Layers and Effects for mapping
So i have been making maps for awhile now but i have never really had that "pop" that alot of the artist on this site have. i was wondering if someone would be willing to share some basic layer ideas and effects they put on their overlay, and city maps and such.
Comments
That said, I use layers and sheets, along with bitmap fills, to create contorured surface maps of my game world.
This world maps shows it off best. That is World All 12. There are 14 such maps of 151x191 pixel pngs.
LAND: This sheet gets one to two outside glows to give nice transition from the coast to deeper ocean. By staggering several glows you can imporve the effect, just make sure the smaller glows are later in the list so they are actually visible. An inside glow on this sheet can create beaches or a darker offset of the coast.
TERRAIN: these sheets get Inner Edge Fades, to make the terrain fase smoothly into the surroundings. The downside is that you need a separate sheet for each type of terrain, at least if they overlap. Use a Blur only if your terrin is solid colors or vector fills. Blurs on bitmap files look messy.
COASTLINE: I usually make the coastline a wide, solid filles path and blur it a bit, to mask the sharp edge created by the effects of the LAND sheet.
RIVERS: Blur them and give them a soft green glow to make instant fertile river valleys.
TEXT: The usual way to go is a bright outline produced by a Glow (make it strong, but small). Reversing this can be nice too: use white text with a dark glow to outline it.