WiP: Tarina for BlackStar Studios...

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
I'm working on a map of Tarina, the feature city in an upcoming BlackStar Studios (see below) campaign setting product, and wanted to start a thread to share my progress, get comments, etc. I'm working interatively on the city map and the regional map covering the area around the city.

It's a city mirroring Greco-Roman style, set on the coast in a humid jungle. Yes, there are dinosaurs. I kinda pictured Dinotopia when they told me about it. Historical Genoa (Genova), Italy is an inspiration.

Anyway, I've attached the original "turnover" sketch of the area surrounding the city and then my first rough draft of the area map. There are lots of ancient elven ruins in the nearby jungle.

The city map is next.

BlackStar Studios – (Facebook: BlackStar Studios and Twitter: @BlackStarGames)

[mearrin69]

Here are my rough stages on the city map so far:

* The first is just a cut from the regional to establish the basic shapes.
* The second gets a little more detail. Here I've sketched in roads and outlying villages, laid in a stand-in texture for the city, and placed the outer wall, docks, etc. The city is made from clips of Genova taken from Google Maps in satellite mode. It looks kinda cool, I think. Doubt I can find a way to use it in the final, however.
* The third has a little more refinement on the surrounding terrain, adds the city's original wall, and works out the details of the roads a bit more...especially those within the city itself. I used the city texture to suggest layout a bit and it worked pretty well actually. Oh, the purple hashes are intended to show elevation within the city. The crosses mark the high points, where prominent features will be placed.

I'll be out of town for a week (at CES in Vegas, joy) but will hopefully have updates to these and the battle maps (thread) on Saturday or Sunday. C&C welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!
M

[jtougas]

Looking good as usual M this will be fun to watch

[FeralBuddy]

That looks amazing, Mearrin! It's cool seeing the progress as it becomes more and more photo-realistic.

[mearrin69]

Here's an update on the regional map. For some reason none of the exports I can do (even screen grabs) look like what I'm seeing in Photoshop. It looks darker and more pixellated in the exports/grabs. Anyway...it's fully labeled now but in need of lots of touch up. I'm not all that happy with it, actually...
M

[Tigon]

I Like the city although an amusing though did cross my mind: who plays at the stadium? Tarina AC, Swampdoria?

[Jaxilon]

Excellent work M. I hope that someday I can make cities look like this.

[mearrin69]

LOL. Thanks, guys. I hope that someday *I* can make cities look like this...still a long way to go. In the meantime I've done some revising of the area map...with terrain informed by Ascension's wonderful atlas style tutorial. I always find something useful in that thing every time I look. I've also refined the water a lot and think that part's starting to look pretty darned good. C&C welcomed and appreciated.
M

[mearrin69]

We've been having some discussion on how to represent features in a way that's somewhere between realistic and symbolic. I thought back to my sketches for Argria (unfinished CWBP map) and remembered my iconic-but-representational features. The client likes the idea so I'm trying it out. Presented here for, hopefully, some feedback. What do you guys think?

[Jaxilon]

To me it's fabulous but irritates almost to anger because I can't zoom in any closer for more details. Leave them wanting more, eh?

As long as the angles of the cities match the map I think you are golden.