ProFantasy Community Forum

Loganholm Campaign - Overland Map

olonaolona Newcomer
in Show and Tell
Hey, this is my overland map.

I would love some comments on this one, especially since I have been struggling with this for a while and it still seems to be very "basic".

image

The map has slowly been converted from CC2 to CC3 symbols which has been an improvement, but there are still alot of work to be done...:-( but not sure where to start ...
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Comments

  • JimPJimP 🖼️ 280 images Cartographer
    Start ? It looks better than most of my maps.
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  • ShessarShessar 🖼️ 34 images Mapmaker
    edited March 2008
    I'm definitely not very good at overland maps. I wish I could get my mountain ranges to look like that. The only thing that would appeal to me visually is an outline around the continent and a bit of a blur or transparency to the terrain and water contours. Not much, just a little. But that's just personal preference.

    This looks awesome.
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  • MetalMetal
    I too agree that your mountain ranges/hill regions look great.
    The only suggestion I have would be to "feather" the edges of the dense forests a little more - use some of the more broken up tree symbols on the edges, otherwise you can tell where blocks of trees were "stamped on". Also, if you put some of your contours (both landmass and sea) on different sheets, and apply an effect to blur the edges, it would look cool (though slow to repeatedly re-render).

    I think I'll take a lesson on this on the sparser use of symbols, I tend to crowd them in.
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  • olonaolona Newcomer
    Sounds like good ideas but "blur or transparency to the terrain and water contours." - how do you do that ?

    Ah, love the advices - will have to try that ...
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  • MetalMetal
    Check out pages 27-29 of the CC3 tutorial. They used the Blur effect on the sheet containing the lighter contour of sea (eg the sea shelf that cuts the N in Ralin in half in your map), to blur the edges, so it looks like it fades in. It looks great but takes forever to render - at least on my computer - so it's an effect you keep turned off, and turn on only right before you print.
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  • olonaolona Newcomer
    Thanks Metal, will try that next time i am in front of my computer :)
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  • SkaranSkaran
    You could try altering the solid background fills to some of the bitmap fills in CC3 which will have a major impact on the overall look of the map. It could be my machine but the green background seems very bright.

    The region seems heavily wooded so I would probably put some more single tree symbols and small copses more or less randomly through this part of the map.

    Another thing you could do is turn off the outlining on the sea contours. I find that seas look better without this. Conversely though I tend to favour the coast being outlined. Though this is all a matter of the style you like. Another possibility is to replace the white background with a parchment fill, it does depend on what sort of effect you are going for though.

    On the whole though I liked this map it is easy to follow, has interesting features and gives a real sense of what this country would be like.
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  • 7 days later
  • ZaceZace
    I love the fact that when i first looked at this i saw the general curvature of the planet as if the top of the continent was fading off into the distance. Certainly the fade between edges would be great.
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  • 6 days later
  • dtsdesigndtsdesign
    so have they not made CC3 to where you open an old CC2 map and it converts the old sysmobls to the new?

    nice map BTW

    thanks for sharing...
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