yep, that’s an idea. I will put it on my to-do list (beach and the shadows), and maybe I also can make it to get waves this time. Failed on them last time ;)
The effect I was referencing for the land would be the glow (inside mode). I had to open of CC3+ to jog my memory. You could also try inner glow. The two give similar effects, but with subtle differences.
Thanks for spending so detailed thoughts on my map, I much appreciate that!
So I think I should explain why this particular sheet-effect maybe won‘t work for me. As I started the map I had a landmass for my personal orientation but in the meantime I deleted the Land sheet. I did this because I don‘t think it is necessary to have it for this map where the aim is to get a bit of a psychedelic base feeling. Without the Land sheet the parchments comes better alive and I will anyway put backgrounds for grassland etc..
Another reason why I deleted it is that the Landmass (esp. outlines, coastlines and glows) made it harder for me to make smooth river mouthes in the past. I like to draw these river estuarys with the water from the river flowing into the sea and slowly mixing with it and become one. Harsh lines hinder this impression, esp. as I love to make heavy use of transparencies...
But again thanks for your ideas, all the others are on my to-do list!
Glad you're progressing nicely with "Neverending Story", Jensen.
The Misty Mountains are looking good - you'll have to add this effect to your Lord of the Rings map, I think!
The Ravormos Swamps/Castle area looks interesting, and I especially like the "watercolour" streams meandering their way across the terrain. Some seem so convoluted you could probably add some more channels, in the fashion of braided streams, for instance, and maybe some oxbow lakes where the channels have changed course over time.
I wonder if the swamps themselves might benefit from a somewhat clearer outline. For example, I'm not sure presently whether Chian and Ravormos are also both within them, or on the edges - or even outside the swamps altogether. I am assuming the main swamp limits are those shown by the fill texture used towards the coast in which the castle symbol sits, however.
For the coastline, I think it works reasonably well at present, as the swamps fade away to give a somewhat misty edge to the land (they could change to saltmarshes and lagoons by the coast itself, as low-lying, waterlogged coastal regions sometimes do). It would probably benefit from some better definition in places at least though, so maybe a thin (but not zero-width), dark grey fractal line could be added along the coast in parts, as if it were areas of shingle or flat rocks. If that were interspersed with a few "sandy beaches" similarly - perhaps drawn as somewhat thicker, smooth, lines or narrow polygons - while still leaving some areas of the coast as they are now, that might clarify the coast without imposing a single linear edge feature. Such new coastal features would probably need softening with an effect or two as well, perhaps a blur, but that would need some experimentation.
You remember very well Wyvern, in the middle-earth map I indeed wanted to have misty mountains but I failed. I absolutely should add them now as I know how to do :-).
I elaborated on your suggestions on the little rivers (more channels, oxbows etc.) and on the more clearer swamp outline. Nothing done on the coastline so far, this will follow.
Is this going to be better and is the difference of swamp to river-lands clear? Or have I overdone?
Furthermore I worked on Wyverns suggestion of a giant Lizard frozen in the ice. I tried different things but the only reasonable solution I found was to make this one, a kind of cold brother of the demon climbing out of the lava crater of Ghorm
Those extra streams look interesting, but if they're not meant to be in the swamps, there maybe a few too many channels now. However, that also means the "uncertain" coastline works better - because there are huge numbers of streams depositing silt into the sea all along the coast, so it becomes hard to tell really just where the sea ends and the land begins, especially with the coastal swamplands as well. I've seen similar effects off the coast of Britain after spells of heavy rain, where great plumes of silt expand in all directions from river mouths where they meet the sea, as they become perturbed by the currents.
I like the ice-patterning in the crater. The demon may be a little too froglike, but it does look pleasingly weird, certainly. The skin-like patterning I originally talked of happens on and in permafrozen soil, rather than ice - it happens when ice freezes and thaws in the near-surface soil forming cracks that create the pattern, and works in much the same way that similar patterns form in mud which has dried out completely. It seems apt even the ice in this fantasy world can create such forms though!
OK, i will see if I can find something for permafrost which I add in the area before the icelands. The icelands themself are from my understanding a more rough environment, like the Antarctic.
The crater with the ‚frog‘ demon was the only solution I found so far, it‘s a Lizard from CASUAC under a standard ice fill. My internal challenge for myself for this map is to take only CC3 content and free symbols, as I want to make the map free to use for the RdW community again. So I need to make the things from what I have in the PF folder (what is definitely sufficient). But that means that I sometimes do not arrive exactly where I wanted to. But however, now the lava demon has a brother :-). Maybe I do the Ghorm demon also into a mountains crater instead of the symbol I have now.
I tried a different approach on the swamps. My initial thought on this region was a changing landscape from swamp to normal land/marshland and back. I hope I got it better now on the map.
Coastlines don't have to be hard or the most prominent thing on the map. Try adding a simple coloured line on a sheet with a transparency effect and/or a very tiny glow of the same colour as the line - a bit like preparing a dungeon map grid so that its only just there and not cluttering the map.
Comments
So I think I should explain why this particular sheet-effect maybe won‘t work for me. As I started the map I had a landmass for my personal orientation but in the meantime I deleted the Land sheet. I did this because I don‘t think it is necessary to have it for this map where the aim is to get a bit of a psychedelic base feeling. Without the Land sheet the parchments comes better alive and I will anyway put backgrounds for grassland etc..
Another reason why I deleted it is that the Landmass (esp. outlines, coastlines and glows) made it harder for me to make smooth river mouthes in the past. I like to draw these river estuarys with the water from the river flowing into the sea and slowly mixing with it and become one. Harsh lines hinder this impression, esp. as I love to make heavy use of transparencies...
But again thanks for your ideas, all the others are on my to-do list!
The Misty Mountains are looking good - you'll have to add this effect to your Lord of the Rings map, I think!
The Ravormos Swamps/Castle area looks interesting, and I especially like the "watercolour" streams meandering their way across the terrain. Some seem so convoluted you could probably add some more channels, in the fashion of braided streams, for instance, and maybe some oxbow lakes where the channels have changed course over time.
I wonder if the swamps themselves might benefit from a somewhat clearer outline. For example, I'm not sure presently whether Chian and Ravormos are also both within them, or on the edges - or even outside the swamps altogether. I am assuming the main swamp limits are those shown by the fill texture used towards the coast in which the castle symbol sits, however.
For the coastline, I think it works reasonably well at present, as the swamps fade away to give a somewhat misty edge to the land (they could change to saltmarshes and lagoons by the coast itself, as low-lying, waterlogged coastal regions sometimes do). It would probably benefit from some better definition in places at least though, so maybe a thin (but not zero-width), dark grey fractal line could be added along the coast in parts, as if it were areas of shingle or flat rocks. If that were interspersed with a few "sandy beaches" similarly - perhaps drawn as somewhat thicker, smooth, lines or narrow polygons - while still leaving some areas of the coast as they are now, that might clarify the coast without imposing a single linear edge feature. Such new coastal features would probably need softening with an effect or two as well, perhaps a blur, but that would need some experimentation.
I elaborated on your suggestions on the little rivers (more channels, oxbows etc.) and on the more clearer swamp outline. Nothing done on the coastline so far, this will follow.
Is this going to be better and is the difference of swamp to river-lands clear? Or have I overdone?
I like the ice-patterning in the crater. The demon may be a little too froglike, but it does look pleasingly weird, certainly. The skin-like patterning I originally talked of happens on and in permafrozen soil, rather than ice - it happens when ice freezes and thaws in the near-surface soil forming cracks that create the pattern, and works in much the same way that similar patterns form in mud which has dried out completely. It seems apt even the ice in this fantasy world can create such forms though!
The crater with the ‚frog‘ demon was the only solution I found so far, it‘s a Lizard from CASUAC under a standard ice fill. My internal challenge for myself for this map is to take only CC3 content and free symbols, as I want to make the map free to use for the RdW community again. So I need to make the things from what I have in the PF folder (what is definitely sufficient). But that means that I sometimes do not arrive exactly where I wanted to. But however, now the lava demon has a brother :-). Maybe I do the Ghorm demon also into a mountains crater instead of the symbol I have now.
Coastlines don't have to be hard or the most prominent thing on the map. Try adding a simple coloured line on a sheet with a transparency effect and/or a very tiny glow of the same colour as the line - a bit like preparing a dungeon map grid so that its only just there and not cluttering the map.
:-)
Got you Sue. I promise I will try a coastline, it‘s on my to do list now. But I will do it in the final phase of the map.