WIP - The Razorback Isles

[bradlavario]

Okay so basically I am trying to make this one in two versions, a sketch looking version, and a painted terrain version, so far... even though I have the most beautiful brushes I have ever seen... my mountains look like crap.

The idea is the keep is supposed to be surrounded on almost all sides, with a small open area for a river... but it looks exactly like what I did, randomly put mountains around it... so how do I make this look natural and not random?

razor draw.jpg

[bradlavario]

Here is what the terrain map looks like (more or less):

razorback goog.jpg

note: this is an earlier version of my mountains, so I did erase some of these around the keep area to allow for a river, and I abandoned the volcanic island idea in the south, it didn't look right after I textured it up.

[paulbhartzog]

I think the drawn mtns are great.
I also like the coastline rippled edges.

The thing with mountains is really the zoom level, i.e. how big are you going to make them? If you make them big then it looks like you have small islands. If you make the mountains small then it makes your landmasses look like continents. The same thing applies to trees as well.

Also think in fractals and power laws. Nature is semi-random, not random. There will always be less giant mountains and many more smaller ones. The same thing applies to trees as well.

I really love the idea of a satellite version and a drawn version, as if the people living in that world drew a map of their lands.