[Region 1][Map 29] Mythkhardia

[jezelf]

took some time tonight to work on the height map. tried to match up neighbouring rivers.

[jezelf]

playing around in my lunch hour - making it look a bit 'plaugey' at the same time linking to my neighbour's colours. It's just a quick go at the moment, I'll be trying to match the colours better later.

what do you think? I'll probably experiment with more vile (though balanced) colours to suggest more dieased or plauged terrain.

BTW, is there any preference as to the cites and towns etc or do I just bung stuff in I make up?

[Jkaen]

I think thats a fair go at making things look plaguey without going into finer detail

[jfrazierjr]

BTW, is there any preference as to the cites and towns etc or do I just bung stuff in I make up?

Make them up. As long as the border areas match up somewhat with existing neighbors areas, you can do pretty much whatever you want history/name wise. This is of course assuming someone has not previously created a city/town for the region yet in another thread.

[StillCypher]

I think this is a most excellent start. I'm totally jealous of how realistic you've got this looking. As far as making it look "plaguey" (and pardon me if I'm way out there on this or I've completely overlooked some tidbit of information -- which I'm prone to doing. ), but is the land itself suffering the plague, or the people in it?

[jezelf]

Thanks for the input folks!

I'm totally jealous of how realistic you've got this looking.

It's achievable to all and most of the credit can go to Wilbur. I put up a basic guide to the process in my entry for last month's challenge - you can see it here http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...?t=2942&page=2 except I started with the source material generously provided by Redrobes

is the land itself suffering the plague, or the people in it?

I don't know. I'll have to look at the texts again. I think it's the land - there's sketch for the regions done and this area (actually it's more to the west and this is a small part of it) says 'plague lands' I assumed it was the terrain.

I'm looking forward to a different look to green. I keep thinking of the scene in John Borman's Excalibur - when they are on the grail quest and the land is dying - lots of bare trees, fog, and mud.

I'm also tempted to make the coastline recede, so it's so plagued that even the sea retracts from this area. Dunno yet as that might not make sense geologically - but if it's a fantasy land, then the laws of nature as we know it could be suspended??? - Anyone with more academic knowledge is welcome to comment. I'm tempted to play with it, but I don’t want it to look ridiculous.

I might just have a go and post it up anyway - see what everyone thinks. Sometimes you need to explore ideas to see if they work or not.


thanks again for the feedback

jez

[jezelf]

still trying things out, but managed to get this far in my lunch hour..

Added a new step to my ever evolving map making method in PS. for those interested -

1: copied the exported height map form Wilbur
2: blurred, smart blur or surface blured for low lands, smoothing them out.
3: erased away with a soft, feathered brush to bring through areas I wanted shaper and played with the opacity of the layer.
4: merged to create a new heightmap (though always retain the orginal from Wilbur)
5: Filter/ Stylize / Emboss filter : Angle to match Wilbur's relief. Height 3. Amount 500%
6: blended the result layer with the grayscale (desturated Wilbur colour map) - it gives a better relief.

the sea area was done seperatley on another layer with Filter/Sketch/Bass Relief . the coastline was stroked with a 2pixel line and blured a bit - I dont like it, but it covers up some bad highlighting from the above steps - so it's a quick fix to hide that, but it wont be in the final image.

I'm currently just experiementing with the coastline - the water is blury, but I'll need to do a bit of research before giving it a harder edge - might make shallow then deep areas - don't know yet. will probably make dry rivers too (where they don't lead from my neighbour's maps)

it's all still very much WIP and could change again.

[Torq]

Wow Jezelf. Great result and use of Wilbur. The outcome is great looking. I particularly like the brownish shallow water. It looks dirty and plaguish. I did notice that you've still got the blue straight lines that Wilbur makes with rivers in flat areas, that are showing through the water.

Torq

[Jkaen]

I assume its a temporary stage as well, but the black outline on (most) of the coast is too strong and overpowering

[jezelf]

hi again

Torq: Cheers. yeah the whole water area is temp those lines wont be there at the end.

Jkaen: yep - as I mention, it's just a quick fix that won't be there in the end. it's not helping, I agree. what was there without the stroke was even more anoyingly distracting.

The above version was more some mucking about in my lunch hour trying ideas to further. Thanks for your input though - its good to know our thoughts on those bit you mention are the same coz it helps me know I'm thinking along the right lines.


cheers