It's dark. I like dark. Looks like it's been sitting in a puddle of rainwater in an alley somewhere.
Current WIP
Thanks again, Jake, for the fold lines - they go well with the map. I also added a hint of water stains along the vertical folds.
Everyone, please let me know if brightness/contrast are fine with you. As I noticed at work monitor brightness can be pretty different from one screen to another.
Any final comments?
It's dark. I like dark. Looks like it's been sitting in a puddle of rainwater in an alley somewhere.
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
..and a dog and a bunch of rats pee'd on it too
Seriously though..this came out nice.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Thanks, guys.
I can REP
Others can't REP you, but I can! Here's 9 points from my Epic REP Wand of Defending! Good job, Syt!
GP
Gamer Printshop Publishing, Starfinder RPG modules and supplements, Map Products, Map Symbol Sets and Map Making Tutorial Guide
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Thanks, GP.
I just noticed that I messed up the highway (it didn't properly connect to the smaller roads anymore), so here's the latest WIP (maybe final this time?).
### Latest WIP ###
Last edited by ravells; 06-27-2009 at 03:52 PM.
Okay a few things Syt. Can you help me understand the history of the map? Was it a professionally-made map that someone(s) marked on later, or was the whole thing drawn by the first explorer? I am trying to understand the juxtaposition of styles, with the background looking very professional and "machined", but lacking some things you'd normally see on a town-scale map like street names. If hand-drawn by someone with a steady hand and talent, then the smooth, even background colors are too smooth and even.
The skull in the bottom center. This looks too perfect to be hand-drawn. Also, what does it designate? Flesh-eating mutant block party or some broken glass? I'm voting for the mutants but YMMV.
The burns on the edge, especially the narrow ones on the right, are just a bit too regular and uniform. I think the map would improve if you varied this more.
Finally, the stains. I think the application is excellent, but the shapes are too circular. My suggestion is that you look through some of the grunge brushes at deviant art and find some splatters that are less symetrical.
I think your creation is very original and fascinating. I have always enjoyed the post-apolcalyptic genre and I have also read "The Road". I read it slow... savored it even. As is, I think your submission is an excellent piece of work. I hope my suggestions are helpful to you, even if you choose not to implement any of them.
Immolate, thanks for the input, it gives me a few things to think about.
The history is easily told. An explorer made the first map. He's perhaps someone charting out which places are fine for staying and which are not. Maybe somoene with a bit of scientific/cartographic knowledge and some artistic skill assembling a survival guide. The skull is to denote that the river is poisonous. If the explorer is there the first time and no one lives there - how much sense is there in naming streets? It seemed to me that other things (shelter) would be more useful for a traveller through the wastes and that is why he added sketches of suitable places to the map.
The original town is about 2 or 3 km wide. I used to live there, and I can say that you can walk all main streets easily within a day; so if the artist spent "a whole week" there it's easy to assume he would have time to crank out a rather accurate map (sans paths through ruins, those were added later by the finder).
The map is later found in the same ruins by someone living somewhere nearby - why only this map and still in this place? Maybe the map drawer died there and this was his only map. Or he dropped/forgot it. How much time has passed? Who knows - the original artist still reckoned time relatively precise by years ATW (after the war) while the later finders use different points of reference (year of the great rains; year of the dark sun etc.).
The map was kept in the family, and the son or grandson made some additional notes, like that raiders now live in the ruins. Therefore you have three different types of handwriting (top left, bottom right, left).
Most of the stains etc. would probably be from before the finder recovered the map.
Regarding the burns, I considered making them symmetrical, as if the map was burnt on one side while folded. I have to try out how it might look. Regarding the circular stains - will think about it, but the idea was that someone dripped onto the map, but instead of trying to smear it off (thus probably ruining the map) they let it dry or just gently tried to dab it off.
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