First attempt at map making

[TitusTetricus]

I'm trying to make a map to build a homebrew fantasy world, for D&D, upon. I followed the Saderan tutorial from here and got to this. Looking for some feedback. I feel like the mountains are awful, but I can't seem to get them right, even following the tutorial. Maybe something has changed in Photoshop since it was written that I am missing.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-...XhONXFocUU4SHM

[Freodin]

Is this the full resolution of your map in this link? I can't seem to enlarge it.

But I don't think there is anything wrong with your mountains. The white ones in the northern half stand out a bit and also look a little linear... but the rest seems to be quite fine... as expected from the tutorial.


All in all, a nice map. One thing you might want to consider when designing a map is the "fill the space" syndrom though. It tends to lead to rather rectangular overall layouts.

[Josiah VE]

Very nice first map!

Maybe the mountains are just not 'big' enough? I get the feeling of a small little ridge, though the ones on the bottom right island are good. I'm not very familiar with the tutorial so I can't offer any suggestions.

I agree with Froedin about it looking overall rather squarish.

Other than that, great job!

[johnvanvliet]

Is this the full resolution of your map in this link? I can't seem to enlarge it.

it is on a google drive

look at the upper right , there is a magnifying glass icon
click it and use the slider or mouse wheel


the first thing that i see is it is square
-- for some reason a square is used by a LOT of new people for a world map ????

then , and this is just MY preference , the noise in the water .
The mountains yeah, they just do not look right .

work through a few of the tutorials on mountains

[ladiestorm]

This is a really good start! Other than the 'squarish' look, I like the color scheme you have here, and I like what looks like your forested areas, how you used the green and the way you spread it out.

I'm no expert, by any means, but here is what stands out to me. In regards to the mountains, they are just too 'clean' to me. Too straight lined, not much variation. I've never seen mountains line up perfectly like that. There would be some mountains that jut out to the east and west, forming valleys and tundras within the mountain range. Maybe a secondary range spanning out from the first?

The second thing that stands out to me, is the snowy region... and again, it's just to straight for me. I would break up that straight line with patches of green, maybe. Roughen up the snowy edge a bit.

Over all, very nice map for your first attempt!

[TitusTetricus]

Thanks for all the kind words. I ended up crapping this one entirely and have gone through a few others. I have a much larger world map now that I am working on. Should I post it here, or start a new WIP thread entirely?

[ravells]

I'm with ladiestorm - I think the mountains would look much better if there were more spurs coming off the main range.

[ladiestorm]

I think a new WIP thread for a new map. That way we don't get confused

[tilt]

looking pretty good there - the rivers are a bit heavy perhaps ... When you post a map in here, please add the map directly to your thread by using the image upload button or going to advanced mode. That way we're not left with empty threads when suddenly a third part site disappears (or the maps on it).