First city map

[Francissimo]

My first city map, based on roleplaying city map generator and photoshop
Attachment 62373

[Cirias]

Hey Francissimo,

Firstly, welcome to the Guild

I really like the map - I'm guessing you used the excellent tutorial by pyrandon? That's how I got started with city maps too. I'll be constructive, as I'm sure the other guys here would be too.

I like the shading you have on the map, it gives a really nice sense of height and makes the river feel ingrained into the terrain. Also great is the effect you have achieved for the building rooftops and the grey/black rock texture to illustrate ridges.

Now, a couple of constructive criticisms which I hope you won't mind me pointing out!

From a distance, the texture for your grass/ground cover and your trees look good, but when you zoom in by about 20-30% the grass becomes a little too grainy and the trees are somewhat undefined. I've posted a link to a tutorial for "realistic" top-down trees that I've used before and really cannot recommend more highly. I also love the technique you have used for the fields just north-east of the city, but one thing that sticks out is the blur effect when they begin to press up against your city's walls, so maybe a more subtle blending or something else would have worked well there? And finally, for me, the overall colour tone doesn't sit quite right with me. Your rivers are very blue, but the green areas feel a little off or washed out for some reason. It could be that grainy (dissolve?) overlay where you have a lot of black specks in amongst the green.

But anyway, there's my two cents. I really like it and I'm in admiration of your rooftops and rivers

How to colour quick trees for RPG maps | Fantastic Maps

[Francissimo]

Hi Cirias and thanks for those constructive critics, thats what helps to be a better cartograph I'll try to improve my trees with the tutorial you pointed, the render is awesome. I didn't know pyrandon tutorial but i think i follow a quite similar one here : http://www.cerbere.org/dain/share/tutos/ville
it's in french but i think the basis are the same. For the relief of rivers i use a soft black brush with extrusion effect reverse and for the roof i played with layer effects, shadows textures and extrusion..
Ps: i've tried the technique of this tutorial, the render is really nice for a short amount of time!
Esquisse_ville_v2.jpg

[jgvaughan]

My only comment about the map is that I like it. Gives me some ideas for a city map that I am working on. As far as the tutorial you noted, that is pyrandon's tutorial, that particular one has it translated into French. Either way, it's an excellent tutorial.