The World of Discordia

[MistyBeee]

Hey Guild !

It's time to catch up and share some maps I'm late to post all around, starting with the map of Discordia I finished at the beginning of the year. This was one of my biggest projects so far, and I was blessed with a lot of freedom to add details and biomes how I wanted ^^

Usual things-to-know :
- A2 300dpi,
- Hand made in Photoshop 21 using a Wacom Cintiq Pro 16,
- Commissionned map for "Dragon Prince" by Ras Pechuel.

"Map of Discordia" - 2021 - All rights reserved
Discordia_by_MistyBeee.jpg

Close-ups on Instagram : 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5...

Prints available on InPRNT and on RedBubble.

Hope you'll love it !

[RenflowerGrapx]

I've lost my jaw somewhere on the floor and i can't find it now. Please help.

This is stunning! I like this darker palette of yours!!
In particular I'm fascinated by the thick lineart.

May I ask you about some technical stuff, about big arts? It's more... Sometimes when i work on large prints, at 300ppi, it happens to lag as hell when i reach too many layers or efx layers. I wonder if you got suggestion for it. If it is about working on a lower amount of layers or if it about the machine/hardware, or both?

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[Diamond]

Yeah, I'm interested to know how you deal with lag issues like that when working with big files too. I'm running into that now with my current project.

As for the map... dayum. That is some juicy awesome mappiness and I love it. So many details to explore! Such great colors! Such convincing biomes!

[Tiana]

I feel like talking about lag / size management should be its own thread. My answer is merge things (sometimes I merge a bunch of layers that I'm unlikely to visit again and make a new file so I still have the old layers if I need to revisit them, but in a previous file) and juice up your computer as much as possible. RAM and video card and processor all play into it. I also do things like making compasses in separate files so while the compass may have a dozen layers, it's not in the main file either.

Beautiful map. I love the compass and the way the little cities spill out of the bottom of their icons. That both makes them pop out and have the immersive 'on the map' feeling. I fear the dark red text is not going to be very clear when it's printed though. Red always appears darker in print than on the screen.

[RenflowerGrapx]

I feel like talking about lag / size management should be its own thread. My answer is merge things (sometimes I merge a bunch of layers that I'm unlikely to visit again and make a new file so I still have the old layers if I need to revisit them, but in a previous file) and juice up your computer as much as possible. RAM and video card and processor all play into it. I also do things like making compasses in separate files so while the compass may have a dozen layers, it's not in the main file either.

Beautiful map. I love the compass and the way the little cities spill out of the bottom of their icons. That both makes them pop out and have the immersive 'on the map' feeling. I fear the dark red text is not going to be very clear when it's printed though. Red always appears darker in print than on the screen.

You are right. O should start a thread for it. So ignore me. I've seen the specs in the presentation and i had this wondering!



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[Arimel]

Really great map. I love how you can present giant swaths of forest and yet it still remains really interesting. I am definitely marking this for inspiration later!

[MistyBeee]

I've lost my jaw somewhere on the floor and i can't find it now. Please help.

This is stunning! I like this darker palette of yours!!
In particular I'm fascinated by the thick lineart.

May I ask you about some technical stuff, about big arts? It's more... Sometimes when i work on large prints, at 300ppi, it happens to lag as hell when i reach too many layers or efx layers. I wonder if you got suggestion for it. If it is about working on a lower amount of layers or if it about the machine/hardware, or both?

Thanks so much, Ren !
I remember you work on Photoshop as well, so things should be easy to compare. I tend to also have lags issues from time to time, but found a few tricks to avoid them as much as possible, even without touching your hardware. Firstly, it's better if Photoshop is installed on your C: hard-drive (and better if it's a fast one !), but you can also configure it to use other hard-drives if you can (Settings > Working drives or something like that ?). Then, optimise memory (Settings > Performance). In the most recent versions of Photoshop, the grid is awfully laggy, so make sure it's turned off. Because of lag, I learned to work on fewer layers : mostly one for the whole lineart, one for shading, one for light, a few for colors, and I never use fx, both because they can be laggy and because they don't suit my style, except for text and labels. Text and labels are one of the most laggy things for me, so for big maps I tend to merge them in a Smart Object. It's a bit less comfortable to edit, but it's a good workaround to keep your main file as light as possible.
Hope this will help !
(And I don't see any problem to ask here ; if a thread starts elsewhere, I can just say the same things there as well, right ? ).

Yeah, I'm interested to know how you deal with lag issues like that when working with big files too. I'm running into that now with my current project.

As for the map... dayum. That is some juicy awesome mappiness and I love it. So many details to explore! Such great colors! Such convincing biomes!

Glad you love the map, Diamond !!

Beautiful map. I love the compass and the way the little cities spill out of the bottom of their icons. That both makes them pop out and have the immersive 'on the map' feeling. I fear the dark red text is not going to be very clear when it's printed though. Red always appears darker in print than on the screen.

Thanks, Tiana !
Prints always are darker, that's a known fact, but I never noticed any specific troubles with my reds. If you have some, I would recommend to make sure your screen is calibrated with a good sensor. By the way, I always edit the curves when I send maps for printing, so this version I'm posting for digital purposes and the printable version are not the same

Really great map. I love how you can present giant swaths of forest and yet it still remains really interesting. I am definitely marking this for inspiration later!

Aaah, this giant forest was a challenging one, both to conceive and fill ! That's a lot, a lot of tiny trees...
Glad you're enjoying the map, Arimel ^^

[RenflowerGrapx]

Thanks so much, Ren !
I remember you work on Photoshop as well, so things should be easy to compare. I tend to also have lags issues from time to time, but found a few tricks to avoid them as much as possible, even without touching your hardware. Firstly, it's better if Photoshop is installed on your C: hard-drive (and better if it's a fast one !), but you can also configure it to use other hard-drives if you can (Settings > Working drives or something like that ?). Then, optimise memory (Settings > Performance). In the most recent versions of Photoshop, the grid is awfully laggy, so make sure it's turned off. Because of lag, I learned to work on fewer layers : mostly one for the whole lineart, one for shading, one for light, a few for colors, and I never use fx, both because they can be laggy and because they don't suit my style, except for text and labels. Text and labels are one of the most laggy things for me, so for big maps I tend to merge them in a Smart Object. It's a bit less comfortable to edit, but it's a good workaround to keep your main file as light as possible.
Hope this will help !
(And I don't see any problem to ask here ; if a thread starts elsewhere, I can just say the same things there as well, right ? ).



Glad you love the map, Diamond !!



Thanks, Tiana !
Prints always are darker, that's a known fact, but I never noticed any specific troubles with my reds. If you have some, I would recommend to make sure your screen is calibrated with a good sensor. By the way, I always edit the curves when I send maps for printing, so this version I'm posting for digital purposes and the printable version are not the same



Aaah, this giant forest was a challenging one, both to conceive and fill ! That's a lot, a lot of tiny trees...
Glad you're enjoying the map, Arimel ^^

Yay. Effectively the FX for the tags is the most problematic things.
I am used to move the background map onto a new PSD where to apply text only. Because on poster maps, with more than 300tag, all in efx folders, it gets complicated to trace a line D: THANK YOU for sharing your tips. They are already my settings. But i assume at this point i should surrender to have labels on a different file.

Ok. In not going OT anymore.
I'll instead create a new post if needed T_T

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[- JO -]

huge and beautiful.... I would love to be able to zoom in to see more details!

[SharpPointyStick]

Yay! Christmas came early with some MistyBeee mappy awesomeness! Always love your work. Can't really add any technical artistic commentary, but your maps just makes me happy!