WIP (so what isn't?)

Wolv0rine · Aug 27, 2007

Well, been a long time since I posted anything around here. I've been toying with a few things (including palehorse's podcasts, those are gold man, hurry up on the new ones!

) and thought I'd post the night's progress for fun. This is a kingdom in my campaign world.

Yes, I'm drawing in those mountains one-at-a-freaking-time, then shading them, then smudging them.

ZombieButch · Aug 27, 2007

That's looking pretty sweet!

Yes, I'm drawing in those mountains one-at-a-freaking-time, then shading them, then smudging them.

More often than not, that's the best way to do it! If you've got a whole lot of them, you can cheat sometimes and use the Clone Stamp to copy a few just to save some time, but sometimes you just can't beat drawing something by hand.

(Oh, and I've got the latest podcast in the can, so it should be online this evening.

)

jaerdaph · Aug 27, 2007

Very nice mapping style.

Wolv0rine · Aug 28, 2007

Okay, as I'm playing with this map I've run into a problem. Hills, I can't find a way to make decent friggin' hills. I don't have a wacom tablet, and trying to DRAW hills (even with the pen tool) freehand by mouse just isn't working. Hours of effort, not a single keepable hill shape.
I've tried scouring the web for symbols or icons that I can use for hills, but no luck there either.

Anyone got a bone to throw me here? Something that fits into the visual style this map is using?
(One that about overland maps that gets tedious, once you've got your rivers, lakes, mountains, and forests in... you can throw in some swamp here and there, but other than that you've run your course as far as terrain pieces to add... more forest, more mtns/hills, etc. There's no desert or jungle or such in this region to add *sigh*)

jaerdaph · Aug 28, 2007

Here are some hand drawn hills from CC3 for inspiration. Hand drawn mountain symbols in CC3 are somewhat similar to what you have done (shape and shading), but the hills in that symbol set (shown here) are just lines and more rounded.

Pyrandon · Aug 29, 2007

Looking great, Wov0rine! I think the hills jaerdaph would work great--especially if you (don't shoot me for this) kept doing the same, great manual shading you did on the mountains.

Another option you could use for the hills--which on hand-drawn maps tend to have less variation than mountains--is to create a pattern layer much as you did for the forest (if I am correct that the trees were "colored in" with a layer mask).

A third possibility is drawing a hill & using it to create a custom PS brush: this way you could just "click" them in vs. drawing, etc. In fact, if you make a bunch of different hills you can create a bunch of different brushes to dab in, so as to hide the repetition. (If you've not done it before, it's amazingly fast & really easy: here's a website h showing how to do it, although draw a hill instead of the swirly thing in the tutorial!

Keep up the great work!

Wolv0rine · Aug 29, 2007

Pyrandon said:
Looking great, Wov0rine! I think the hills jaerdaph would work great--especially if you (don't shoot me for this) kept doing the same, great manual shading you did on the mountains.

Another option you could use for the hills--which on hand-drawn maps tend to have less variation than mountains--is to create a pattern layer much as you did for the forest (if I am correct that the trees were "colored in" with a layer mask).

A third possibility is drawing a hill & using it to create a custom PS brush: this way you could just "click" them in vs. drawing, etc. In fact, if you make a bunch of different hills you can create a bunch of different brushes to dab in, so as to hide the repetition. (If you've not done it before, it's amazingly fast & really easy: here's a website h showing how to do it, although draw a hill instead of the swirly thing in the tutorial!

Keep up the great work!

Indeed, the forest and swamps were layer-mask painted in. I toyed with doing the orests as a custom brush, but that just wasn't working at all, and the layermask option is so much easier and faster. And smooth. I planned on doing the hills that way if possible (if the hils don't get cut off wrong with the layermask painting and all that is). But I always appreciate a tip.

I'm trying the hills jaerdaph put up, but also still looking for something better in the event it turns up. Kind of hedging my bets. hehe
Thanks for the comments! I'll post the map again when I've got more progress on it.

Aristotle · Aug 30, 2007

I can see Palehorse's influence. I've been following those too, and emailed him a few weeks ago regarding an issue I'm having with world maps, and mapping a world that is predominantly land. I like your mountains a lot! I my Intuos drawing tablet out of storage, which I never learned to use when I first got it, and plan to try to mimic your style.

Not to hijack, but does anyone have any other good mapping resources, discussions, they can point me too? I lost my bookmarks and I know I had a few other good tutorials in addition to Palehorse's, and now they are gone.

jaerdaph · Aug 30, 2007

Aristotle said:
Not to hijack, but does anyone have any other good mapping resources, discussions, they can point me too? I lost my bookmarks and I know I had a few other good tutorials in addition to Palehorse's, and now they are gone.

There's the Cartographer's Guild message board:

www.cartographersguild.com

Lots of tutorials and discussion there, especially for PhotoShop mappers.

Wolv0rine · Aug 30, 2007

Aristotle said:
I can see Palehorse's influence. I've been following those too, and emailed him a few weeks ago regarding an issue I'm having with world maps, and mapping a world that is predominantly land. I like your mountains a lot! I my Intuos drawing tablet out of storage, which I never learned to use when I first got it, and plan to try to mimic your style.

Not to hijack, but does anyone have any other good mapping resources, discussions, they can point me too? I lost my bookmarks and I know I had a few other good tutorials in addition to Palehorse's, and now they are gone.

Well, I'll say right now that once you learn to use that tablet, with a little practice your mountains should be better than mine.

Mouse + pen tool makes for a few lop-sided mountains. hehe Honestly, the style the Mtns are in is basically a stylized from-memory version of Tolkien's really. It's the basic "upside down V" thing, with some "I've mountain-gazed a lot" thrown in.

This is actually a secondary style of mapping for me that I started playing with after watching palehorse's podcasts. Before that I was doing "realistic looking" maps, and I will say that the Mtns I worked up in that style are fun, too. I'll have to dig a map out with them and post it (oh was it work figuring out how to do it, too).

WIP (so what isn't?)

Wolv0rine

First Post

ZombieButch

First Post

jaerdaph

#UkraineStrong

Wolv0rine

First Post

jaerdaph

#UkraineStrong

Attachments

Pyrandon

First Post

Wolv0rine

First Post

Aristotle

First Post

jaerdaph

#UkraineStrong

Wolv0rine

First Post

Similar Threads