December 2022 Challenge: The Last Sea

[Naima]

Man! I would actually love to do realistic maps like that from time to time. It fits perfectly for certain situations.

It is coming along very nicely!

P.S. What program do you use for this?

Thankyou , so far just Wilbur and Photoshop.

[Naima]

Ok since I started this challenge I am taking this to try to get out a little bit of my usual confort zone of realism maps tha ti get usually commissioned and I wanted to try something a little different and more fancy , since my weak spot is usually the frame design and other labelings ( usually people ask me for blank maps or barely labeled) so I wanted to make some exercize on that regard and try something news, i hope you can help me guide me in the right direction and sugest me what is good and what is not good, espeially in the frame design and labeling...

here are some progresses.

General Map overview

temporary.png

Some close ups :

desertworld1.jpg

desertworld2.jpg

I liked the idea to show both the places of the world throught some painting images and also the Kingdoms / races ...

I would like to show more of the idea of this world like creature types and technology but I have no idea how to implement in the map .

Also I am wondering how that style looks , too fancy ? does not match the map? Strange? Is the Font right? Is the thickness of the border frame too simople ? too thin ? how could I represent the kingdom borders? how can I implement the creatures and technologies? else? What are your sugestions about?

Thanks for any answers I want to explore new styles and I hope to have something worth working on here .

Basically the Idea that started ramping up in my head after I started this challenge starting from that original AI image, is about a desert dying world, a last sea is where civilization is spreading , in the valley of a Canyon as deep as 1500 - 2000 m strong ascensional currents roam the canyon dense air and allow for special flying boats driven by ropes, silk sails and bambooo and wood to fly and use those currents, not many use that technology but is accesible to all people nations, out of the canyon the boats can't be used, the sea is instead traveled by usual ships of ancient type like oars and sails, out of the canyon the environment is extremely hard and degrees rise considerably , the desert is traversable only by the most expert travellers and by use of some environment adapted creatures ( I thought of something like giant lizard armadillos with a howdah , or the like ) ...
OF course this is a Fantasy settings so magic is present but dark and rare and mostly practiced from witch queens from the far north east.
For the rest the world is uninhabited by humans and scattered ruins lie around ...
I also designed a precataclysm world ...

temporary.png

[Naima]

Here I decided to redo the Frame, perhaps I overdone ?

test frame.png

[Turambar]

Here I decided to redo the Frame, perhaps I overdone ?

test frame.png

Not too overdone to me. I think it looks great!

[Diamond]

That frame is fire! (As the kids say. ) I like that much better, since I like the little art windows but I feel like it way overcrowds the map to have them directly on there. You're going to move them to the circles in the frame, right? As far as the fonts, I like the one on the map, but the one in the new frame is MUCH better and somehow fits the idea of the map better, in my opinion.

[Ilanthar]

Looks great! Your combination of Wilbur/PS is still doing wonders.

[Naima]

That frame is fire! (As the kids say. ) I like that much better, since I like the little art windows but I feel like it way overcrowds the map to have them directly on there. You're going to move them to the circles in the frame, right? As far as the fonts, I like the one on the map, but the one in the new frame is MUCH better and somehow fits the idea of the map better, in my opinion.

Thankyou , well I revised now because I think the side frames for portraits were abit too smal in detail so I redid a little to match the central frame more, I hope it worked, also yes I also decided to move the portraits of the people to the side ... It will be 12 tribes or people represented by a King or Queen figure.

I am also adding animals, natural landmarks, ruins, and cities ...

Looks great! Your combination of Wilbur/PS is still doing wonders.

Thankyou .

[Naima]

Ok here is another Update, I redid the frame so that now its , I hope , more balanced.
I moved the portraits on the sides and I added several Icons for :

Cities
Temples/ruins
Peculiar Fauna
Peculiar Natural Landmarks

I still have to name things , adjoust political bondaries, add routes, and eventually rebalance, rescale some stuff, change names etc...

The original resolution is about 14000 pxls , this preview is a 4k reduced version.

What you think overall of this new style and what should I care more to fix , change etc? Any constructive criticism is very welcome thankyou.

https://i.ibb.co/28WXwz0/temporary.png

[Diamond]

Well, I do love it. I think though, at this resolution, the icons are not obvious as to what they are (except for the animals) and because of that are distracting and confusing. If you're planning to label them all it should clear all that up though.

[Naima]

Well, I do love it. I think though, at this resolution, the icons are not obvious as to what they are (except for the animals) and because of that are distracting and confusing. If you're planning to label them all it should clear all that up though.

What do you mean ? is a problem of resolution or cluttering and I should reduce number of icons?