I'm not sure I'm really trying for realistic though. Just more... grimdark - whatever that might turn out to be.
It may be that any style will suit - as long as you make a map that goes with a story that's grimdark. Who knows how the human mind works. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be half as impressed by the original maps of Middle Earth if LOTR had been really rubbish as a novel. The two things seem to be inextricably linked - story and map. The story taints the mood of the map, no matter how bright or dull the map is painted.
To make the paper really worth it, the texture had to be very large, so I compensated for the strain on the cache by doing away with all bar 4 of the original textures and making the terrain plain colour polys that are multiplied onto the paper background so they look like they have been painted onto it.
Oh, this is excellent!!! The atmosphere of this image is perfect. Just in time for Halloween. Now for the tricky part: labeling. Any suggestions for good grimdark font?
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be half as impressed by the original maps of Middle Earth if LOTR had been really rubbish as a novel. The two things seem to be inextricably linked - story and map.
I can confirm that! A long time ago, I came across a book with a lovely map, which turned out to be a rubbishy, derivative novel; never read it again or any more in its series, and refuse to give it publicity now!
Rather liked the weird pink-purple map, just to be contrary. As that can be added using the RGB Matrix Process though, it's not an essential for the Grimdark style, of course!
Liking the paper texture too.
EDIT:
Should also have mentioned - colours and all that - that Sue's Spectrum Style Part 2 has just been released into the wild via the November Cartographer's Annual!
I concur. That last example is on the money. I don't know if you've tried this Sue but on a map I did for the Design Mechanism's, Fioracitta, I took a parchment background and played around with the colourisation of it in Ps to get an effect similar to the green on your coast, perhaps something like that could be the default landmass? I'm sure it could be replicated in GIMP or Affinity photo.
Wyvern - you've had that same experience, eh? It's always a shame, isn't it. The paper is still being tweaked but it is already much as it will end up being. I've tried a new technique this time - tiny wood particles (lines) instead of blobs, like paper used to be before it was made of rags and machine-pulped wood. Thanks for mentioning Spectrum 2 ;)
Jim - That's a really nice city map you did there. I do like the green parchment. I'm going for a similar effect, but instead of having a huge array of many different colours of parchment, I'm doing just the one parchment texture and using a Blend Mode on a single terrain sheet to blend colours with it. The only fills that aren't done that way are the forest and ocean fills. That means I can get away with a comparatively massive seamless paper texture that is 3000 px square, rather than limit the pattern to a more noticeably repeating 1000 px square. I've also used a trick I learned from Simon Rogers last year, and reduced the colours to 64k, so even though it's a png file it's only about a third the size you might imagine.
All good Sue, one can never have too many options.
Thanks for the comment on the city map! Glad you like it. I think it's the best map I did in Ps, it literally took me days; each building was hand drawn with the path tool in Ps (each demographic was on its own layer thankfully, had to make life easier for myself somehow!). If only I'd had CC3+ with CD3 and DD3 then, it would have been done in less than 1/2 the time!
I decided to work a bit on the coastline effects. I wanted to do a bevel, but at the same time leave myself (and eventually others) free to make coastlines as jagged as I want without the risk of those corner artefacts you sometimes get if you get a bit too ambitious with the Bevel. So instead of using the Bevel effect I put the water on top of the land like it would be in a city map, and added a pale glow and a dark directional shadow.
This is how the sheets lie (please ignore the Effects Presets, which refer to the base template I used to build this on and not the style I'm making):
The WATER sheet lies above the land, not underneath it. The BACKGROUND is a parchment texture, the TERRAIN is a sheet with lots of green and brown patches blurred and blended into the parchment.
These are the 3 sheet effects on the WATER sheet. Please bear in mind that all these effects are set to map units, and that you might have to adjust them to suit your own map. This is more about the balance between the second glow and the directional shadow - they need to balance for the effect to work.
Also bear in mind that this will only work over relatively narrow bands because it is only an illusion - a fake bevel.
First I have a thin dark line to properly define the coast
Then I have a pale glow set to Outside. I'm using a pale yellow here so that it hopefully matches any of the set terrain colours that might come to the coast.
And finally a dark directional shadow set in opposition to the default sun direction (which is 315 degrees)
If it doesn't work immediately on your map remember that this is not a true bevel. You may have to fiddle around with the numbers quite a bit to get it to look right.
It is still useful whenever you want to "press" a higher sheet into a lower one. Scaling the units properly is essential of course but the general effect is nice and the idea can be adapted to any kind of map. This is one of those tricks that isn't completely intuitive but makes sense once it is explained. Perhaps at some point these three effects may be combined into a new one but understanding how the elements work together is always a good thing.
Just keep away from the person with the positive test, and make sure you don't touch or use any of the same stuff. As we are constantly being told in the UK - wash your hands frequently and keep your distance.
Comments
Thanks for that, Mike.
I'm not sure I'm really trying for realistic though. Just more... grimdark - whatever that might turn out to be.
It may be that any style will suit - as long as you make a map that goes with a story that's grimdark. Who knows how the human mind works. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be half as impressed by the original maps of Middle Earth if LOTR had been really rubbish as a novel. The two things seem to be inextricably linked - story and map. The story taints the mood of the map, no matter how bright or dull the map is painted.
LOL. I was also trying to justify my story...
Ok!
To make the paper really worth it, the texture had to be very large, so I compensated for the strain on the cache by doing away with all bar 4 of the original textures and making the terrain plain colour polys that are multiplied onto the paper background so they look like they have been painted onto it.
I think I've got the colours fairly similar.
Oh, this is excellent!!! The atmosphere of this image is perfect. Just in time for Halloween. Now for the tricky part: labeling. Any suggestions for good grimdark font?
The last offering is Goldilocks 'just right'. ?
@DaltonSpence Maybe next Halloween? I have a long way to go just yet, but thank you! :D
@Quenten Thank you :D
That is a great evolution of your concept. That's the best.
So I'm ok to move onto solving the mountains?
Excellent :)
@Loopysue commented:
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be half as impressed by the original maps of Middle Earth if LOTR had been really rubbish as a novel. The two things seem to be inextricably linked - story and map.
I can confirm that! A long time ago, I came across a book with a lovely map, which turned out to be a rubbishy, derivative novel; never read it again or any more in its series, and refuse to give it publicity now!
Rather liked the weird pink-purple map, just to be contrary. As that can be added using the RGB Matrix Process though, it's not an essential for the Grimdark style, of course!
Liking the paper texture too.
EDIT:
Should also have mentioned - colours and all that - that Sue's Spectrum Style Part 2 has just been released into the wild via the November Cartographer's Annual!
I concur. That last example is on the money. I don't know if you've tried this Sue but on a map I did for the Design Mechanism's, Fioracitta, I took a parchment background and played around with the colourisation of it in Ps to get an effect similar to the green on your coast, perhaps something like that could be the default landmass? I'm sure it could be replicated in GIMP or Affinity photo.
Here is a link so you can see what I mean: https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=45178
Thank you - all, again :)
Wyvern - you've had that same experience, eh? It's always a shame, isn't it. The paper is still being tweaked but it is already much as it will end up being. I've tried a new technique this time - tiny wood particles (lines) instead of blobs, like paper used to be before it was made of rags and machine-pulped wood. Thanks for mentioning Spectrum 2 ;)
Jim - That's a really nice city map you did there. I do like the green parchment. I'm going for a similar effect, but instead of having a huge array of many different colours of parchment, I'm doing just the one parchment texture and using a Blend Mode on a single terrain sheet to blend colours with it. The only fills that aren't done that way are the forest and ocean fills. That means I can get away with a comparatively massive seamless paper texture that is 3000 px square, rather than limit the pattern to a more noticeably repeating 1000 px square. I've also used a trick I learned from Simon Rogers last year, and reduced the colours to 64k, so even though it's a png file it's only about a third the size you might imagine.
All good Sue, one can never have too many options.
Thanks for the comment on the city map! Glad you like it. I think it's the best map I did in Ps, it literally took me days; each building was hand drawn with the path tool in Ps (each demographic was on its own layer thankfully, had to make life easier for myself somehow!). If only I'd had CC3+ with CD3 and DD3 then, it would have been done in less than 1/2 the time!
I decided to work a bit on the coastline effects. I wanted to do a bevel, but at the same time leave myself (and eventually others) free to make coastlines as jagged as I want without the risk of those corner artefacts you sometimes get if you get a bit too ambitious with the Bevel. So instead of using the Bevel effect I put the water on top of the land like it would be in a city map, and added a pale glow and a dark directional shadow.
What do you think?
Thank you, Raiko :)
This is how the sheets lie (please ignore the Effects Presets, which refer to the base template I used to build this on and not the style I'm making):
The WATER sheet lies above the land, not underneath it. The BACKGROUND is a parchment texture, the TERRAIN is a sheet with lots of green and brown patches blurred and blended into the parchment.
These are the 3 sheet effects on the WATER sheet. Please bear in mind that all these effects are set to map units, and that you might have to adjust them to suit your own map. This is more about the balance between the second glow and the directional shadow - they need to balance for the effect to work.
Also bear in mind that this will only work over relatively narrow bands because it is only an illusion - a fake bevel.
First I have a thin dark line to properly define the coast
Then I have a pale glow set to Outside. I'm using a pale yellow here so that it hopefully matches any of the set terrain colours that might come to the coast.
And finally a dark directional shadow set in opposition to the default sun direction (which is 315 degrees)
If it doesn't work immediately on your map remember that this is not a true bevel. You may have to fiddle around with the numbers quite a bit to get it to look right.
You're welcome :)
This will probably become obsolete at some point in the future though. It's not a 'forever' solution ;)
Beautiful Sue. Thanks for the tips! That´s a thing that i will surely try in the future, as it looks great.
The last offering is Goldilocks 'just right'. ?
Thank you Medio :)
Thanks Quenten... or is that just a post that has somehow reposted itself from further up in the thread?
@Monsen ?
Sorry if that was really you, and this is a catchphrase of yours, @Quenten?
My last comment was an initially unposted one meant for further up, but it also applies to the last map.
Thank you, Quenten :D
I sometimes get nearly caught out by saved drafts as well ;)
My post vanished.
Anyway. I dont exhibit the symptoms so I'm okay. I checked with my sister, who keeps better track with that stuff, and she said I'm fine.
Microwaving my supper. Says to not stir potatoes. Done and on my paper plate so I guess I can stir them now.
It's right here, Jim
Just keep away from the person with the positive test, and make sure you don't touch or use any of the same stuff. As we are constantly being told in the UK - wash your hands frequently and keep your distance.
He is isolated from the rest of us, eating separately, different restroom, etc.
That's a huge relief to know, Jim. Thank you.
I hope both you and your relative recover well :)