An Appropriate Site for Colonization

[Tiana]

Messed up the title, sorry. July/Aug ‘19 Lite Challenge: An Appropriate Site for Colonization

I have avoided trying to draw a height map, so I decided to try doing one this time. I created this black and white base, a combination of hand drawn segments, a perlin noise, and some... weird... thing I generated in Wilbur.
bwcrownland-endoth-dau-pyvon height map.jpg

Then I threw it in Wilbur and got this. I don't really know how to make the program actually do things so I just took what it gave me after crashing the program like 50 times.
heightmapfordau1.jpg

Then I went and threw a few layers of perlin noise to make trees in a satellitey style, messed with a whole lot of textures and layers over top and attempted drawing some lines for the depth of the lake (which is where the shape is in use).

[Tiana]

The current result.

### LATEST WIP ###
crownland-endoth-dau-pyvon height mapsmall.jpg

[Bogie]

Welcome back Tiana!
Lots of crazy details in there!

[Tiana]

### LATEST WIP ###
crownland-endoth-dau-pyvon height map.jpg

I fooled around with adding some height map numbers but heh, I'm a little out of my depth.

Thanks, Bogie.

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

I don't see either of the base shapes anywhere... And the image looks like a very grainy close up photo of something very rusty. It's full of what looks like rendering errors. I'm not familiar with the software you're using, so I can't advise on how to deal with the issue. It could be a number of things: low sample count, inappropriate use of materials, compression; all sorts of software limitations and glitches as well.

I don't really know how to make the program actually do things so I just took what it gave me after crashing the program like 50 times.

Perhaps use the tools you're familiar with to clean up the texture? I would also color correct the image to separate the land from water layer. If you look at the thumbnail of the map they blend together, and it's not helping the map's readability.

I fooled around with adding some height map numbers but heh, I'm a little out of my depth.

I strongly recommend using fonts instead of hand drawn numbers on a heavily textured map. I would also simplify a lot; don't be afraid to get rid of a few levels of detail if they're making the map hard to read. If you feel out of your depth, try drawing this map with a pencil on paper. Sometimes going back to basic tools can help establish what your work really needs and gives you a clearer picture of what to do next. Not sketching ideas is a very common mistake; it's like going on a trip without a plan - you'll likely end up lost.

[Tiana]

I don't see either of the base shapes anywhere... And the image looks like a very grainy close up photo of something very rusty. It's full of what looks like rendering errors.

It's the water in the left, it's been flipped upside down but it really isn't that hard to see. I did notice when Twilight/flux was on, it becomes difficult to distinguish. This implies to me it's probably also hard to see if you have color blindness. Try looking at the black and white to see the shape if it's hard for you to separate the color version. This region has been mapped like 4 times before as pen and ink and is not even remotely unplanned. I'm not going to show you any of the previous maps of the region though, because you'll just say something mean about them too.

I'll be honest, I'm personally insulted that you imply it's a completely unplanned rendering error. The words "out of my depths" were a joke in relation to the fact that I'm trying to do a depth map. I have been doing map artwork professionally as my main source of income for multiple years now, I don't make amateur mistakes. However, sometimes I try new things. Consider this a very fancy doodle. I will never stop sketching unplanned artwork and text, at some point, you do have to pull it from your brain for the very first time, and hand-drawing numbers is part of my process for that. Most of the time, my first pass for text is a sketch to see how it would fill in the area.

If you think that's the intended end result, well, it might be, because I did this for funsies and don't know if I'll have time to complete the rest of the UI concept I have, because I have clients who have deadlines.

Finally, I'm going to talk about the Critique Sandwich, which is when you don't come at someone with a 100% negative post but instead only say something if you can also pair it with something that tastes nice. You only have 20 posts so I'm just going to assume you only participate in social media and didn't actually think about the potential consequences of your post, since social media is a breeding ground for 100% negativity, which is easier to slap off like a mosquito when it's 130 characters long. When I was a young forumer, I used to critique like your post demonstrates, enthusiastically, negatively (though I would have described it as something else and I'm sure you will too and come up with a stream of justifications as to how it "helps you grow").

Sure, if I'd asked, and if you had an actual competent response for how to handle my next moves. However, you provided no good direction other than "burn the whole thing down." Wow! Really think about that. And really think about the resulting effect I had on the communities where I was serving up such criticisms of people's work.

It resulted in me pushing multiple people away from the community in which I participated. It resulted in me causing people to immediately quit the forum. I know this, because I saw it happen.

Posts like this are also pretty much... I'd say 95% of why I stopped sharing my work in progress, and to be honest, it's serving strongly to encourage me to resume my old patterns. Right at this moment I would say it's statistically likely I won't touch this work again just to avoid hearing from you because you have provided no encouragement to do anything except scrap the entire thing, so obviously based on my emotions right now, I'm going to take that advice. Hmm, that's a useful end result.

That's not what you want to do to someone who's actually new at this and if you've leveled this at me I feel it's likely you'll do it to someone who's more fragile at a bad moment.

I'll carry on doing my job. It might stop me from ever trying this map style again and it might stop me from showing any of my WIPs, but at least it won't stop me from mapping. I probably didn't stop the people who I pushed away from a certain other community from their writing. But I did push them away from sharing their work in progress lest they get stomped on and their fragile young writer brains couldn't handle that. At the time I scoffed and was like, "well you need to grow a thicker skin to be a writer then!"

The critique sandwich means you might do something like "I like the colors! Definitely replace those numbers with a font though, they're hard to read." Now, I get that you don't like the colors. No, you don't like anything about this. I get it, you're not the first person I've had who's looked at my art and been like "the only thing I have to say is something negative and so I'm going to say it."

In the case of being 100% negative, you should reserve your comments or ask, "would you like my honest critique?" and get permission first. Apparently this helps to not crush young artists, as I was told in the past. It would have avoided bothering me in this instance, because I probably would've said, "sure! I'm trying something new with this one and don't really know how someone else would set up their file. Tell me everything you know!" But instead, you just suckerpunched me with it, resulting in me going about my day with a breakfast of "some jerk on the internet" and a dinner of "I'll work on one of my commissions because wow, this art is total crap, just like I thought, it's not worth my time to continue or to share works in progress."

[Greason Wolfe]

heh, I'm a little out of my depth.

Was that supposed to be a pun? (Height field, depth... Get it? )

Now, I will say that the shape was a little difficult for me to see at first. Could just be my tired, old-a$$ eyes, or could be the darkish edges of both the water and the land. No big deal in my book. The shape is there, and that's all that matters.

As for the "graininess" and "rustiness," I do agree, BUT, that actually works for me. My first thought when I looked at the full size image was that this would look super awesome if it were etched (or is that painted or some other technique?) on a sheet of copper (maybe with the bare copper replacing the closest matching color) with some strategically placed denting and folding.

Anyways, that's my one and a half cents ( or sense if you will ). And Kudos for trying something new and/or different. Every once in a while that helps you get even better at what you already do well.

[Kisachik the Wanderer]

Hi Tiana. I didn't mean to come off as negative. You mentioned you were working in a program that crashed a lot, so I thought perhaps it's very experimental. Your previous map was so much cleaner in contrast, that's why I thought maybe you're trying things out in something that may be new. Thank you for the feedback on my feedback, I'll try to be less awkward in the future. I was unaware of your workflow, and that the heavy texturing is intentional this time. I thought maybe this program you're working with uses some form of 3D lighting simulation, that's why I used the term "rendering errors", meaning an unusually heavy texture that a rendering engine produces. I wasn't thinking "hey someone could read that differently, especially if they don't use such tools". So thinking about technicalities, I forgot that I am replying to a person who might not appreciate it. I hope you can forgive this.

[Mouse]

You have some beautiful colours in the mix on that map, Tiana