Reply With QuoteI worked up a political version of the map with all of the major countries noted.
political.jpg
I don't think this will be part of the final map, but it may be used as a reference for a possible D&D campaign I'm thinking of running in-world.
I just realized that I can't really add a scale bar; since the map projection is (nearly) equirectangular, the vertical scale differs from the horizontal scale, and the horizontal scale changes depending on where you are on the map. I can add latitude and longitude measures, though, which will indicate that this is the whole world (or nearly all of it).
political version
I worked up a political version of the map with all of the major countries noted.
political.jpg
I don't think this will be part of the final map, but it may be used as a reference for a possible D&D campaign I'm thinking of running in-world.
I think the coasts could use less uniform smoothness and more jaggedness but style-wise this looks ok. The colors and paper really sell it but I'd make a few tweaks. I'd drop the blue color out of the compass. I'd also increase the size of all of the little mountains and trees...I think you might find that nicer. No need to have a thousand mountains when a few dozen will convey the message of "mountain range here". Of course that would give you a more "LotR" style map but if you want something more antique and less medieval then I'd use simpler icons for mtns and trees and keep 'em small like this. For the text I'd make that smaller, make it dark brown or black like the other lines, put a tan outer glow on it that matches the paper color, and also pick a different font like Arabic typesetting or Aramis (they fit the antique style well) or a hand-written font for a medieval style. All in all, not too shabby, though, so keep at it and soon you'll be making some kick butt antique maps.
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
Thanks Ascension, I really appreciate all of the advice-especially from such a renowned community leader! I'd like to give all of your suggestions a try, but most of them seem pretty major, so it'll have to wait a week or two until my finals are over. In the interim, if I do find any time, I'm going to try and fill in labels and such.
Oh, I totally understand, you've got the basic style down here and that's what counts for the most. The details take a long time to figure out...I'm still figuring them out myself
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
That political map does look quite nice (Ascension covered all the points on that ^.^ ). The only thing I'd add is if you want to keep or add some color, think about light touches in a sort of watercolor style. You've got a great hand-drawn/pen+ink style going on without it looking too rough; adding light touches of color might separate the land and water tho' for when/if you go back to the geography. Of course, it's up to you - I just prefer a bit of color, and since you've got it in the compass you might want to think about unifying the whole piece with color; or simply remove the color from the compass, as Ascension suggested. If you're using Photoshop, there's some excellent hand-drawn-ink-style brushes for mountains, forests, &c. here at PickeBu's Deviantart gallery. (the image is an example of the brushes "in action" - the download link the left side of the page is where you get a zip file of 3 brush sets). Hope this helps, at least for reference!
- Alizarine
"If they get too nosy, you know, just shoot them."
"Shoot them?"
"Politely!"
...
"Sir, I think there's a problem with your brain being missing ... at last, we can all retire to a life of luxury!"
Well, I'm using the Gimp, but it can import photoshop brushes, so I'll give those a try.Originally Posted by alizarine
GIMP? wow - never really worked with the program myself, probably 'cause I'm too used to photoshop (too scared to try it, that is ^.^ ) I see what you're saying about the scale being a problem though. You might want to try G.Projector (someone uploaded an older version on the forums somewhere the newest version is here). Excellent program for setting up various (a lot) of map projections; that would help with the scale problem. Of course, you've got such a lovely map right now changing the projection might undermine that or change the look you're going for, so of course that's up to you. With or without a scale, this is looking good!
- Alizarine
"If they get too nosy, you know, just shoot them."
"Shoot them?"
"Politely!"
...
"Sir, I think there's a problem with your brain being missing ... at last, we can all retire to a life of luxury!"
it just keeps getting better.
“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden
* Rivengard * My Finished Maps * My Challenge Maps * My deviantArt
Thank you so much-I've been looking for something that would do EXACTLY what this does for a long time now. Incredibly useful as I technically could do it by hand, but have not the stomach for such calculations, nor indeed the implementation.
EDIT: Oh, and as for the PS-GIMP changeover, I did it myself four or five years ago. I used to be a page editor on my high school newspaper and we used adobe products there, so I was used to PS (and InDesign, mostly). When I graduated I had to transition to GIMP because I'm a poor college student, and the transition was remarkably smooth. I won't say that I like the GIMP any better than PS, but I've certainly become very comfy with it. I've actually used GIMP to touch up some pretty pictures I've taken on big research telescopes after my science observing is over, and it plays nicely with .fits files (special astronomy image format), so I was extremely pleased with that bit of extra functionality. Really what I'm trying to say is that there's no reason to be scared of it. Also, it's free, so that's good.
Last edited by plamadude30k; 05-06-2010 at 01:40 AM. Reason: needed to add stuff, didn't want to double-post
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