Oct / Nov '17 Lite Challenge: Eduri Island

[Greason Wolfe]

Well, it seems we have a favorite island shape as we are getting out of the gates. Have to admit that shape number 1 was my first choice as well, but seeing as how shape number 4 isn't getting any love yet....

Don't have anything to show just yet. Working the shape through Terragen and Wilbur right now. Want to render the island with a hint of perspective, but also want to maintain the original top-down shape as much as possible. Then, of course, there is the resizing issue and the tendency for things to get a little blocky and/or chunky. Figure I should be ready to start posting some form of WIP tomorrow afternoon or evening. Between now and then I might try to work up some sort of back story behind the island.

EDIT: Gah!! Typo in the title! Nov, not Noc! And this is why I enjoy beating my head against the wall so often.

[Bogie]

EDIT: Gah!! Typo in the title! Nov, not Noc! And this is why I enjoy beating my head against the wall so often.

As long as you have a hobby.

And Thanks for Joining the challenge!!

[tilt]

Looking forward to seeing what you do ... I mean with the map, not the wall

[Greason Wolfe]

Well, after playing around in Terregen, I've come to the conclusion that it would take way too long to accomplish the vision I originally had for this map. Not to worry though, I'm not backing out. Just gonna have to take a different approach. Still gonna let Terragen do a bit of the work for me though, and while I am waiting for it to finish up, I'm gonna sneak a peak at Mouse's parchment textures since all the good ones I had are lost on a crashed drive.

[Greason Wolfe]

Grrr. Stoopid phone giving me issues. Anyway, have something to post now. Not much and mostly for the help of other eyes. Rendered the island shape in terragen at a 45 degree perspective, slapped it down on one of Mouse's parchment textures then added in a few test mountains, hills, and tree tops. Applied different levels of edge enhancement to each batch and not sure which I like better. Kind of leaning towards the batch on the right, but open to other opinions.

### Latest WIP ###
Eduri Island Test WIP 001.jpg

[Bogie]

Good start, both sets of terrain are good, but the ones on the right have more texture so I like them better.

[tilt]

With the very discreet lines on the island itself I would think the mountains on the left looks best.. but the trees on the right

[Greason Wolfe]

Still playing around with the mountain and hill coloring/texture, but did take some time to rework the coastline in hopes that it would look a little sharper.

### Latest WIP ###
Eduri Island Test WIP 002.jpg

Not 100% convinced I have things headed in the direction I want just get, but gonna keep plugging along.

[Mouse]

Good start, Greason

How about increasing the size of the symbols quite a lot? If this is an island of only 150 miles in width I get a feeling the mountains in particular would be a lot larger than they are. Also you could vary the size that they are so that they are larger in the centre of a group or down the axis of a range?

EDIT: to make the coastline look a bit sharper duplicate the layer its on. The line is very fine, but if you increase its presence by duplication you might be surprised at how much clearer it becomes. I don't know if you are using GIMP, PS, or something else, but one major flaw I've discovered with GIMP is that even when the layer opacity is set to 100% there is still a degree of transparency that can be remedied by duplicating the layer on top of itself. (This only works, of course, if you haven't got any fancy effects going on with that layer, but it should be fine if all you've done is use a multiply to get rid of a white background, for instance )

[Greason Wolfe]

Thanks Mouse.

I have a good idea of where I need/want to go with this now thanks to a bout of insomnia and a severe migraine over the weekend. Migraines make me super light sensitive so I wasn't really able to work on those at all, but insomnia let's my mind wander about on strange tangents that sometimes produce wonderful results. Now that I am feeling better, I hope to see if those mental wanderings over the weekend produce the results I am hoping for.