Greetings

[Schyzm]

Howdy.

I've been putting together a new campaign, and decided that I needed to start mapping it. Searching the internet for advice with mapping in Photoshop led me to a few interesting tutorials here, which I used as a jumping off point for mapping the section of the world I'm interested in.

Names have not yet been decided upon, nor is the map complete, but you can see the progression below - as I learn, details are firming up and coming out.

This is an area in the southern hemisphere of its world. To the north, beyond the mountain range, lies a great empire. A small kingdom with great naval power (both trade and military) lies on a small, mountainous peninsula to the west. To the east are the unclaimed lands - ripe for settlement, potentially wealthy, with the potential for a lucrative overland trade route.

I've only used Photoshop CS6 for this. I'm using a layered, non-destructive format, applying textures and other layer effects to build on the basic shapes.
The actual file is working at 300ppi - the small versions below are a 35% scaling of where the final file will be.

To be added:
Non-ocean water features (rivers, lakes)
Island features
Cities, Towns, Roads
Scale
Compass Rose.

At the moment, the working scale is that 1 hex is about 20 miles. I'll break it down to actual measurements a bit later, as the hex grid is temporary.

Hope ya'll like what there is so far...

[mearrin69]

Welcome to the Guild! That's already looking pretty impressive...and you get bonus points for using hexes! Have some rep for posting a great map right away.

There are some great tutorials on regional/continental maps on this site and you might find some helpful tips there. My main critique of what you've got here, and this may not matter depending on the style you're going for, is that your mountains look a little "glued on" to otherwise flat terrain. Some foothills that blend in to them might soften that. Just a thought. There's nothing wrong with the bevel mountain creation trick but there are a lot of ways to make a mountain so, if you're not 100% happy with them, have a look around to see if there are other techniques you might prefer. I'm *very* partial to the very natural hills/mountains that come from Ascensions atlas style (in the tutorials section).
M

[Schyzm]

Some foothills that blend in to them might soften that. Just a thought. There's nothing wrong with the bevel mountain creation trick but there are a lot of ways to make a mountain so, if you're not 100% happy with them, have a look around to see if there are other techniques you might prefer. I'm *very* partial to the very natural hills/mountains that come from Ascensions atlas style (in the tutorials section).
M

And a good thought - I think you can see with the 4th iteration there that I was trying to soften that glued on look - I used an outer glow in black with a high noise factor, but it doesn't quite do the trick. I think I need to give the lowlands a bit more texture and that will help alleviate the glued look. maybe.

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild Schyzm! Nice hex map so far. While I agree with Mearrin's point in general, on this particular map I'm not too bothered by the lack of blending between the mountains and foot-hills. It sort of works for me given the style of the hex map. Nice job so far.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh