Sarne

[Larion]

I realize this is my 3rd map today, so I'll be calling it quits after this one, at least for today. This is another map, made in Photoshop of course, that I made about a week ago. I added the labels about an hour ago. I struggled to find a good font that was small, yet readable, and also fantasy-esque. So... I dunno, this is what I ended up with. Tell me what you think about that one.

I also struggled coming up with good SOUNDING names... so... again, do they sound like names from out of a fantasy book?

As for the map itself... It's made up of about 10 layers. The Water, the water depth texture, the land, the land texture, the mountains, the desert, the greenery, the rivers. Then I added cities. Then labels The top and bottom border are just bars with some fancy layer effects. And the Compass lines (not sure if they have an actual technical term), I drew myself in a seperate document, turned into a brush and then I just plop them down where ever they look good (and let's be honest, they nearly always look good.)

So... here it is.

Sarne.png

[TFIM]

Nice map!

If you struggle with names, may I suggest a visit to conlang.org. A conlang is a constructed language (such as Esperanto, Tolkein's Quenya or even Klingon). The library has links to articles and languages. Once you see how others construct their languages, you get a feel, or you might visit project gutenberg and get a copy of the Esperanto Dictionary. There's even a military version of it (used for tactical combat operations by the military)

Here is a link to the Gutenberg e-book, the Esperanto Teacher:

The Esperanto Teacher

Note one of the first things it teaches is how to pronounce vowels and consonants (this helps you determine what your language sounds like -- and what letters are allowed; example: no Ws in classic Latin.

[arsheesh]

That turned out nicely Larion!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Midgardsormr]

Very nice style. I wonder if there's a way to bring out some detail in your shaded relief on the shadowed side of the mountains? Maybe a very faint second render with the light in the lower-left.

The lines radiating from the compass are called rhumb lines.

[Larion]

Thanks everyone!

Very nice style. I wonder if there's a way to bring out some detail in your shaded relief on the shadowed side of the mountains? Maybe a very faint second render with the light in the lower-left.

The lines radiating from the compass are called rhumb lines.

Oh it'd be incredibly easy to do that. The mountains are a seperate layer, with 75% opacity and a couple other settings, the main one being a bevel. All I'd have to do tweak the settings on the bevel and I can make it just as dark as anyone could want I'll upload one later today.

EDIT: Okay here's what it looks like now. I duplicated the mountains layer, and changed the light source from a 97 degree angel to a 173 degree angle, and then darkened the shadows in the bevel. I think I like it better

Sarne.png