The Eglaephrenon: A redux

[Falconius]

I've looked at my old map (here) and decided I know what many of the issues which blocked it's completion are. I've decide to start redoing the maps in smaller regions that actually accomplish the goals that I had envisioned for the larger map. One of the major issues with the old map is the scale, I was trying to jam a bunch of very different ideas all into one small map. So I'm going to start with the core region, the Eglaephrenon.

This is the coast block out I'm going with. I kept the impact crater but made it more of a focal point for this map. There are going to be two important centers this map covers, headed by two cities, but I'll get more into that later I think (it also may sort of be covered on the old thread):
EglaephrenonCoastRough.jpg

Here is where I got to with the old map for comparison:
Regional C_Overhaul 1.jpeg
(Theres no scale in it but the crater in the old one had a diameter of about 250kms according to a scale in of the WIP's)

[delguidance]

Some general suggestions on the old map: The area on the left with the many plateaus and escarpments feels out of scale with the rest of the map. I'd use a few lighter symbols that it is an area of plateaus like just two or three cliff face icons. Likewise, the areas with the hills have tons of hills. A few scattered bumps still conveys the information without over-crowding and making it busy for the eye to read. Finally, there's a variety of different colors to the mountain ranges. Unless this is for marking off political boundaries I would stick to a unified color theme.

I enjoy the big things like that valley and the crater, they make me want to pour over the map further.

Good on you for working around the things that were blocking you.

Sincerely hope this helps.

[DrWho42]

i'm really digging the colours and features like the crater

[Falconius]

Some general suggestions on the old map: The area on the left with the many plateaus and escarpments feels out of scale with the rest of the map. I'd use a few lighter symbols that it is an area of plateaus like just two or three cliff face icons. Likewise, the areas with the hills have tons of hills. A few scattered bumps still conveys the information without over-crowding and making it busy for the eye to read. Finally, there's a variety of different colors to the mountain ranges. Unless this is for marking off political boundaries I would stick to a unified color theme.

I enjoy the big things like that valley and the crater, they make me want to pour over the map further.

Good on you for working around the things that were blocking you.

Sincerely hope this helps.

Thank you. I'm not going to be working on that file anymore though, but I'll take your critique into mind when I redo the plateau part of the map because of course you are right. I'm not sure what was going on back then but I can actually see the map that I made now and not what I thought I had made. The colour thing is one of the major reasons for leading to a new map, with the old one I felt I wanted to convey the colour of the stone in those areas and it really doesn't work, so I'll still be able to do that with localized copies and still maintain a cohesive palette.

i'm really digging the colours and features like the crater

Thank you. The features such as the crater and the straight scar are going to say, but they won't be so close together anymore, as in on different maps of the series.

-------------------------------------------------

So I made a Wilbur height map of the area that I think looks pretty cool. I'm not really planning on using it in the final work but I just wanted to play around with it, and to help my drive some of the river and feature locations. I think it turned out pretty cool so decided to share it anyways. I intend to draw the geographic features and paint it like the old map. I think I might maybe try and use this as a subtle bump map under the stylized map and see how it looks I don't know I'll experiment a little.
### Latest WIP ###
EglaephrenonWilburHeightMap.jpg

(Oh incidentally Waldronate for some reason in the latest version 1.89 when I was hitting the undo button the map displayed pure black in the viewing window, I could still do operators to the map and save it and the file would be OK but the display stayed back. When it happened I essentially just saved it and reopened it (I didn't even have to exit Wilbur just reloading the file would fix the display)).

[QED42]

That is a really good height map, what process did you go through to generate it?

[Falconius]

That is a really good height map, what process did you go through to generate it?

Thanks.

I made that first map with the coast mask by going over this photo of a oblique angle crater on mars. Basically deciding that the terrain it hit was on a slope and what would be above and below water. Then I made low, mid, and high land forms in a paint program based on the same principle, I took this photo and mixed it in at a lower opacity to get some random texture and variation, and yous the copy brush to fill in areas that were missing. I added a multiply layer and an airbrush with a mid grey paint to force some areas lower and a divide layer with the same to make some areas higher. Then I took a single layer PNG of that over to Wilbur. I like to run it through and erosion cycle, an incise flow cycle and occasionally a perception based erosion cycle (though it has to be used sparingly because it really tends to even things out too much. Then I took it back into the paint program, fixed any problem areas, like the straight cuts Wilbur often gives in areas that are too level, set the opacity of the fixed map to some thing nice that mixed well with the layers in the paint program and basically took it back and forth a few times between the paint program and that (I made sure to keep the divide and multiply layers on as if rejiggers the highs and lows to what you want each time, I didn't keep the initial mid low and high level layers, they were only for the initial Wilbur run). I also made sure to have a layer were I put the rivers (using black) where I figured I'd want them to run, and adjusted them several times and added to it each time as it became clear where they might be or where I wanted them to interact with the terrain Wilbur was creating.

[Falconius]

Just experimenting and trying to figure out how to approach the details.
### Latest WIP ###
EglaephrenonProgress.jpg
Wit the rivers I like the darker outline far more, but decided to try the lighter outline to be consistent with the coast line. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the dark one though.

For the land forms I have no idea what I'm going to try and do. I've sketched a bunch of possibilities, even tried a paint layer but really don't know. Thinking about it now I'm going to avoid heavy painting, maybe try the subtlest of shading. Which only means I've got to get linework that's on point. Or perhaps skip it altogether and go with area fills instead... Arghh.

[Ilanthar]

Nice land shapes!
I would recommend the "subtle shading" even if it's pretty time consuming.

[Falconius]

### Latest WIP ###
EglaephrenonProgress2-1.jpg
Not much progress. I was thinking about the city icons (there ware only two special cities in the view) and this is what I ended up with even though I had no intention of going that direction. Not even sure if this is what I'll keep. I also tried out a new mountain style that I really like, but may drop due to difficulties in making them and getting a good looking scale for them.

Here's the city icon alone:
ImperialCity icon2.jpg
I gave it a lot of compression so it's kinda jenky but it gives you an idea. Originally I was intending to do something graphically more simple in two colours and flat on side view, but this just came out naturally when I started and I really kinda of like it. It also makes a call back to what I wanted to do originally for the city icons way back when. I'm curious to see if I can make it more readable but still keep the same general idea.

[Greg]

This is cool! Those new mountains are a great style, but do look tricky to do. If you can keep going with them, I think they'd look fantastic on across the whole map!

The city icon is nice too. Lovely painterly/inked look to it. If on the full size version it displays at the size you have there, I think it's find for readability.