First Attempt at a City

[gaaran]

This is my first attempt at making a city using PS (and one of the tutorials on this site). It's only a representation, as the city houses around 100,000 people and thats obviously not enough houses. Just wondering what people thought, any C&C would be appreciated.

[mearrin69]

I like it. It comes off as very stylized and that's not a bad thing, I think. The fields are actually very cool looking. I dig the font.

Some suggestions if you want them: The forest texture could maybe either be softened up so it's less "textury" or maybe go around the edges with paint/erase to make the edges match the details of the trees in the texture a bit? The relief texture on the ground is a bit repetitive. It's probably okay but is a tiny bit distracting. Maybe a texture for the roads as well? Those and the city walls are the only things left untextured and seem to me to stick out a bit. I'd maybe make the roads a bit less wide as well...their width caused me to misread the scale at first glance. You've got some river streams that seem to begin/end abruptly. I think the river police will be along shortly to school you on that

[Davros01]

I really like the look. The only suggestion I would make is with your waterways. It looks like you made your waterways after the roads and just went over the roads. I would put some sort of barrier, or divide to show that there was some construction around the water.

marc

[gaaran]

Thanks for the comments guys!

@Mearrin69
You're right about the forest, I'll take that into consideration for my next map. And for the ground texture, I see what you mean, it should be a little more subtle, even a cloud mask could work. The second level roads are a little wide I agree, but the main couple roads around town are designed that big for a couple reasons. One, because they will have stalls, street vendors, and performers on both sides, and this is the major crossroads of the country and the former imperial highway, and it was used for troop movement before the fall of the empire. Of course, that's not obvious, looking at the map out of context. I think the rivers stopping/starting abruptly is more the fault of ill defined hills, rather than a problem with the rivers. They represent where the water collects to run off the hills and form a noticeable river (that's my excuse anyway )

@Davros
I actually made the water first, but I see what you mean, when I was putting in the roads, I still had the mask for the water on, and I didn't notice until I didn't want to go back and fix it. I suppose I could just paint over the top of everything to fill in the roads over the water, but I think I'll leave it as is, and just remember that for my next map.

Thanks again for the comments, they were real helpful!