Stuck - need idea

jigsawman

I am trying to decide what sort of map to do next. I want to do an overland type but just need a kick in the right direction. I keep sifting through fractal terrain trying to come up with a decent looking landmass and water but nothing jumps out at me. I feel like I have writer's block or something. How do you guys inspire yourselves to make a new map?
JSM

nlp138

Pretty much the same way I come to my fiction writing. I read more. The more I read, the better I write. I imagine it's the same with maps. The more maps I see, the better my mapping gets. Maybe I'll see an interesting coast and think of a new way to shape it or something like that. My cartography class was fantastic for this.

Joachim de Ravenbel

I don't always proceed that way but I did for my last overland map :
1. Take a sheet of paper and start drawing with bends and twist. You can erase parts and draw them again if they really don't fit.
2. Scan the landmass and *trace* with CC3. There is no tool to extract a CC3 file from a bmp/jpg, so the trace is made using the freehand tool or perhaps the fractal path tool.

jigsawman

Thanks for the ideas guys. Scanning and tracing is one I had definitely not thought of. I am always scribbling something on paper. I have been doing that since I was a kid. It's how I started almost all of my drawings. I'll probably feel more at home that way.
JSM

sdavies2720

One technique that I've always wanted to try:

1) Take construction paper (or any other loose fiber, slightly heavy paper) and rip it into irregular pieces that are a few inches across
2) Sprinkle the paper on a small table.
3) Look at the groups of paper as land masses. If you have something you like, take a picture & use it for CC2.
4) Anywhere two pieces of paper overlap is where one tectonic plate is pushing over another -- put your biggest mountain ranges there.

Steve

Dogtag

One thing I noticed over the summer while I was relaxing in the park with my dog was that clouds can really spark ideas.

Depending on the day, of course, you might want to head outside and take a few snapshots of the clouds. If you have a digital camera, so much the better because you can cut, paste, and crop the pics to your heart's desire to build an interesting shape, if you want. This is especially effective if you have a decent graphics program that will feather and mask selections. You can also try inverting the colors so sky/water becomes land and cloud/land becomes water.

I also found that some very interesting clouds can give me ideas for terrain, not just coastlines. Of course, I'm trying to map a specific campaign world so this is just an exercise for me. But if you're looking for ideas, you might consider it.

~Dogtag

JimP

Have you thought of this method ? Astronomy photo of the day

Old Guy

@Joachim I love that map! I am so gonna steal that border idea

What style did you use? It really looks great.

anomiecoalition

Agree with Old Guy...Thats just such a creative way to present a map. Way to think outside the box (ohhhh...what a terrible pun).

jigsawman

Don't hi-jack my thread I'll keeeel you!

anomiecoalition

lol...was that a Ren reference (from Ren and Stimpy...I'm getting old).

I wish I had more tangible advice...as you can see from the maps I've been posting lately, I'm so worn out from teaching and grad school that I'm just picking up old TSR material and remapping it. But years as an amateur musician has taught me that generally speaking, the more you force yourself to create, the worse it comes out...let inspiration come to you.

jigsawman

No but they could have copied it. Actually it was the line from the original "The Thing" with Kurt Russell. Wilfred Brimley is destroying the communications office and firing off random rounds. He runs out and throws the gun at Keith David yelling, "I'll keeeel you!" Though I should have paused ton the last work a little and made it, "I'll keeel yooooo!" to be correct. Yes, yes, I am a geek.
JSM

Yes I know that calling that the Original The Thing is incorrect as it was a remake too of Thing from another World. JSM = Huge movie fan of all sorts.

pdj

Perhaps you could use movie settings as a source of inspiration for your maps?

Joachim de Ravenbel

Posted By: Old Guy@Joachim I love that map! I am so gonna steal that border idea

What style did you use? It really looks great.

Thanks! The map is based on Jonathan Robert's style with a twist described here

I'll try to post the file there this afternoon... Because I don't want to be keeled, whatever that means )

jigsawman

@ Joachim de Ravenbel

JimP

Posted By: anomiecoalitionlol...was that a Ren reference (from Ren and Stimpy...I'm getting old).

Nope, ventriloquist on Comedy Central. One of Jeff Dunham's characters.