Newb with Map

[Kingbreaker]

Hello everyone.

This is my first atempt at a "serious" map. My background is more heraldry-oritented than cartography. I don't know if that really comes through on the map.

The software is Fireworks, almost exclusively. The texture for the ocean is a PS filter (I can't remember which, at the moment) and some of the wood textures (for the main continent) are just jpegs loaded off the net. The rest was created in fireworks. This is a great program for hybrid vector/raster images.

Being colorblind, I wanted to create a map that relied more on texture than color to get across some basic geography. So I relied mostly on some of the wood textures from fireworks + manipulation of brightness and contrast + effects filters. The idea is that this map could have been hand-carved rather than drawn or painted. The overall style probably looks like something that could have been made in CC. Hope y'all like it - and please offer constructive ffedback if'n ya don't mind.

Thanks!

[töff]

It's a very nice map! Muted palettes are usually quite lovely.

What sort of colorbllindness do you have? My dad was red-green.

Welcome!

[töff]

If you want a criticism, I'd say the wood doesn't work well as quadrants. I'd use a single wood texture, or I'd have more planks. But that's just me.

I really like the mountains. Did you bevel/light them, or did you build the left & right sides separately or shade them manually?

[töff]

I also like the black sea. I'm not sure I've seen one before! (Surely there must be many maps with black seas ...?)

[Kingbreaker]

It's a very nice map! Muted palettes are usually quite lovely.

What sort of colorbllindness do you have? My dad was red-green.

Welcome!

Red/Green as well.. . . not sure which specific flavor.

[Kingbreaker]

If you want a criticism, I'd say the wood doesn't work well as quadrants. I'd use a single wood texture, or I'd have more planks. But that's just me.

I really like the mountains. Did you bevel/light them, or did you build the left & right sides separately or shade them manually?

thank you!

You are right about the wood -- I think my first big improvement will be to find a better scan of some wood grain. At first I thought that having the map made of separate boards might be "cool" but it's really just distracting.

The mountains are either two or four vectors apiece -(four for the snowcaps). I did the basic shading by using brightness/contrast on the same wood texture in Fireworks to get the two/four shades.

Then, there is an internal bevel filter on each mountain to give each some separation from its respective neighbor. Each mountain chain was then grouped and given a "raised emboss" filter. The light angle is rotated 180' in order to make it look recessed rather than positive, if that makes sense.

I *love* the effects in fireworks because the interface is very easy and intuitive. It's too easy to abuse though

[Kingbreaker]

I also like the black sea. I'm not sure I've seen one before! (Surely there must be many maps with black seas ...?)

Hrrrrm. . . to my eyes on my monitor it's a deep blue. . . maybe I'm more colorblind than I thought

[Feralspirit]

Hey, first off, welcome to the guild! I figured someone other than Toff should chime in. Second, it's a very nice map, a unique style to use the wood grain, though I must agree with Toff that it's not working well in quadrants. Maybe one grain to represent plains. Being Red-Green deficient myself (the most common form of color-blindness, as I understand it) I was thinking of trying alternates to colored height-fields, but I've been trying to learn more basic steps in digital cartography before moving into 'my own voice', so to speak. You seem well on your way, look forward to seeing more or different solutions to the color issue. Have some rep for a nice and unusual styled map for your first post. Cheers, and Happy Mapping!

(Yeah, I see blue, dark, but blue.)

[Fabrice]

Welcome to the Guild!

I would vote for dark blue too...

[Ascension]

Nice map, cool idea. If you were to ever take this style further and develop it in say a 3d program that might look uber cool...3d mountains sitting atop a wood table. Conversely, if you wanted it to look like it was carved out of one piece of wood then a pillow emboss on the mountains might be a good idea instead of the drop shadow + inner chisel bevel. Maybe add some dark brown outer glow to the text/icons to make it look like it was burned in. All in all, pretty nice and I'm sure in time you will develop/refine it even more...nice job.