[WIP] World of Phantas

I've been working for a little bit with the new Herwin Wielink additions to CC3+ and have been very happy with them ( had the annual, originally, and reallly liked the look, but never got to working as detailed with it until the CC3+ release), so I decided that I wanted to take on a large project and see how they looked. This is the northern continent of my gaming world, Phantas, and I'm pretty pleased thus far, although this is obviously a big WIP. I haven't much mucked with trees yet, because I'm still trying to figure out a good way to get them to blend well with the forest fills, and I'm still tweaking with effects.

On a side note, CC3+ balked a LOT during renders until I downgraded to 2000 x 1600 alias 25 settings and worked from there. I'm guessing that's the amount of effects and sheets. Constructive criticism is naturally welcome... and I'll add areas as I finish them!

photo World of Phantasie-HW2a_zpssksjdiqf.jpg

Here's a detail of the area around Eidelstahd, which is probably the area I have most detailed thus far.

photo World of Phantasie-HW2a-Eidel_zpshj5cfxul.jpg

Comments

  • Well so far I think this looks great! One thing I want to tell you is that I love that you have made all of your mountains go in generally the same directions on the continent. I don't know why but I think it just "looks" natural and right. So many times I see maps with mountains going every which way yet the continent isn't very large...usually around 4000 miles or so. When you look at a map of the United States of America, you don't really see too many mountain ranges that do that whole "go every which way" thing. Kudos to you for making it seem real to me.

    For your trees, the annual simply showed a tree fill put down on the map with a few trees around the edge of the fill and just a couple of them inside near the center. That seems to be the way the trees are designed to work in this style.
  • This is looking fantastic so far! I've just started mucking with this style...a map my hubby asked me to do for him.

    I do have one question, and it's not necessarily a criticism, more like I'm not sure what I'm seeing, and I'm asking for clarification. Up at your northern point, you have a few glaciers in the ocean, which I think is a really nice touch! But there is something else there. I can't tell whether it's supposed to be a tidal wave, a fog, or something else? If it's a tidal wave, that's really cool! If it's fog, you might want to work on the fill repetition. If it's something else, then I just don't know what I'm looking at.
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    edited April 2016
    @tonnichiwa,

    Thank you very much for the praise! I am really thrilled that it has a 'realistic' feel, and I'm kinda hopeful I can keep that sort of feel up as I continue! By the way, thank you very much for the suggestion on the trees-- between your suggestion, the Wielink example map, and the great map done by lorelei in this style, I'm hopeful I have a decent idea how to make the forests look a little better!

    @LadieStorm,

    Thank you as well!! I really like the style of this map-- it does seem to have a little more learning curve toward fill styles and sheet effects than I've used on any of my other maps, so I'm excited, but still definitely puttering my way around. The style definitely is forgiving on the eyes, though! ^_^

    As far as the stuff in the north, I believe you might be looking at the icefield fill I used around the northern parts of the continent. I like the idea of the ice having a progessive fade as it came inland, so I used an inner edge fade, but rather than tracing, I loosely contoured around the coastline, hoping to offset the fade, with not particularly good results. I may have to go a second sheet of ice or snow for my fade effect to work but still hug the coastline. Anyway, here's a closer look after I've dialed it back and increased the texture scale a little:

    photo Northern Section_zpsjqfn51nd.jpg

    I may switch off to one of the snow fills, but I do like how the icefield works with the glaciers. Not entirely sure yet. But tell me if you meant something else entirely!
  • No, this is exactly what I was talking about. The issue for me, and realize this is JUST my opinion, is it doesn't look like an ice field to me. It doesn't look like it's part of the landscape...with the inner edge fade it looks like something coming in off the ocean and hovering ABOVE the landscape. It might work better if you use the snow terrain fill then make tiny iceflow 'islands' around your coastline. If you can find the thread(sorry, I can't post the link from my phone) Charges Robinson did something similar in Mike Schley's style.

    Of course, this is only a suggestion. You may find something you like better ;)
  • VintyriVintyri Newcomer
    Posted By: LadieStormit doesn't look like an ice field to me. It doesn't look like it's part of the landscape...with the inner edge fade it looks like something coming in off the ocean and hovering ABOVE the landscape.
    Sorry. Have to agree. Even after the explanation and with a bit of effort, I'm unable to see what you describe as your intended result. It just looks confusing to me.
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    I think you're both right, and for the most I was 'settling' with that way of doing it, quite honestly. I'm much happier with it after switching the fill to a snow fill and creating a secondary sheet so I could have a blend over the land while still having a bevel that follows the coastline. I added a couple smaller islands off the chain to the northwest in the same manner. I also nixed much of the non-floating glaciers and used snowy hills in their place.

    photo World of Phantasie-HW2a-RedoneNorth_zpskeqnuhot.jpg
  • Yes, that looks MUCH better, but it also brings up another question... Something else to think about, I guess. What is it about this area that makes the snowy region end there? I'm no expert, by any means, and again, this is JUST my opinion, but you have glaciers and ice flow just off of that northern coast. Which means to me that it's COLD up there- actic temperatures. Otherwise, the glaciers and ice flow would melt, right? :). But your snowy area is small, compared to the rest of the landmass.

    So I'm wondering what is going on with the temperatures to make it so warm, that close to the ice flow and glaciers. I mean...for glaciers and ice flows, wouldn't it need to be -30 to -40 degrees F? And then in what looks like 20-30 miles inland it's above 32 degrees F? I can't help but wonder what kind of phenomena caused this. I'm avidly curious to know what it is.

    Now I could be completely wrong, and I probably am :). I fully admit I know nothing about atmospheric conditions, or global weather, or any of that... so I'm hoping you can help me out.
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    edited May 2016
    Sorry for the lack of response here, LadieStorm-- work's been a bit of a bear! I totally agree that it does look weird, especially only seeing that small bit there.

    The way I've envisioned it (and I admittedly could be wrong about the global atmosphere and how it affects, itself!) is that this white area in the far north is the southern tip of the subarctic region, which stretches a couple hundred miles inland at its deepest point before giving way to slightly more forgiving (if still largely cold) subarctic to temperate climes. I plan on having some extended areas of tundra in the northern areas where all you see is pine forests, for instance, before they in turn give way to temperate forests. Phantas does have a polar region, but this area is a ways south and slightly west of it, and I haven't really expanded to include it because it is largely unexplored and has no civilizations to speak of.

    I do not know if a more broad picture of the whole western continents might help clear anything up, but if nothing else, you can see how the rest of the world is coming along, too. ^_^

    World of Phantasie [WIP] photo World of Phantasie-HW2a-WholeBit2a_zpswklvpjow.jpg
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    Very nice map, I just find the red text somewhat hard to read. I recommend putting it on its own sheet, and giving it a white outline glow.
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    Thank you very much, Ralf! I appreciate it!

    Also, very good suggestion on the white glow. I tried to approximate the Photoshop 'Stroke', where I could use a 1-pixel outline of black just to make the lettering stand out, but wasn't having a whole lot of success. A white glow seems to work much better!
  • Nice map! What i LOVE are your rivers!!!! Although the "river police" may disagree, due to the fact that the upper courses of most rivers begin in rocky hills or mountains and flow downward and out to eventually go to the coast and into the sea or ocean, and to me it seems most yours are starting at the coast and flowing inward. Just food for thought. HOWEVER, they are shaped lovely and look VERY realistic!
  • RalfRalf Administrator, ProFantasy 🖼️ 18 images Mapmaker
    edited April 2016
    Also, make sure to use new CC3+ "Outer Glow" effect. I find it works much better for text, as you have finer control over how far it spreads.
  • As an official member of the river police, I give this my general stamp of approval. Hehe!

    The truth is, I LOVE how you did your rivers. Did you do these in CC3(+) or did you use another image editor to achieve this look?
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    Thank you very much, lorelei and Shessar! I am thrilled that y'all like the work I've been doing so far! (Seriously, getting kudos from such good mappers here at the PF forums has been a huge ego boost for me and has kept me working more on my maps!)

    As far as the rivers, yes, they are definitely all done in CC3, and while it can be a somewhat tedious process, I think the end result feels very natural and real. The short form is that all these rivers are all short multiple segments, rather than a single line, so the line width on each can be changed and give the illusion of a river's growth as it moves further from its source and connects with other tributaries. (The attached picture, for instance, shows a fairly long river on the southern continent; it's composed of 39 separate segments of Default River that have been modified to varying widths.)

    If you're interested, I'm looking to throw together a quick new thread with screencaps to demonstrate!
  • Wow, that must've have been time-consuming. Great results, though.
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    Thank you very much, Barliman! Yes, I would tend to say it can be a little on the tedious side, but mostly that's just the drawing part. Switching the line widths is actually pretty easy after that.
  • 9 days later
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    A quick update-- I was hoping to work on this a lot more over the weekend, but Real Life™ happened. Here's a quick looksee at my progress in the 'main' area of the Western Continents. (The original size is again, pretty big. I can link to it separately if it's hard to see)

    Melcanth, Cheshane and the Isle of Graces [WIP] photo World of Phantasie-HW2a-Melcanth1_zpsqgmmeyj2.jpg
  • I want to know how you managed to get your landmasses to look like that! Even with fractalization, I can't get my landmasses to look that rough.
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    To be completely honest? A lot of close up freehand node creation, LadieStorm. Kind of the same way I do my rivers... which I guess amounts to really tediously.

    I was fortunate in that I had an old map I had created a long while ago using Fractal Mapper (which does some interesting fractal landmasses) and Photoshop that I could use as a base to figure how my landmasses were laid out, and as I zoomed in and kinda quasi-traced them, I made a lot of nodes (mouse clicks) and varied the lines a lot to try to create realistic-feeling landmasses with inlets and spurs that just 'felt' interesting.

    So, I guess, in short, pretty much by zooming in until I was almost blind and clicking the mouse until my hand was screaming to get done with it already, lol. XD
  • This is shaping up quite nicely. Like LadieStorm, I really like the landmasses: I can already start visualizing kingdom boundaries and the like.

    One suggestion (and not to start the river argument again), the rivers around Nertomir look like they should be flowing down from highlands, particularly since their sources are so close to the sea. I'd suggest another mountain range or two in that area.

    I love this style. The choice of colors and patterns always makes me think of "cold, windy, and forlorn." :)
  • The flow of some rivers look a bit weird (river police woop woop) but I have to say, your rivers look amazing. I wish I had the courage to do them with such detail !
  • 18 days later
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    Thank you everyone, especially for the praise and the suggestions!-- I've put a couple of the latter into play in my latest iteration. I am closing in on being finished-- still needing major roads and borders (planning on those being my last things) as well as some scattered trees, cartouches and a little bit more work elsewhere, but I'm really happy with how it's turning out!

    PS: Thaaaaaaaaank you, Profantasy, for the last CC3+ update, which fixed the memory leak during renders! I no longer have had to worry when I do these renders at 7500 x 7500!

    Anyway, here's the latest and greatest-- http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss78/argoforg/WoP-Full2a_zpsuylorfje.jpg

    (You should be able to zoom in and then right click/open in new tab to get it in its heinous full sized glory)
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    edited June 2016
    And you know, I think I'm gonna call it done! I do have some little tweaks-- I'll probably use Photoshop for a full border, and I'm not real thrilled with the color selections I used for the nation borders-- I might tweak them slightly, perhaps change the edge fade from a percentage to map units. But in the long run, these are small adjustments, and I still have a lot more maps to do for the World Setting. But I'm really happy with the way it turned out and think it will be a beautiful cornerstone for the WOP Campaign Setting!

    Full size version is located here (I believe this link works for everyone): World of Phantasie Final WIP (Edit: made the borderlines a little more subtle.)
  • Greetings from a new user!

    Yes, excellently done map. I'm very interested in learning how you did your rivers, please. Also, you are using a forest fill I can't seem to find on your southern continent. Could you point me to that in the files? Or did you make it yourself?

    thanks in advance and excellent art!

    Cal
  • ArgoForgArgoForg Newcomer
    Thank you very much for the praise, Calibre!

    I actually did up a quick tutorial on how I do my rivers in my overland maps. The link to the PDF should be right HERE. It can admittedly be a little tedious with big rivers, but I really like the results I've gotten with the technique.

    As far as the fills on the forests in the southern continent, they're all part of the Herman Wielink (sic?) set that comes standard with the latest updates of CC3+. If you mean the northern half of the southern continents (Haven Wood, around Aeraethel, etc), those are done with one of the standard forest fills, although I'm pretty sure I adjusted the scaling on the fill to about 450-- it was set originally at 720 due to the size of my map, I believe. The more southern rainforests (The T'karran Darkfold, The Yanghae Rainforests, etc) I used one or the other of the jungle fills, at about the same scaling, and used jungle trees and palm symbols to fill out the space. I hope that helps!
  • This really came out nicely. Great work!
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