Howdy

[JammyMatt]

Hi,

I stumbled across the forums today whilst googling for some map ideas, and have been lurking around most of the day browsing all the cool maps on here. I've been dabbling with some fantasy writing, and decided i needed to draft out some good place names and world layout. Thought i'd better sign up and introduce myself since i'm hoping to benefit from all the resources on here lol. I have a reasonable amount of experience with Photoshop, a little with Illustrator, and a lot of experience with Autodesk Maya, and general 3D stuff (although not sure if this will be much use for map making).

I've always been impressed with the lotr hand illustrated style of maps, as it's like there's all these little (or often large) stories and history going on with the names and towns etc and wanted to emulate that. So anyway, I started messing about in photoshop trying to achieve something along those lines, although it's all subject to change as i go along as it's just rough Wip. The mountains and tree's are a total rip-off in style, but i'm trying to jazz it up abit with little symbols for some of the towns and significant locations. Hope i've attached the image correctly. It was done in cs4 with a wacom.

JammyMatt_01.jpg

Cheers,

Matt

[torstan]

Looks like a good start. Welcome to the guild. As for the 3d stuff - there's a growing number of people on here experimenting with those to get good maps so I'm sure you'll find some interesting stuff on that around.

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

[arsheesh]

Hey Matt, welcome to the Guild. Hey that map is looking really promising so far, and I like the names that you've come up with. Like yourself I've always been attracted to the LOTR maps. As for "ripping off" the LOTR style, you know what they say, "imitation is the best form of flattery." And besides, true novelty is a rare commodity these days. As I'm sure you're well aware, while style may change, the best literary and artistic themes are never novel, but rather timeless-they emerge from and depict the human conditions and are thus present in every age. Style is but a vehicle for art, and I for one, see nothing at all wrong with borrowing from the artistic styles and techniques of others, so long as you give credit where it is due. Anyway, look forward to seeing more updates of this, and any other maps you create. By the way, if you haven't already discovered this yet, you can find tons of helpful tips on map-making in the tutorials section. Happy mapping.

Cheers,

-Arsheesh.

[NeonKnight]

WOW! Looks really, really GOOD!

Welcome to the Guild!

[JammyMatt]

Cheers for the welcome guys

Will definately be checking out the tutorials section today, as i've not got much idea how rivers/mountains should naturally work, other than observing that rivers running from mountain to sea is a safe bet so far Also abit clueless on rules regarding marshes, beaches, lakes etc etc. I'll stick up a WIP once i've added abit more to it.

[Coyotemax]

Wow! I **like** that!

So much, you've given me some ideas for my current project. I love the way this is shaping up, I can't wait for your WIP thread

[rdanhenry]

That's a wonderful start. Keep on mapping!

Oh, yeah: "Welcome to the Guild!"

[Redrobes]

Yes its a very nice start. Maya isn't the kind of app you just have hanging about sorta used once and forgotten... what did you do with it ?

[JammyMatt]

Maya isn't the kind of app you just have hanging about sorta used once and forgotten... what did you do with it ?

I'm a 3D Animator for a little independant developer, so I use it daily for Animation, some character set-up, and abit of basic Mel scripting to save time. Also done a reasonable amount of modelling and texturing, just bits and bobs that needed doing at work, but also some little projects in my spare-time (mostly props and stuff).

Not really used it for any kind of map work though, as this was originally meant to be a rough note map to help me organise the writing i'm dabbling with in my spare-time, and i got abit carried away with it lol.