That is looking very nice! The names look fine to me, and I like the way you did the city/town markers.
I especially like the one town, Swiftwater (long story there, but our house got named Swiftwater Holt by our friends.. heh)
Okay well that was a bit of a bother, coming up with a hundred or so names. I also made some adjustments on the sea labels. I wouldn't be surprised if I tranced out and named the last 47 towns the exact same thing.
Oh yeah, the rivers got some visibility love too.
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Last edited by Immolate; 09-26-2009 at 11:44 PM. Reason: corrected spelling
That is looking very nice! The names look fine to me, and I like the way you did the city/town markers.
I especially like the one town, Swiftwater (long story there, but our house got named Swiftwater Holt by our friends.. heh)
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
I loved the mountains, now I love the text too.How did you create the 3d text. Also, what font is it?
The font is Gabrielle and the effect is as follows:
Drop Shadow: Multiple; 60% Opacity; 145 deg.; Distance 17; Size 33
Outer Glow: Normal; 75% Opacity; Black; Size 3
Inner Glow: Multiply; 100% Opacity; Noise 11%; Color ae880c; edge; Choke 19%; Size 75px; Contour is the standard "stair bumps" with a range of 56%
Bevel: Inner Bevel; Chisel Hard; Depth 300%; Up; Size 8; Angle 90;
Altitude 40; Highlight Color Dodge 56% e5d266; Shadow Multiply 87% 5a3015
Pattern is a grainy gold pattern with lots of variability expanded up to 254% with a blend mode of normal and 100% opacity.
Whoa, this a nice map and that a pretty cool effect you have on the font. On though, it's really just a personal preference thing but the rivers are a bit too "squiggly", i may be wrong but i think they should be a little straighter if they occured naturally.
-D-
People come and people go. I walk amongst them, I see their faces; but none see mine. I pass them in the streets but nary a glance is spared my way, for what interest would they have in a Wanderer? Not of this world... Forever Alone... Forever Wandering... LoneWandererD...
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Finished Maps
RIP Angel "Ingy" Yates - The first inspiration that guided me towards art. You will be missed...
My guide was the Mississippi, which at 1 pixel per mile looks like this:
Mississippi at 1px per mile scale.jpg
When you really look at these big rivers close up, it becomes evident that representing them as anything other than a gross approximation would require serious time and technique.
Here's my map with some updates, including compass rose and scale. Mountain labels have been scaled down.
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Unnamed Continent.jpg
Very nice Immolate!
The only thing I noticed that looked 'off' (and this might just be me), is the rivers look like they are raised above the land rather than being 'dug' into it.
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.
I catch it that way too sometimes SG. The bevel is definitely down, but we are used to seeing global lighting coming from the northwest, and this is coming from the southeast... an oddity of Ascension's atlas tutorial. Since the mountains and hills are not globally lit, but rather have rendered lighting that doesn't automatically adjust, I'd have to go back and restart from that point. Ain't happenin'. I'm sure there's a less drastic way to address it and I'll give it some thought.
Here's an alternative... thoughts?
I also reduced the opacity on the compass and scale to tone them down a bit.
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Unnamed Continent.jpg
Hrm ... I think I liked the first one better. Now your rivers look too fuzzed out to me. The compass and scale look good