City of Gullside

[AidyBaby]

Hi all,

My first city map - have a look and see what you think. It's only a test and hasn't much detail (and the names are totally uninspired). Done in PS. Hope you like...

--AidyBaby--

[ravells]

If you call that 'not much detail' you need your head examined. I think it's a stunner.

I love:

The texture you've used for the forests
The texture you've used for the sea
The organic design of the city - well..ok the building shapes are similar but there are so many of them, it must have required a lot of patience (which I certainly don't have) to draw them all.

The only thing I'd say is out of keeping with the style you've used is the pixelly texture of the grasslands (but that would depend on the scale of printing - it would look good at a smaller scale). I think it's utterly superb and am at a loss as to suggestions as to how you could improve it.

[AidyBaby]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it, I wasn't sure whether it would come out OK when I aimlessly started out...

You're definitely right about the grass texture. I've updated the map to take on your comments - hopefully you'll be able to see a less 'zoomed' texture (and therefore less pixely). I've attached two new versions, one with the poster edges filter run on all except the grass and the other without the poster edges filter run at all.

Personally I like the poster edges filter, I think it gives the map a more hand drawn feel rather than the crispness of a photoshop creation. Don't know how you feel about it.

With regards to drawing the buildings, it wasn't that painstaking - I simply drew a building pattern, dropped it onto the map and masked out the buildings I didn't want. Much quicker and that's why it's slightly repetitious...

The trees are hand drawn with a stipple brush and the water makes use of the glass / ocean filter.

[AidyBaby]

Here's the building pattern I made and used (all welcome to steal if it floats your boat!)...

[RPMiller]

I just want to say... Wow! I want to know everything you did to create this map start to finish.

[AidyBaby]

Hmmm, I'd post the .psd except it's 51MB. What I can do though is attach an extract of the file, cropped down. It'll give you an idea of how it is put together that may help, assuming you've got photoshop of course.

I think a future tutorial is in order.

[pyrandon]

I agree with RP: this is an excellent map. Wonderful in most every way.

I also agree with you that the filtered map is much better. Not only does it have a "hand drawn" feel, but it is so rich and organic, plus it equalizes the separate features into accord.

Nicely done!!

[RobA]

Very nice!

Did you get some inspiration from Don's tutorial, or are these new techniques? (Just asking, cause they seem to have a similar "feel".)

Also- how did you get the buildings coloured differently (but completely)?

-Rob A>

[Torq]

I love the map, the colours the style and the feel. Its great. The "poster edges filter" seems to create a very similar effect to Gimp's cartoon filter. My personal view is that using a filter like that tends to detract from the uniqueness of the map, because its very recognisable. I atually like the map without the filter, although the features do look slightly less equalised. I would suggest trying the filter with less black and slightly less intensity. This may merge the features and yet still be subtle enough so that the filter isn't quite as obvious.

Great work.

Torq

[Faide]

That's a fantastic map!

How did you get the texture on the forest and sea?

Karl