously significant sites to protect from physical and cultural attacks.
3 A Pyrga or Pyrgo in Makitan is a similar fort set up, but instead of religion as a second cental component, trade works alongside military. In a pyrga, the fort is built around a central market so entering traders can be safe from attack, as well as can be monitored and searched. These forts dissuade smuggling, reduce petty theft, and make for a safe place to mix cultures.
Im still coming up with these different types of cities and forts, so any feedback will be of interest to me. I'm hoping to introduce a new kind of polis in every new country then mixing them up a bit. For now, i think these cities can help define the differences between these countries where different language will not be a factor.
The ideas of the different kinds of forts is awesome; I may have to steal that idea, if you don't mind.
I'm really liking the close-up country maps, with one exception: the cities/towns as red blobs looks kind of... off. My personal opinion (so ignore at your leisure) is that they'd look better as more traditional icons, especially if you're going to show all the forts, etc.
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