Newbie and loving this place
Okay, I am Krome popping over from Paizo and the encouragement of JonathanRoberts, no idea what he goes by here. Probably goes by JonathanRoberts. I am a photographer by trade and training and enjoy cartography as a hobby.
I do a passable job of indoor maps and need some serious help on my overland maps. I found a fantastic tutorial last night by Pasis. My overland maps improved 100% in one night. Now I just need to keep improving. I need to learn some basic geography, such as where is logical for mountains, rivers, and forests. That would help a LOT.
If this upload works I will include my first Improved overland map, since reading Pasis' tutorial. Comments are welcomed, and suggestions for improving are pleaded for!
Welcome to the guild. The map looks good. If you really want to get into the realistic world-building of geology, tectonics, currents and jet streams, then there are many WIPs (works in progress) for you to look at and see what they're doing. Personally, I just put 'em wherever I want 'emPoke around and have fun, chime in here n there where you see fit.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Coastlines too smooth
Hey, Krome, welcome to the Guild.
Jon Roberts is Torstan, if you haven't figured that out yet.
You should probably post this map in the Region WIP forum if you plan to do improvements on it. For me, your coastlines are unnaturally smooth. Although the southern part needs work, its better than the rest of the coastline. I am especially uncomfortable with that narrow peninsula with the hand shaped form on the end.
Are you using Photoshop or GIMP. If GIMP, you should check out RobA's Creating a Random Coastline tutorial, as well as his Regional Map tutorial.
I like the terrain though, the mountains look like mountains - so your land texturing is probably what's best in this map.
Anyway, welcome to the Guild - and have some REP for posting a Map in your intro thread!
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Thanks. I do want my maps to be more realistic looking. Rivers are my BANE! For the contours of this piece I copied parts of the coastlines of several countries, pieced them together as I liked them. Then for the mountains, grasslands, and forests I just sort of went with the "flow." I knew I wanted the southern coast mountainous, and the rest sort of filled itself in. Except for the stupid rivers. I hate rivers. lol
Thanks, now I know who to pester on here!
The unnaturalness is probably due to the coastlines coming from a few different real areas. That hand is actually part of Antarctica. Some the other pieces come from Canada, Russia, and Greenland.
Rivers get a lot of discussion here but here's some basic tips: think of the river like a tree and put the trunk on the coast and the branches in the mountains, rivers don't split as they head toward the coast (except for lil islands and deltas) they join together, on flat ground they meander and loop and generally look more squiggly than up in the mountains where they run faster and straighter. Once you start looking through some of the finished maps you'll have a much clearer picture in your head to go by.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Hi Krome. Welcome to the Guild.
Rivers are the bane of many, but have no fear, The Guild is here to help. We have Official River Police (check out the badge under Ascension's Avatar), and many unofficial ones who are very knowledgeable as well. Be sure to check out RedRobes tut in the tutorials forum on River Placement, found here http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...iver+Placement
(Don't forget to hit the little scales under his avatar in thanks.)
It seems I have been neglecting the thread by Midgardsormr on Rivers here http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ghlight=rivers
It's also possible I've been neglecting others as well. Any other members have more threads to add?
btw Nice Map,
Last edited by Feralspirit; 05-20-2009 at 01:17 AM.
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Welcome to the guild!
Daniel the Neon Knight: Campaign Cartographer User
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Welcome Krome! I do indeed go by Torstan over here, and on most other forums.
I'll repeat the comments I made on this in the Paizo thread to avoid continued derailment
Very nice first map, and definitely worthy of some rep.
I like your choice of colours, particularly on the sea. I'd say that your textures are currently overwhelming your colours and shadows a little. I'd suggest taking a shot at it with a smaller sea texture. I'd also bump up the overall mountain shadows so that you see them on the shadowed side of the peaks rather than the texture. At the moment they look very rounded in their overall shape with a very sharp local texture.
These are small comments on a very lovely map. I'd suggest a little tweaking and then put some labels on it and drop it in the finished maps section.
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