April Challenge Entry - Arunhaon

[nolgroth]

Here is my preliminary map for the April Challenge. It is based off of one of the pregens (#3) posted in the Challenge thread. I've always wanted a chance to play around with Ascension's continent style maps and this seems like as good a time as any. I might be going back and recoloring the land mass, as I find the current color scheme a little too dark for my taste. I also want to try to get the general terrain types (as I interpret them) as close to the original map as I can.

Look forward to seeing what other folks will come up with.


Arunhaon.png

[nolgroth]

Update 4/5/2013: I decided to ditch Ascension's style. I like it a lot, but I thought it might be better to go with something a little more unique. I've also just decided to use the land shape as a base. There are a few minor variations from the sample map, but nothing too egregious I hope. Took me a while to get this far and I am still not 100% happy with the mountains. They appear too randomized. An earlier attempt had them more controlled, but there were so few of them on the map. I might go back for another crack at them but that would mean I would basically be restarting if I did.


April2013Challenge4.png

[nolgroth]

Update 4/18/2013: Posting an update just to prove I'm still here.

I've experimented with a lot of different styles and techniques lately. I think I've settled on the final "version." I still need to add a few things like nations, cities and a compass, but I am well on the way there. I might even be able to finish it by the deadline.


April2013ChallengeMerged.png

[Diamond]

I like the last version the best; those colors really pop.

[nolgroth]

Thank you.

[Diamond]

And let's for sure see some cities and lairs and nations and stuff!

[nolgroth]

Added names for nations, bodies of water and a few other features. I'm not really liking the labels as they are, but I'm afraid that dressing them up might make them too "busy" for the map. Still have to add some cities. At the very least, I'm going to put a capitol for each named nation. Probably a few other cities too. And of course, I need to add some names for geological features (mountains). I've been fighting the urge to put rivers and forests onto the map. At the scale I am imagining, they might not look "correct." Map looks kind of bare without them though.

Figured out the JPEG files are smaller than PNG files. I always thought that they were comparable at various levels of compression. I thought wrong. Anyway, here is the latest work in progress.


April2013ChallengeMerged.jpg

[nolgroth]

In case I don't get the chance to work on this map, I have decided to submit my latest WIP as the final version. If I get the chance tomorrow, I am going to add a few more cities and labels.

Major changes to this version: Reduced size of Logo and Compass. Added a legend and scale meter. Changed label font to be more legible. Added a bunch of cities and other places to the northwest corner of the map.



Arunhaon_semi-final.jpg

[nolgroth]

I know this is going to sound presumptuous, but I win! Oh I don't know that I've won the guild challenge. I'll let the vote speak for that. But for me, it has been very difficult for me to track through a project like this and actually reach a point where I consider the thing done. This challenge entry was as much about me challenging myself to get the job done as it was about competing with the other (very fine) maps made by my guild brethren. In that I succeeded and that makes me happier than you know.

I just want to thank Diamond for his/her kind words and inspiration. Going to toss out a thank you to Pasis and Ascension, who's wonderful tutorials formed the basis from which I built upon. Without them, this map would probably never have been made. I wish all of the other entrants the best of luck. I hope this challenge was as satisfying for you as it was for me.

Note: Uploaded a new version as I found an error in the text of the previous entry. (5/1/13) Since the voting hadn't begun yet, uploaded a slightly updated maps. Mostly I tried to label a couple of the mountain ranges.

Tools Used: GIMP 2.8, GIMP 2.6 (because 2.8.4 Alpha to Logo kept crashing on me), Photoshop CS2 (borrowed for the mountains and labels)

### Latest WIP ###

Arunhaon_final.jpg

[Diamond]

NP. It turned out pretty cool; font choice is great, as are the colors. It's got my vote!

...and you came away with the most important thing of all: a sense of accomplishment.

I have noticed that your map doesn't seem to be showing up in the thumbnail scraper, which means no one will be able to (easily) see it when voting time rolls around. I think it's because you've imbedded your image in the post rather than including it as an attachment.

Correction: I think it's because there wasn't a line/space in between 'Latest WIP' and the attachment. I added that in there; let's see if it works now.