OCT / NOV 2015 Lite Challenge: Map a River (City of Bridges)

[soggymuse]

I'm mapping this thing randomly in Photoshop, after the initial sketch in SAI. The vague idea was for a city built across a bunch of islands scattered in the middle of a wide and fast-moving river.

CGLite_MapARiver_Sketch.png

You can see how different the WIP is from the original sketch. I had planned to paint the whole thing in SAI, but part of the reason I'm entering is to take a break from my cave map because my hands get tired and painful really easily. Plus, I wanted something I could actually realistically finish in time for the challenge deadline, and hand-drawing is not that for me.

So while working on the textures and aiming for gentle hills sloping down to the water, I got more of a cliff-y jungle-y sort of river than originally intended but liked it enough to stick with it. As a result, the buildings are all made of wood jutting up out of the tree canopy, with wood and rope bridges connecting them and the islands to one another.

### LATEST WIP ###

CGLite_MapARiver_OCT282015.png

I need to work on the scale and angle of the building/bridge textures, but that can wait for now while I get the buildings actually placed. I want to add more shadow later as well to elevate some of the islands a bit more, as well as add a couple of merchant ships and work on the doreys (doris?) a bit more (those mini round things on the water are supposed to be those round fishing dorey things).

And labels. The black-stroked pale green labels don't work.

[Bogie]

Great idea! Welcome to the Challenge!

[ChickPea]

Hi soggymuse, glad you decided to join the challenge! You're off to a fine start, and I love the colours and texture of your water. Agree the labels need a little work.

I might be overlooking something blindingly obvious here, but what is SAI? I know of AI as Adobe Illustrator, but not sure if SAI is something else entirely?

[soggymuse]

Thanks, guys.

Paint Tool SAI, to give it its full name, is a Japanese painting programme. It does linework and vectors really really nicely, and far more intuitively (to me) than Photoshop. (I've never really managed to figure out how to oeprate the Pen tool in PS, especially in terms of editing, so I tend to be stuck with what I've got once I've done it. At least in SAI, I can easily adjust the weight, colour and so on of any vector linework. The only thing it doesn't do well is actual straight lines so I wouldn't want to try painting accurate buildings in there.) I tend to start my maps as sketches/linework in SAI if I know what I want. If I'm just doing something random, I'll start in PS because it's easier to use filters and the render clouds technique that way.

### LATEST WIP ###

CGLite_MapARiver_OCT292015.png

I've added a bunch of buildings and bridges, and made a facsimile of a boat just to show traffic on the river. I've fiddled with the labels a bit, too, but they don't seem to show up very well no matter what I do. For some reason, as well, I've noticed that Photoshop makes the round rooftops weird when you zoom out. They seem lop-sided even though the originals are perfectly central. Can you guys see that too or is it just me?

I've also elevated a couple of the islands, but I've had to flatten the terrain layers because my computer really doesn't like me or this map right now. I'm not sure why because it's dealt with much larger and more complex maps and graphics far more readily. o_O

[soggymuse]

I think I'm going to consider this complete because I honestly have no idea what else to do with it.

I've added more buildings, changed the old ones, added the dock/marina, more bridges, and worked on the ships a bit more so they look like they've got masts. I don't think the doreys really indicate fishing vessels, but that's what I imagined these people using so I'll leave them as is.

I was going to add a lot more houses/shops to the Crafters' Isle, too, but my computer is really really struggling with this file for some reason I don't really understand. (It's not really any bigger than some of my world maps and has even fewer layers, but still takes forever to do anything.)

But yeah, I just don't know what the heck else to do with it.

### LATEST WIP ###

CGLite_MapARiver_NOV22015.png

[Meshon]

I love bridge cities. So many vistas, though I suppose the infrastructure tax would make it into a home for the wealthy. I don't think it needs a grid, just a scale would work nicely and wouldn't distract from your groovy textures. The river texture is a bit extreme, the river looks to have more pronounced topography than it should. One possibility would be to use the smudge tool to pull the river texture in the direction of it's flow. The very first image you posted does this well. If you want to indicate rapids then make sure the texture in the river extends roughly from one bank to the other. It looks a bit like there are mounds in the river right now.

Which might be the case! Maybe that's exactly why the city was built there: not only do you have vistas, but the vistas include unusual hydrological phenomena!

cheers,
Meshon

[snodsy]

This is started to look really nice, love the round buildings and their color. I'd add a little more letterspacing (tracking) and leading (space between lines) to your legend, its a lilttle cramped.

[soggymuse]

Unfortunately, I've had to abandon any further work on this map because my computer is struggling with it so much. (I really don't understand it, but I started working on the smudging Meshon mentioned and my computer was making crazy weird noises. I figured I'd quit before the hard drive blew up or ate me or something. (Seriously, it sounded like a ravenous beast every time I swept the smudge tool down the river. I fear for my life!))

However, I'll keep that advice in mind for future work, Meshon, thanks. (I'll also keep future maps smaller... I think it's because it's 150ppi instead of just 72.)

I did manage to play with the legend, though, and turned the border into a scale so I could remove the grid. (I did make an actual scale but it seems incredibly tiny and disappeared into the terrain.) Thank you both for your advice. <3

So, there's not much difference with this, but here's the latest wip, and definitely the finished piece since I daren't work on it any further. (I would still appreciate feedback for future works, though!)

### LATEST WIP ###

CGLite_MapARiver_NOV42015.png