First Map - Island for upcoming D&D Campaign

[ajrittler]

You are definitely getting closer to a good scheme for 'vibrant tropical' blue that is not overwhelming. I think you can tone it down a bit more still. The small islands end up looking like fluorescent glow dots because of it.

Maybe try for a slightly silvery sheen to the mountains.

I love all the labels. Wouldn't want a pirate isle without them!

b9anders thanks for the feedback! One of my players had mentioned the exact same thing about the islands glowing I have now toned it down. I'll continue to work the mountains and maybe the water a bit too.

[ajrittler]

Looks really good. I like the blue color of the sea, but I think b9anders was right about the smaller island having too much of the white shadow in comparison. I like your other colors as well, maybe the big mountain range does look a bit dark compared but it really has an effect that looks like they are very high mountains.

By the way, you northern islands look real good, they look rocky but the colors still blend really well.

Thanks Santra for the feedback! I'm happy with the northern island mountains too. i'm afraid to touch them at this point (good thing i save different versions and often!)

[ajrittler]

Had a little time this evening to address the glowing islands. Darkened the sea around the islands, lowered the opacity, range and size of the outer glow i'm using to create the "waves". I think it looks better - definitely less "glowing". I dropped the opacity of the compass rose and rhumb lines too - they're a little less overwhelming. Maybe not needed.

I've also been playing around with different textures for the sea though nothing I'm happy with, so it may just stay this way for now.

I may turn my attention to the font sizes and make everything 16pt font except the bodies of water and major features of the island. Again though, not sure it's needed.

Always looking for more feedback from everyone here!

Latest version with labels
Scuttle Island v3.1_with_lables.png

Latest version without lables
Scuttle Island v3.1_no_lables.png

[johnvanvliet]

maybe a but too saturated and dark
dropped the saturation 30% and 20% brighter then moved the gama point to 1.10

[ajrittler]

maybe a but too saturated and dark
dropped the saturation 30% and 20% brighter then moved the gama point to 1.10

what a difference! You're not using Photoshop are you? I tried those settings and my results look nothing like yours!

[johnvanvliet]

no i use "Gimp 2.8.18" and "2.9.3 development build " on a Linux Operating system

photoshop on windows should have similar settings

drop the saturation and you need to increase the brightness to compensate

then under "levels" move the mid point ( the GAMA point)

[ajrittler]

no i use "Gimp 2.8.18" and "2.9.3 development build " on a Linux Operating system

photoshop on windows should have similar settings

drop the saturation and you need to increase the brightness to compensate

then under "levels" move the mid point ( the GAMA point)

yeah, i adjusted all three. i'll keep messing with those levels. i'll try Gimp too (i have it, but prefer PS).

Thanks again johnvanvliet for the second set of eyes and feedback!

[ajrittler]

no i use "Gimp 2.8.18" and "2.9.3 development build " on a Linux Operating system

photoshop on windows should have similar settings

drop the saturation and you need to increase the brightness to compensate

then under "levels" move the mid point ( the GAMA point)

Weird. Running Gimp 2 on a 64-bit Windows 7 box I still get nothing close to your results.

[ajrittler]

The past day I've spent doing two things. First, tried to emulate the results johnvanvliet had achieved by lowering the Saturation, increasing the Brightness and Gamma in Gimp. I haven't even come close! Last night I tried with PS, this afternoon with Gimp 2.0 and this evening back to PS. Frustrating that I haven't been successful.

The second thing I did was attempt to remove myself from that frustration. So, I decided to play around with a different "version" of the map. More of a "Players Map". Something a bit fun that allowed me to practice more. Tried to give it a canvas/painted map look and feel. One that an explorer did while sailing around the island. Used a comic font (which may not fit, but...)

Image 1 - Today's PS attempt of lowering the saturation, increasing the brightness and gamma
Scuttle Island v3.2.flat2a.png

Image 2 - The "fun"/practice map.
Scuttle Island v4.0 Par.png

[ajrittler]

Spent a few minutes playing with saturation and brightness today. Still not even in the ballpark of johnvanvliet's results. So much of this is just trial and error for me. I'm sure I'll ever call this map "done" simply because I don't know if I'll ever be happy with it. It'll stay this way for now, unless I have some revelation with how to best adjust the saturation/brightness. Fonts are next. I really feel they're a bit "distracting" as they are now. Yes, I've labeled a lot of places so a bit my own doing - but I did that intentionally. To make it less distracting I was going to change all the font colors to black for anything on land, but realized quickly that the darkness of the mountain ranges made it impossible to read the text when I changed them. So...black with a white outer glow maybe?

Let me know what you think. Always looking for feedback.

Dropped Saturation -30
Increased Lightness +10
Increased Brightness +20
Gamma to 1.10

Scuttle Island v3.2.080716..minus15plus10plus20.110.flat.png