My Maps

[A R Frost]

Ok here are the three main maps I have made over the last few years.
They represent my AD&D gaming world. A full world map of Milosha. The main continent I use Asil and the main City-State of Aslem.
They are done using CorelDraw 12. They are all done in vector and them convert to a bitmap to post or print. Problem is that the
maps have became huge files and resource hogs on my computer. So i need to figure out Corel Photo-Paint. Its Corel's version
of PS. Can't see buying another program when i just need to figure out how to translate the PS tuts here to be usable in Corel Photo-Paint.
I would be interested in an advise or knowledge anyone has on that subject matter.
Again thanks for posting all the great maps.

A R Frost

[rdanhenry]

Your colors are very bright! These maps have a certain charm, although I'll note that from a realism perspective, you've got some river violations (rivers join as they flow to the sea, they don't split; lakes have only one outgoing river) and the city has an implausibly large amount of open space. I don't know a thing about using Corel, and it isn't a common choice around here, but you can get a lot of useful advice that isn't program specific.

[Aval Penworth]

Your colors are very bright! .

Hey, he's from Vegas man.

[A R Frost]

LoL, the colors are used more to separate each district. And the reason for the open spaces is because I did it all in vector art, hind site being 20/20 and knowing now what I do about using vector art I should have convert a number of stock buildings to bit maps instead of repeating vector shapes. Even today with a good machine cable of running high graphics my original vector map is a beast for it to handle. It can take up to 2-3 minutes for the screen to refresh when I add or remove something in it. As I look at some of the many well done maps around here I can see a lot of changes that need to be and will be made. Just trying to figure out what program(s) I should use. And at the same time make sure its a program that's not going to have my wife hang me from the wall over the price. Getting PS and learning it seems the best option considering if I do get back into making T-shirt designs again, its a useful skill to have, but the price is rather steppe. One i would be willing to spend but it would never pass the wife test. lol. Thinking CC3 might be a good option, not to pricey and the maps created from in look good. But, haven't been able to find a demo version of it to see if I like it before I buy it. Again wife test applies.
As I redo my map, the City-State and the continent of Asil map I'll take another look at the northern most lake and the two rivers that emerge from it. The split in the main river that that runs north to south on the Asil map at the Magi Tower at Shrl Nelanos is magically created. The Magi Tower is a huge waterworks tower that was created to change the flow of the river almost 1500 years ago after a great battle between to powerful evils, destroyed the Plains of Vif, turning the once lush and full of life grasslands into a useless wasteland. The Magi tower diverts part of the river towards the plains, filling in the blast area that is now a lake and using a fissure that the original blast caused to allow the river to continue its flow into the bay at Port Stratclaw. This was done so the plains could be reborn and allow the people to resettle the area.
Hopefully in the near future I'll have some revised maps to display.
Thanks for you replies.

[Rythal]

I have a slightly dated tutorial on Photo-Paint in the tutorial section if you want to take a look. My style has progressed a bit then, but its a good starting place.

love the map; I only ever had limited success with draw

[rdanhenry]

Actually, I like the colors, except on the city map. That pink and, to a lesser extent, the orange appear overly bright to me. I think even those colors would work, if just dialed back a little so they didn't scream at my eyes. And while I was looking at that again, I noticed that the orange is the "Forgien District"; I am suspecting that should read "Foreign District". Also, the Artisans have lost the final "t" of their "District" while an extra "i" sneaked into "Artisans".

[Diamond]

You know what I'm digging? Those coats-of-arms on the third map. Very nice! I especially like the grinning skull for Barbastos - it looks like he's saying 'C'mon, make my day!'

[A R Frost]

LOL, Thanks. They are from a $10 vector art clipart disc I bought years ago at Office Max. I had several hundred little coats-of-arms. And to be honest I don't even know if the disc made our move to Las Vegas, last year. Makes me sad thinking about it. No I must go dig through unpacked boxes in the garage and see if I can find it.

[alizarine]

Love the colors, although I try for a bit more realism in my pieces ^.^ Your maps are really unique and those colors do help the eye separate the districts. You should check out GIMP - it's a free alternative to Photoshop; Inkscape is the free alternative to Illustrator. I haven't used GIMP much but there are some excellent tutorials available both here and around the 'net. When you do rework this, you might want to consider roughening up the edges of forests and coastlines, unless you're going for a smoother look - it's up to you really ^.^ The one thing I'd definitely fix is the ocean on the world map - it's pretty distracting from the landmasses, which are great by the way. The background/border element on the world map is also a bit overwhelming - the orange is fine, since it contrasts the oceans' blue, but you might want to dial it down and possible blur the cloudy affect a bit more to lighten it all up. Another option would be to use a color in the same color family as the ocean color, but not a blue - that way the border would stand out but not overwhelm anything.

Great job, though - I love the world map (those coat-of-arms images do wonders), and they're all easy to read which is great. Keep it up ^.^ Can't wait to see this re-worked.

[LordJR]

Yes! Someone else who uses CorelDraw and Photo-Paint! I've been using CorelDraw since version 6, but have mostly used Corel Photo-Paint. Didn't get into vector art much til I learned Flash and then Illustrator. My copy of Photoshop CS1 doesn't work on this new computer anymore without crashing. So until I can afford an upgrade, I'll be using CorelDraw/Photo-Paint. I have many years of experience using this program, but somewhat limited in the case of making maps. Regarding maps, really like your 2nd and 3rd one there. The Coat of Arms remind me of the AD&D Greyhawk setting, which was my first D&D world to explore.

Like you, I'm hoping to find a few tutorials on CorelDraw/Photo-Paint, but if I don't and because I have some Photoshop experience, I may be able to figure out ways to adopt PhotoShop techniques in Corel. Just to note, I recently upgraded from Corel 12 to Corel 15, so I have the latest and greatest version. So great to have Corel Photo-Paint on this newer computer, Corel 12 like PhotoShop CS1 does not work on this newer system.