[Region 1][Map 25][Location 2] Briar's Cove

[industrygothica]

Placeholder for CC_JAR's map of Briar's Cove.

[CC_JAR]

Here is the Briar's Cove are of the Witchlight Strand, I have yet to add the buildings, and am not really sure if I'm missing anything else, but while working on this, I feel I've gotten a bit better at digital cartography, thanks mostly to Pyrandon's tutorial, and what amount of PS knowledge I had on my own.

Pyrandon's tut just let me see the process used, and I followed his directions, but played with the setting til I found what I liked, which I guess is what everyone else here does, right?

but I'm getting off topic, so if you see anything that needs improvement, or can help me with the buildings, I'ld appreciate it.

[industrygothica]

I think your scale is a bit off. Look at it again with a scale bar attached this time and see what I mean.

Pulling from the d&d 4e Player's Handbook (because it's the only one I have readily available), an average person can walk 3 miles an hour, or 30 miles in a day - which is about the size of the area you have walled off. That means it'll take the inhabitants of this town a full day to get from one end to the other, and another to get back home again.

This map is big enough to serve as an overland map with multiple towns and villages, then you can map each settlement individually. I'd think that a large-sized fantasy city wouldn't be more than about 5 miles end-to-end, and small villages just a speck on the overland map.

To put it in perspective, at this scale your towers are about 2 miles in diameter, and your bridge is about 8 miles long.

You might also try redrawing the borders on your own so the base area doesn't look so blown-up. Play with the land textures and colors a bit until you find something you like.

Hope that helps!

-IG

[CC_JAR]

I think your scale is a bit off. Look at it again with a scale bar attached this time and see what I mean.

Pulling from the d&d 4e Player's Handbook (because it's the only one I have readily available), an average person can walk 3 miles an hour, or 30 miles in a day - which is about the size of the area you have walled off. That means it'll take the inhabitants of this town a full day to get from one end to the other, and another to get back home again.

This map is big enough to serve as an overland map with multiple towns and villages, then you can map each settlement individually. I'd think that a large-sized fantasy city wouldn't be more than about 5 miles end-to-end, and small villages just a speck on the overland map.

To put it in perspective, at this scale your towers are about 2 miles in diameter, and your bridge is about 8 miles long.

You might also try redrawing the borders on your own so the base area doesn't look so blown-up. Play with the land textures and colors a bit until you find something you like.

Hope that helps!

-IG

yeah, scale's not that great of a friend with me.. I get lost in all that, I never could get it.

I guess I'll try something else then, but that was just a general idea of how I saw the land.

[CC_JAR]

Is this a little better scale wise?

I know the water's messed up, I'll probably end up completely re-doing the land and water base of the map to make it fit.
and the roads are like 2-3 miles at this scale, so I'll make them smaller, but this is still in 'alpha' stage to me..

[industrygothica]

The scale is a lot better, if not still a bit big. Your town by the inlet there looks to be about 8 or 10 miles or so; still big, but doable at least.

You should definitely redo the water and landmass to make them your own... there are probably a few ways to tackle that one relatively easily. Just tracing the landmass with the pen tool comes to mind first, but there are probably easier ways as well.

Your trees and rivers are looking a bit plastic, probably due to the bevel. There are many excellent tutorials here on how to get those knocked out as well.

Keep it up, you're getting there!


-IG

[CC_JAR]

The scale is a lot better, if not still a bit big. Your town by the inlet there looks to be about 8 or 10 miles or so; still big, but doable at least.

You should definitely redo the water and landmass to make them your own... there are probably a few ways to tackle that one relatively easily. Just tracing the landmass with the pen tool comes to mind first, but there are probably easier ways as well.

Your trees and rivers are looking a bit plastic, probably due to the bevel. There are many excellent tutorials here on how to get those knocked out as well.

Keep it up, you're getting there!


-IG

heh thanks, and I just learned about the pen tool, and using paths in photoshop in class Wednesday.. so I might do it like that just for the practice.
And I'll keep looking for more tutorials, but do any specific ones come to mind for the trees?

oh, and if it would get them more to scale, should I just go with dots for the cities, and then do each city map seperately?

[ravells]

You go to photoshop classes? Man I'm so jealous!!!

[industrygothica]

heh thanks, and I just learned about the pen tool, and using paths in photoshop in class Wednesday.. so I might do it like that just for the practice.
And I'll keep looking for more tutorials, but do any specific ones come to mind for the trees?

oh, and if it would get them more to scale, should I just go with dots for the cities, and then do each city map seperately?

That is certainly a viable option. In my Hammerfall map, which is the region directly south of Briar's Cove, that's what I've done. I've also taken the area around the "dots" and blown it up to map out the town proper, and am then able to scale back the town so that it fits precisely onto the region map. Of course that looks a little funny if your town maps are all done in different styles, which mine will be (hopefully), but it's fun to play with nonetheless. And a great opportunity play with an assortment of techniques.

I can't think of a specific tutorial on trees right now, but browsing through the tutorial section is half the fun of it, because you almost always run across something else that you didn't know you needed as well. If I should think of something though I'll be sure to let you know.

You go to photoshop classes? Man I'm so jealous!!!

That makes two of us. Of course, when I found this site it was like one big giant photoshop class to me. I've learned loads since I've been here.

[Ascension]

Same here...and I keep learning new things every week.