Looking very good Straf. I think the gilded edging needs a little bit of texture to give it some realism & depth. Right now it just looks like yellow paint. Maybe a hint of shadow.
Did a little bit more, added a simple frame that I knocked up in Inkscape. I keep finding out more and more about that package, and it really does astonish me what it's capable of. At the same time it infuriates me because it can be quite unpredictable and I think it ought to be renamed 'FFS Inkscape' because that's what I shout at it most of the time.
I'm particularly interested in opinions about the gilding effect that I've applied to the cartouche/title text. I'm considering trying to distress it a bit to make it look a bit worn.
### Latest WIP ###
Guilded Lands.jpg
Looking very good Straf. I think the gilded edging needs a little bit of texture to give it some realism & depth. Right now it just looks like yellow paint. Maybe a hint of shadow.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
I second Bogie for the cartouche...
Nice touch with the grid, it adds a lot to the map !
Mausetania?
LOL!
The grid certainly does add a lot to this map. I have a pet hate of metallic textures, so I'll stay out of that discussion. Bogie's suggestion sounds like a good one though
Free parchments | Free seamless textures | Battle tiles / floor patterns | Room 1024 - textures for CC3 | GUILD CITY INDEX
No one is ever a failure until they give up trying
I really like this Straf, but my stupid mind keeps looking at it and telling me that it's upside down...
I've decided to sack the gilders and reported them to the Gilders' Guild for their gilt guilt.
I've spent a bit of time doing some labelling. I've incorporated no fewer than 50 names in there. Some are obvious, some not so and some will require a little bit of translating. I even managed to get MapMappingMapped in there, sort of. See if you can find it
### Latest WIP ###
Guilded Lands.jpg
Phew! Gilt discussion averted
Labelling is coming on nicely. Two suggestions (and they are only suggestions, don't forget):
Give the river names a slither of space between the river and the label so that the river itself doesn't make it difficult to read the label. OS maps have this slither of space, and it works really well.
The glow around the text isn't working all that well. The text colour itself is great - in tone with the map. Maybe take the glow away altogether and darken the labels fractionally, then mask out the mountains around the letters that fall on them to about the same width as the existing glow, since its only really difficult to read the labels where they coincide with the mountains.
Free parchments | Free seamless textures | Battle tiles / floor patterns | Room 1024 - textures for CC3 | GUILD CITY INDEX
No one is ever a failure until they give up trying
Really nice progress, Straf! I must confess that I very much prefer this cartouche to the gold one. It fits a lot better with the overall look of the map.
I agree with Mouse on the labels. Especially the smaller labels on the mountains are hard to read.
Great idea for Greason and Wolfe. And for MMM too, very elegant.
Thanks for putting me in the corner! It’s the most comfortable place for me, so you got that perfectly right. Although an island just for myself might have worked even better... But it’s ok, the corner will do.
Haha, this is looking great Straf. I don't know why but the sheer simplicity of "El Bow" just had me in stitches...