[WIP] Wörld of Metal

[Rongar]

Oh, hey! Now that's a load of comments. Thank you, everyone!

@ChickPea: Thanks! Yeah, I think it makes sense to enlarge the landmass to the borders when there's so much water. I actually did it because once again I was running out of land to work on and I didn't want to enlarge the canvas yet again. 6000x4000 is pretty darn huge already and my computer isn't exactly powerful. The land shape is pretty much done, but I'm thinking about moving the skull island and some of its' surroundings to the top left. I don't want to single it out too much, but I don't want to "ruin" the guitar shape either. However, I think it could help fill the empty area in the corner. If that doesn't work out I might put the legend there. Is it even called legend? You know, the map symbology like distances and whatnot. Anyway, thank you for your comment.

@Abu Lafia: Danke, haha. I don't worry too much about it being cheesy. The whole metal universe has great potential for making fun of the cheesy-ness (Brütal Legend, anyone?), and that's one of the reasons why I love it so much. But you didn't possibly think I would not include moshpits?

@Mouse: Thank you kindly!

@DanielHasenbos: Thanks! Yeah, the forests; I'm usually more of a satellite maps kind of guy, this hand-drawn style is very much unknown territory to me and I'm not good at drawing, especially not with a mouse. :/ But I tried to make them look less flat and will continue to try and enhance them further.

@GLS: Thank you for the compliment. A guitar is great for anything, though.

@Ilanthar: Thanks! Yep, the forests are a top priority right now. I have already raised the number of tree trunks and made them thinner. And I think that was a good idea, generally speaking.


Thanks again, everyone. Your comments are much appreciated and helpful. So, since the forests have been criticized so much, I've tried to de-flatten them (well, "it") by running a bunch of filters, doing a color overlay, simulating light & shadows, etc. Here's what I got so far:

OLD:
Wörld of Metal4_preview_small.png

NEW:
Wörld of Metal5_preview_small.png

The difference isn't exactly huge, but I think it's better now. The question is: Yay or nay? Or "Better, but ..."?

I'm not happy with the tree trunks yet, I think they're too regular and "tidy". Which is no wonder though, it's actually a pattern (I'm lazy ^^). I might draw them by hand at some point but they do for now.

That aside, let me know what you think, please.

[EDIT] Quick update, just decorative stuff, though. I'd normally do that towards the end, but ... *shrugs*

- moved the skull island to the top left, as mentioned earlier, and I kinda like it better that way (it even looks like someone is holding the guitar ) I'll have to redo the water waves though, the part where the island used to be is broken - I just cleaned up the area real quick to see how it looks.
- added a provisional frame for the legend (nothing too fancy, but I do like the simplicity.)

Wörld of Metal6b.jpg

Note: I'll also redo all the text in Krita as that gives better results. Right now it looks terribly washed out, especially the lore paragraph.

Regards,

~~Rongar

[DarkInfinity]

The difference isn't exactly huge, but I think it's better now. The question is: Yay or nay? Or "Better, but ..."?

The difference is huge. Definitely better.

This is pretty awesome. Very nice concept. The skull the guitar, obvious enough but not so obvious that it's over done. I like it.