WIP Morwara (Erdan Worlds of Wonder style)
Medio
Surveyor
Hey all.
Although a bit busy lately, ive started working on a full map style, meaning have to draw many symbols and decide among many textures and effects. I decided i will make another realm map for it to be shown, like i did with Tilkar. Morwara is another realm on my Erdan world. I chose it because it has many biomes: a savannah and oasis-like land surrounded bya desert and wastes. It´s not the most beautiful setup as i prefer more homogeneus maps but it works well for a test.
Just remind that there will be many things that will change, mostly on textures, and there will be more symbols (just added a few ones on this starting map, including my favourite one: THE CRATER!). I will comment some map building notes aswell.
Hope you like it, the next update wont be soon so im leaving to a 6 days work trip tomorrow. In 2 weeks i should be posting here with advancements. Feel free to ask anything in the meantime.
My plan is developt this into a full style which might be added later (hopefully in early 2021) to CC3 but about this you should ask Ralf better.
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Comments
First map building note: islands. Usually, if you draw islands as landmass, you will find that the effects will make them too dark if they´re not big enough. Also, if they´re too close by each other, the Edge Stripping effect will overlay.
I solved that creating a new sheet called Islands (duh). I made it similar to landmass, except on effects. I deleted the edge stripping and made the inner glow way smaller than for regular landmass. The island sheet is placed down of landmass one so the latter will be behind it.
When i draw islands, i first draw them as landmass. Then i choose Islands sheet and draw exactly over the island coastline (using Trace command so get best results). The outcome is that the island have a good Edge Stripping and outside glow effects like the landmass, but the inner glow will be smaller and, as you can see in the map, the land inside the islands is clearer.
I like the new craters :)
Ditto about the new craters (and some more floating rocks?) I like the islands. I think you mean sheet, not layer. great map.
Yeah, sorry, sheets. Corrected! And yeah, more floating islands symbols... There will be a bit more of everything!
The islands look great.
The lake/sea in the middle looks like it's floating because of the sheet effects.
Yeah, that's why I still didn't figure out how to make the lake Edge Stripes. Once I get it, it shouldn't look like that.
For the lake, you should give it a widish INNER glow effect.
If you want the same effect on the lake as you have on the coast (you might not, but if you do) it might be easier to draw the lakes as cut-out shapes on the land using a Colour Key on the Land. That would give them the same effects as the coast.
Tried the inner glow effect, Quenten. Didn't work out well.
Good suggestion Sue. Will try it next week when I get back from the sunny Andalucia.
I love color key! It's so useful for stuff like this.
Looking at it again, though, it might not work all that well, because you would have to draw the coloured patches (land features?) around it then, which would change their extent by causing the edge to fade away from the lake.
It should make the coast of the lake exactly like the ocean coast.
That's why I suggested it, but the side effect is that Medio won't be able to take land feature textures and shading right up to the edge of it like they are right now.
I don't know if this was already suggested, but you can set the edge stripping effect so be present on the inside of polygon. You could add the same edge stripping that is on the land sheet (or an adjusted version) to the lake sheet, just on the inside, rather than the outside as with lands.
Ah! Yes, that makes sense Sue.
Hey all. Back from 2 hard work weeks so not much time for mapping... Preparing the banners of the map (did around ten, will have to choose from all them heh), can´t really decide which of the banner textures will fit the style better, so i will put them here so you can help me choose among them.
1
2
3
4
Thanks in advance.
Oh you're doing banners as well? Snap! So am I. But mine won't help until sometime next year.
I think I prefer number 2, because they will be more visible than the others.
Try a few drop shadow effects on them ;)
I prefer no 2 as well, for the same reason as Sue.
Yeah Sue, shadow effect will come later, but not on the symbols themselves but on the banners sheet so people can place them in different positions. My idea is to add two textures for each symbol.
Already enjoying your banners indeed. Thanks for the input!
Indeed :) I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that the built in shadows for my own banners might only serve to irritate.
Something that someone else mentioned to me when I was all set to do loads of really outlandish shapes - bear in mind that text manipulation in CC3 isn't the same as if you were using PS, and that not everyone has the software to do any post processing. There are certain types of banner that would be pretty difficult to use. It was suggested that I stick mainly with straight ones, but I think I will throw in a couple of perfect arcs just for a bit of variety.
After all - what is impossible today might not be tomorrow.
Yeah, I thought the same when I did some twisted banners haha. So most of them will have to be straight and will save the others for mainly PS use.
Types 2 and 4 seem more suitable to me, mostly because I think the text on the banners will stand out better on those two options.
I like 2 and 3. Two would be more visible, but I think #3 would look great with text about the same color as the land.
My idea is to bring players at least 3 textures for each of the 6-8 banners. Why? Not just that they will choose the colour they like, my idea is to use banners for cities as well. I tried example 4 and goes great for cities, as it shouldn't be too bright while the map banner can be a bit more flashy.
Meh. My e-pencil has got broken :( And always happen on the worst time, right after i spent 1.500 euros to update my PC and monitor. Meaning not much budget to more electronic spendings.
I had to manage as i could with my mouse and keyboard. Did this malestrom symbol for the style using several techniques but was awfully slow, around 3-4 hours. The end result wasn´t that as good as i would imagine. Who knows, maybe i will end up drawing symbols with ink and paper and scan them to the pc...
Oh, also two smaller ones (one with some aura). The first one is a BIG one, for those players who want to make it important in your map. This one is more common to place.
Looking nice. While looking at them up close is nice to see the details in the symbols, it is more difficult to judge how they will look in a map at a proper zoom though.
Yeah actually I do every symbol with zoom in mind. Of course you won't see that much detail but they look fine as long as you respect what is good each. The large maelstrom is made for taking lotsa space while the small one works like a normal size symbol.
Yesterday before I started my work trip I redid some parts, it's painfully slow without my Wacom :-(
I need ideas for more symbols! :)
Take a look at what is available in the main Overland styles that come with CC3 for ideas. This will also show you the difference in size and scope between a big style, like the Mike Schley Overland, and a small style, like Herwin Wielink (which started life as an annual)