Alenhold - Commissioned WIP

This is an unpaid commission I accepted mainly to ease into possible commission work, and to get in some experience. The main continent you see is for the client, and over at the cartographer's guild, he will actually be taking part in the process.

I added the north east and southwest landmasses mainly to balance out the map, so those landmasses are subject to change, or disappear. Right now, I just have the basic landmasses. Once the client approves/requests a change, then I will proceed from there. In the mean time, this is what I have so far!
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Comments

  • wow, that may be way to big... uhm... let me make it a tad bit smaller!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Yeah... that's just what I was thinking! LOL

    You seem to have quite a specific set of instructions, from what I've read of mrjane's critique over on the Guild page.

    Good luck with this Storm :)
  • ooh, I better go check on what he said :)
  • Well, my clients seem to be very quick on the uptake. So evidently my southern peninsula is too big, and this continent is supposed to be fairly isolated. Fair enough, I've changed the landmasses to the north east and south west, and I've made the southern peninsulas much smaller, while keeping their overall shape. Once the client approves, then I can proceed. :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    At this stage it would be easier to judge the shapes of things with a picture that's only about a 1/4 of the size.

    Nice water, by the way :)
  • I'm still waiting on initial approval of the landmass for this map. I tucked in the southern peninsula, but I also widened it a bit, as I realized that when I go to putting in the terrain details, I wouldn't be able to add the details to it as narrow as it was. So here is what it's been changed to. Again, at this point, the only changes are to that southern peninsula.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I'm surprised he doesn't want it to be bigger than it is, given that it sounds as if there's quite a lot to go in there.
  • Lol... not mine to decide, he's the client, and this map needs to fit his story. I'm sure you understand what that's like :D
  • That's okay, what 'til you see what I'm hoping I will be able to accomplish with this map. I'm going to be pulling techniques from every map I've done so far, in an attempt to make my first commission something to be remembered!
  • Well, the client has signed off on this version, so it's time to start having some fun with it!
  • I'm starting to add some of the interesting features to this map. I'm playing around with ocean contours, though they may be difficult to pinpoint, I hope the overall effect works. I have the two northern mountain ranges in, but I will admit, I'm not very happy with them... I may go back and fix that area. I may also need to edit the landmass a bit more, and add some to the north west to accommodate those mountains. They seem a little too parallel to me.
  • Well, none of us really liked these mountains, so I've remade them. I also was having a problem with that bay to the north west, so I edited it a bit too. And the desert! I finally got the trace tool to work, thank you so much Dogtag!!!!!! But the desert was WAY too big, so I scaled it back a bit. It's still a bit big, but I'll let the client decide if it's too big or not.
  • wow, I did it again, made the image WAY TOO BIG!!! Let me cut this down a bit :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Now you know how to do it, they are a bit massive! LOL :D

    Those mountains are definitely looking a whole lot better than before, and if, as he says the equator is going roughly through the middle of the map, then the desert is much better placed. If you look at a map of Earth's deserts, only the Sahara actually sits anywhere near the equator. Most are in the tropics, and a great many (like the Atacama in Chile) extend vast distances beyond that. Its more to do with lack of water than how hot the day is.
  • 6 days later
  • edited September 2016
    LadieStorm,

    What do you use for your water/oceans? I love it!

    LLAP

    Nacon4
  • This particular ocean actually comes with the Herman Weilink style. I've tweaked it a bit, by using the sea bit map (also Herman Weilink) in spots, then using transparency and inner edge fade to show depth... I'm not done with it, yet.

    But I'm using the Herman Weilink style for this map, and the water bitmaps.work so well. :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited September 2016
    Like I said not too long ago - I don't think anything beats an HW ocean. The sea around my city map is also HW. In my opinion its one of the most versatile and attractive textures ever created.
  • Well, my laptop's back online again... I've temporarily lost my transportation, but I was lucky enough to catch a ride. So here I am with another update to this map. I reduced the badlands, as per client's requests, and started working on my waterways. From what I understand, the two northwest rivers, and the large lake or sea to the south east are requirements - both in size and direction. But on the client's base drawing, those two northwest rivers, while they went all the way to the coast, they seemed to start from no where... so I connected them to the closest mountain range.

    The southeastern lake... I know already that I have the out flowing river, but no inlet. A lake that large should have multiple inlets, but the client had none... so I have to think that one a bit. But this is what I have so far :)
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I like the way the desert and scrubland divide is less blocky now :)

    Any feelings about increasing first the overlap, and then the edge width on the Edge Fade Inner of the overlying sheet (the scrubland I think)? No particular reason for asking, other than I think it would make the transition between the two regions more gradual.
  • that's one of the things I'm taking a look at. I actually have a couple of ideas on what to do with that desert and scrubland, so I've set up a second map, just to test some ideas and theories. Trying to figure out how to break up that massive desert, without losing it on those tiny peninsulas... that's the real key.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    You don't have to do all the desert on one sheet... just as you don't have to do all the scrub on one sheet...

    That should help, if you're looking at having two different edge fades for the same texture.

    And if that's not a big enough clue - I have no less than 16 sheets of grass on the MC map so that I can do different things in different places with the same texture on the same map (and that's only the short grass) ;)
  • lol... that's exactly what I'm testing right now... trying to make it work so that I can get a more even blending of the different terrains, without losing it in the peninsula... so I'm working with different sheets with different fading and transparencies.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I don't think you'll need to go to more than about 3, possibly 4 sheets for just those two terrains, so don't have any heart attacks trying to imagine what my stack of 145 MC sheets actually looks like ;)
  • oh, don't worry... I am used to dealing with multiple sheets. between streams, lakes, waterfalls, oceans, cliffs... you would be surprised how many sheets it takes to make those look right!

    On second thought... you are one of the few that wouldn't be surprised!!! lol
  • 13 days later
  • Well, I haven't completely solved my desert issue yet... still testing some ideas... but in the mean time, I've added the majority of the forests, and I think the other lake I need for this map. It's starting to look a little less spartan.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Its looking a lot more natural these days ;)

    I was beginning to wonder what was happening with this, since its been a while after your last post. Its good to see you making progress with it.

    I await further instalments with interest :)
  • 13 days later
  • Well, there are a few changes to this map, now... I reworked the desert, and while I may still need to tweak it a bit... it's looking much better now in my opinion. I also reduced the size of the Grinning Sea, and moved the river coming off of it to flow directly east as the client requested.
  • 13 days later
  • Next update:

    I added more desert to the cradle, I increased the size of the Grinning Sea by about 10% (if that's not enough, let me know, I can do it again), I added a river that runs west out of that northeastern lake, and had it run toward Ash Bay. I then added hills on the eastern side of the lake, to explain why it didn't run west. I then also added a forest for the river to run through.

    It is at this stage when I need to start filling in the rest of the forests.... so I need to know from my client how many more forested areas there needs to be, and where they should be.
  • 10 months later
  • Well, it's been so long since I have been able to get online on a regular basis. But as of today, I FINALLY have internet at home!!! YAY!!!! So, I'm still working on this commission map, I've now been at it for almost a year (with a forced 5 month hiatus), and I'm nearing the final stretch... and I've encountered a small snag or two, and I need some opinions on a couple of things.

    First, the small snag:

    The client asked me to widen the 'river' that went from the Grinning Sea (that massive body of water in the middle of the continent) to the eastern coast. They wanted the Grinning Sea to be more of, well, an inland sea. I originally thought that I would just go in, and widen that area using the land editing tool, but it didn't work. Every time I tried to click on the coast line, to begin the edit, my cursor jumped out and picked a node that was out in the ocean to the right of that coast. That is probably because I removed the outline edging from the land mass, once I fractalized it. So, what I ended up doing, was widening the line that made up that river. That has led me to a different issue.

    When I originally made that river line, I attached it to the coast, not a problem. But now that I have widened that line, the end of that line juts out into the sea, and it just doesn't look right to me. I've tried to move the node that causes that line to branch out at the end... but no such luck. I even hid every sheet but the one that the river is on, and I still can't select the end of the river to move the node. But I don't want to leave it like it is, either.

    Second issue... the color palate. I don't think I like the orange, but at the same time, I don't want the colors to either be too bold, or too pastel. So I could use some suggestions.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Posted By: LadieStormEvery time I tried to click on the coast line, to begin the edit, my cursor jumped out and picked a node that was out in the ocean to the right of that coast.
    Do you have Snap turned on?

    Posted By: LadieStormI still can't select the end of the river to move the node
    The main trick about wide lines is that the actual line you need to work with is the thin line running down the exact middle of it, this is where all the nodes are located. The width is just a visual thing added to the left and right of the real line, but when working with nodes and such, you need to be working on the actual line. Note that zooming in usually makes it more difficult to select the nodes, because it means the pick cursor covers a smaller area. Also, as above, make sure Snap is not on.
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