Forested Hills
Trying to get this terrain I'm working on to look like Mountainous/Hilly Forests.
What I have so far looks alright, but winds up making these large regions (the highest level is the darkest green) that I'm not sure what to do with.
Should I make darker levels in these regions to indicate the hills are going high? Somehow I think that will be too dark and not very discernible.
I could just put in some hill symbols, or I could do some of the layering effects in the darker regions.
Any advice you have for me?
What I have so far looks alright, but winds up making these large regions (the highest level is the darkest green) that I'm not sure what to do with.
Should I make darker levels in these regions to indicate the hills are going high? Somehow I think that will be too dark and not very discernible.
I could just put in some hill symbols, or I could do some of the layering effects in the darker regions.
Any advice you have for me?
Comments
When I was writing Terraformer - I looked through probably about two thousand different maps all over the internet to make .lgt files and Image Climate files with. I have seen just about every kind of topographical terrain map that you can think of. Of all of the maps that I have looked at - probably little over half (~60%) had the color schemes in exact reverse of the way that your shooting for - in other words - the HIGHER the terrain feature or surface, the DARKER it was colored. This is a very good approach because it preserves the contrast of the changing altitude levels of your land surfaces so that the higher elevations won't steal detail.
Usually if you want to simulate zones where mountain tops will have glaciation (snow), you can color only the highest zones a shade of gray, tan, or light blue that is so light in shade that it's "almost" white. The reason being that it shows terrain features better than a complete bleach, and it makes your other colors balance out a lot better than using a pure white shade.
I like how this looks, but I still don't know what to put in those extra spaces. The terrain depicts the river valley ascending to hills, but I feel I'm still missing the contours showing there are many hills, rather than these large spots.
I've been trying to steer clear of symbols since this map is supposed to be of an ancient china origin, and any symbols I might use should really only be CC3B. If I continue with a lighter color in those large open regions, should I try to make the fifth layer (the lightest green on top) start multiple polys?
I'm thinking of going down a few layers and make them smoothed. Can I use Straight to Smooth multiple times to make a Fractal Poly into a Smooth Poly?