Howdy!

[jmach]

Hi! I found this forum while looking for tutorials on techniques for making relief-map-style mountains in Photoshop. Like many people here, I started making maps of places real and imagined when I was a kid. My interest was revived recently when my kids started showing interest in fantasy RPGs, and so I started playing around with mapmaking on the computer. I tried AutoRealm, but wanted something more artistic. My most recent effort, still a work in process, was created with GIMP 2.6.10.

island.png

[geamon]

Not too bad. Props to you for posting something of the bat. Repped! Also for critique I'd say there's a decent amount of artifacting or pixelation if you will on the map, especially the shore looks a little blocky. For the on land pixelation you may wanna try some smoothing effects i.e Gaussian blurring with low pixel count or even using a low opacity pencil or brush to stroke over the area maybe singling them out by color and using a low opacity fill as well. You can try a maybe using a layer mask to make the shore less jagged.

P.S. Is this the full resolution?

[Halo of Gnats]

Greetings Jmach,

Welcome aboard! I'm still getting my feet wet; but you have
an nice offer right off the bat.

Namasté,
~Tim

[Aenigma]

Welcome! Nice to see a map in your first post

[tilt]

welcome to the guild, as you might already have seen we have a lot of tutorials in here, and when you're ready for critique or need help - just post your maps in the WIP threads

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild!

[jmach]

@geamon, The map I posted is at full resolution (1024x768 pixels). I've made some changes in response to your suggestions, using a layer mask with a slightly feathered edge to reduce the blockiness of the shoreline and using a Gaussian blur on some layers to smooth out some of the artifacts and pixelation. I'll post it as a WIP this weekend.

[geamon]

Sounds good, you may wanna consider working at a higher resolution in the future. For print that map is generally too small to have reasonable quality. Also most displays now days are high resolution i.e. mine runs at 1920x1200 so its looks small. I'll reserve judgment until I see it.

[teevee_etc]

Welcome from a new mapper!!