Critiques and help on my first map - The island from LOST

[JRSly]

Hey everyone!

I've been a big map nerd for a long time now, a big LOST nerd since the show began...so when I recently started dabbling with the idea of making my own maps, a LOST map seemed like a great idea for my first map.

It's still a WIP, but I wanted to get some thoughts, and in particular some criticisms and advice on my technique for making mountains. It should probably be obvious that I'm a big fan of Ascension's style, I really love the balance between realism and illustration. So I've been following his tutorials and making some tweaks to his steps and trying to invent my own techniques.

There are quite a few LOST maps out there, but I wanted to have my own high-resolution map for my own purposes with the look I desired, and one thing that's always bugged me about the LOST maps that are out there is the mountains, too rocky. There aren't rocky, or at least predominantly rocky, mountains on the island, they are grass and tree covered. So I wanted to try to achieve that look on my map through an easy, mostly automated method, if possible. Cause we're all looking for the most efficient ways to achieve a the looks we want, right?

Ascension's method for mountain making is excellent, but it's random. I needed a way to create pre-existing mountains, and like I said, hopefully with a simple technique where Photoshop could do a lot of the heavy lifting. So I devised a method that I'm pretty happy with simply using the Bevel and Emboss layer style with a custom made contour and the layer's mode set to 'Pin Light'. Now I can simply paint in landforms that have that 'forms under a blanket' effect I was going for. My only problem is a slight lack of detail...I would like to get some smaller shapes in there, but the nature of the Bevel and Emboss settings make everything a bit soft.

So if anyone else has some advice on improving my technique or wholly different methods for achieving what I want to, I'd greatly appreciate it. And of course, any thoughts on the map in general are appreciated.

Thanks for looking!

[Steel General]

You have a great start here, looking forward to seeing it progress.

As as an added bonus, since you have a map in your very first post have a bit of what we like to call 'rep' *bonk*

[NeonKnight]

Cool. I hope you use the Dharma Initiative's unique logos for the various stations.

[JRSly]

Thanks guys. I'm looking forward to becoming part of the community here, fantastic resource for the hobby cartographer.

Cool. I hope you use the Dharma Initiative's unique logos for the various stations.

I am, indeed! I was doing that right now, in fact. It is tricky though, because I don't think two maps agree on the location of a single station. I think some try to work out the locations based on geographical landmarks that can be identified(which could be misleading as where the actor's are standing on Oahu isn't necessarily exactly where the characters are standing on the Island) and others try to use what little info the show itself gives us to place the locations, which can be a problem because the show's very vague and non-committal to the locations.

So yeah, it's a challenge.

[Ascension]

For more mountainey bits that are smaller use a new layer with a smaller bevel and smaller brush size...it takes a lot more work to draw in all of those snakey lines n stuff but it's worth it. For inspiration of what I mean about snakey lines and mountainey bits take a look at the Himalayas on Google Earth or Flash earth. Lots of white lines that are connected and weaving and snaking around. Oh, nice job so far.

[JRSly]

For more mountainey bits that are smaller use a new layer with a smaller bevel and smaller brush size...it takes a lot more work to draw in all of those snakey lines n stuff but it's worth it. For inspiration of what I mean about snakey lines and mountainey bits take a look at the Himalayas on Google Earth or Flash earth. Lots of white lines that are connected and weaving and snaking around. Oh, nice job so far.

Thanks a lot! This is working great, I've only added one more layer for more intricate shapes and it's looking very good. I might add another for even more detail, I'm not sure.