Antares Regional Map

[KungFuCharlie]

I started a map for a tabletop campaign I am running. I am new to map making but not new to Photoshop. I got all the continents and rivers laid out, base colors added, and started placing the major cities for Moray - one of the continents - shown in the attached image. None of the other continents have anything more than the base colors so I clipped them out to reduce the file size.

I used the "diffuse cloud filter" method to create the coastlines. The forms were great but there were a lot of gaps and pixelation issues that I just couldn't get fixed in Photoshop to my liking. So I imported it into Illustrator, use the Live Trace tool to convert the coastlines to paths, then used the pen tool to fill in all the gaps and clean up any areas I didn't like. It took a few hours (the full map is huge) but I think it was worth it as I really like how crisp and clean the coastlines are now. Once that was done I rasterized the paths and exported it to go back into Photoshop.

Once back in Photoshop I laid in the base colors, created city symbols, and some text. I've tried to add mountains and forests a few times but haven't been happy with how they look. I need to do a bit more digging around the forums and try to find a tutorial that outputs something I think will fit the map style. But, just so you know, there are mountains in the NW and S when the two rovers originate... no magic river flows to see here. I also tried to place the coastal cities in places where there are natural harbors and the land-locked cities where I thought it made sense (yes, I've learned a lot reading through this forum in the last few days!).

Any feedback or advice is more than welcome.

Antares_New.png

[CaptainJohnHawk]

KungFuCharlie,

Welcome to the guild! It is awesome to see you using the great forum tutorials and advice. The community here is incredibly talented and will take you as far as you want to go. I Think your coastlines turned out very well, and your islands look very natural as well.

Pros: Coastlines work well. Ripple effect is nice but not distracting (great touch)
Nice font choice, great font size
Very nice and easy to read mileage key

Cons:
Try using a "glow" layer effect on your text. Set the glow to a light yellow-tan color and you will get much easier to read text.

Personal Advice: I believe this type of map works well as a informative map. Being a very simple design, your forests and mountains can also be very simple. Consider just using some brush sets for a mountains and trees. Use them more as symbols of where things are laid out, and less as "artistic" styling.

Everyone in this community is great at providing advice and help, do not hesitate to message anyone.

Cheers!
Capt.JH

[KungFuCharlie]

Thanks for the feedback. It is appreciated!

I was going to re-do the milage key to make it more artistic / fancy in the future. But if that one is easy to read then maybe I'll just keep it and avoid the extra work.

For the rivers... I imagined the one coming from the northwest being a stream coming out of the mountains and joining up with the other (from the south) on its run to the ocean. I thought that made sense as there are many cases in the world where streams / tributaries / smaller rivers do combine with larger rivers. Of course I'd have to make the size of the rivers more clear since they are all just 1px stroked lines with no differentiation given for size. Do they make more sense give that explanation or still something I need to think more about?

Good idea on the text. The 1px white stroke just doesn't work well. I was thinking about using more earthy tones for the font color in place of black as well. Still have some playing around with it and will incorporate the outer glow you mentioned into my experimentations. The yellow-tan will definitely help add the earthy tones to it.

I did download various mountain and forest brushes but haven't been able to get anything out of them that I like. I don't mind using a brush-based icons like that but I still want to color, shade, and texture them to look good. I see this map evolving as a hybrid between an artistic and a "hand-drawn style" map. So I am ok with using the brush icons as a base but want to incorporate some visual appealing artistic bent to them as well. Basically I want the cake and the ability to devour it too!!

Thanks again!

[CaptainJohnHawk]

My apologize on the rivers. You are absolutely right about how they flow. I was commenting at a very early hour out here and wasn't thinking correctly. So do not worry about your rivers at all

I am excited to see how this develops

I found giving a glow to text helps it stand out, even if you place it over mountains or symbols.

Cheers! keep on creating
Capt.JH

[KungFuCharlie]

No problem at all. Just wanted to make sure they made sense. I definitely do not think that I am beyond doing something that makes no sense whatsoever even though for some reason I think it does.

[wdmartin]

Definitely needs some indications of terrain (mountains, forests, etc). There are a variety in the mapping elements forum -- here are a few:

• Mountain brushes from Ramah's Aronbor map
• Ravenfield's mountain, forest, desert and hill brushes
• Wag's mountain brushes and patterns

[KungFuCharlie]

Thanks for the links to those. Unfortunately after 5 hours of experimentation I have yet to create a mountain range or a forest that I actually like. It looks so easy... but its not.

[wdmartin]

Well, keep at it. Sooner or later you'll find a technique you like, whether from experimentation or one of the tutorials in the tutorials section.

[Chick]

Thanks for the links to those. Unfortunately after 5 hours of experimentation I have yet to create a mountain range or a forest that I actually like. It looks so easy... but its not.

And people wonder why we get the big bucks for publishable maps

Actually, no one here was born knowing how to do this, but most have spent two or three orders of magnitude more hours learning than you have so far, so don't give up

[Deadshade]

Thanks for the links to those. Unfortunately after 5 hours of experimentation I have yet to create a mountain range or a forest that I actually like. It looks so easy... but its not.

Haha It looks easy and actually almost is if you already know how to do it by hand and then only reproduce that knowledge via an electronic media.
If you don't , then like Chick said, count a few hundreds hours before you start getting something you like.
Correct mountain ranges are difficult but in my personnal opinion correct forests that don't look like the famous "green blobs" (with or without circles inside) are even harder.

Just stay patient and practice. The tutorials here help doing precisely that.