Opinions for WIP -- Glacier and Reef

ScottA

So, honest opinions on these two -- a glacier with icebergs and a reef, both from a much larger continental WIP. I'm pretty happy with the glacier, but not there yet with the reef. Again, it's a WIP so there's much left to do. So, opinions? Suggestions?

ScottA

And the glacier.

Loopysue

The glacier looks great

If you are open to suggestions about the reef, then I would say treat it as the land - make the water shallow around it in exactly the same way as you have with the land, rather than adding that yellow colour, which doesn't appear anywhere else and is sort of out of context because of that.

Basically - replace yellow with shallow - same effect as with the land.

Hope that makes sense!

ScottA

Thanks, Sue. I noticed in some pictures of the Great Barrier Reef that there were swatches of green (marine algae, maybe?), that's where that came from. But I agree -- it doesn't work here. Thanks. I'll take all the suggestions and constructive criticism I can get! I am absolutely open to suggestions -- there are a lot of very talented people here whose work I admire and aspire to, so anything to better my skills/craft is greatly appreciated.

Barliman

The glacier itself looks great, but (to me, at least) the beveling and the border make it seem separate from the land mass. Granted a glacier is normally atop a landmass, but the visual distinction here is a bit jarring. At least to me.

Loopysue

Posted By: ScottAThanks, Sue. I noticed in some pictures of the Great Barrier Reef that there were swatches of green (marine algae, maybe?), that's where that came from. But I agree -- it doesn't work here. Thanks. I'll take all the suggestions and constructive criticism I can get! I am absolutely open to suggestions -- there are a lot of very talented people here whose work I admire and aspire to, so anything to better my skills/craft is greatly appreciated.

Don't just take my word for it, as I don't consider myself to be truly 'great' at anything - just reasonably ok-ish

I was thinking you could do the green of the algae around the rocks, but to make it look right with the rest of the map you would then have to start adding the dark shadow of seaweed to the rest of the shores - all the way around the entire land mass.

I know I did that with Scribble Rock, but that was just one really small island, not an entire continent!

Topdecker

If you place some matching grey shapes and break-up the landward side of the glacier, it will go along way to make it feel like it is land-side. It is that unbroken line that is causing some trouble for you.

Like so...



Tim

ScottA

Barliman & Topdecker: Yes, that dark outline is jarring on the glacier... although it doesn't appear as starkly on the map, itself. As I say, this is a WIP, so there is much more to do. There is going to be a body of water at the foot of the glacier, so that will help smooth the front edges, as well as snow and ice. But I'm going to look at that outline. I don't think I put a black glow on it, so am not sure where that's from. Maybe because I downloaded the image at a lower resolution? It isn't that popping on my original.

Sue, as for putting algae around the rocks and then around the rest of the coastline of the map... that is not unreasonable. I mean, if it takes time it takes time, I'm more concerned about getting it right and to look the best it can than the time involved. And your opinion does mean a lot to me as I, at least, DO think you are great!

Loopysue

Want some seaweed then?

You might have to scale it down quite a bit, and adjust the HSL, or even use an RGB matrix on it to change it to suit, but its yours if you want it

ScottA

Thanks!

Loopysue

LOL!

Personally, I think it would look better without any of that red (or green) stuff, but at least you have it for another map now

ScottA

I have not tried it yet, so we'll see. But at the scale of the map, it will probably just look like shadow or dark spots. It will be nice for the closer, more in-depth area maps, however. Either way, it won't be wasted on me, I will use it somewhere for sure (I seem to end up with a lot of coastal projects for some reason!).

Loopysue

OMGoodness!

I forgot to warn you that the texture is a JPG to let me upload it here without any size issues (PNGs are bigger than JPGs)

You will need to open it in GIMP or a similar bitmap editor and export it as '[whateverfilenameyouchoose].png' before CC3 can 'see' it to use it as a texture.

Sorry Scott!

HadrianVI

This looks great! Very well done.

In regards of the reef: I tried to do reefs on the Maelstrom Bay Map. I think I basically used the technique Sue described. The map can be downloaded as fcw file, so you can see how I have done it.

ScottA

Wow! Thanks for the compliment! I'm humbled.

Here's the same areas with more work -- still more to do. Better, but I'm not fully happy with either. Waffling over the whitecaps breaking on both the reef and the icebergs. Also not sure about the sand along the reef. Don't know if it makes it look too cluttered?

ScottA

And the glacier.

ScottA

...had to change the glacier image as the ice shelves and chunks weren't really apparent. I could maybe even go with just a touch more opacity in the ice?

Loopysue

I'm not sure I know where you are trying to go with the glacier, so I'll wait and see what the outcome is. I admit to being a bit confused on that point!

The reef looks great

The settlement would look a lot better if you took out that shadow effect. Actually, both maps seem to have this really fuzzy shadow effect on all the symbols. I don't think it works. Everything looks as if it is floating about 100 foot off the ground. Try turning it off and see how it looks without any shadows on the symbols. That's more of a dungeon map thing than an overland map thing

ScottA

Thanks for the tip about the shadow effect, Sue. Yes, it looks much better without it. Less murky and muddy. Just thought shadow was standard, but it's so much better without.

Well, the glacier is supposed to be at the most northern tip of a large (little smaller than North America) continent. I need the map to be self-contained, and not have the extreme north going off the top of the page into some vague, unseen polar region. I know many (most?) maps seem to do it that way with extreme north and south, but I need everything visible. Maybe the glacier just needs to be larger and run along the whole top of the map?

Loopysue

Area we talking about a glacier, or an ice sheet? There's quite a lot of difference in the way those two things look - Glaciers flowing down valleys, and ice sheets covering hundreds of square miles of land/sea.