Varaelin - an Elvian village

Lorelei · March 2017

So this was an experiment....I had an idea of creating a village in the trees of the Witchwood where the Elvians would live while hunting the forest for free men and guarding the Maze of Eldath.....Im not completely sold on this. One moment i LOVE it, and the next i almost want to delete the whole thing. Any input? I tried my best to give the illusion of "tree living" but this was certainly a challenge. If it proves to be a success I will do a similar one for the Atlas project using the CC3+ core and add-on symbols and fills.....

PS - Compass and Scale just for Dogtag

PSS - Adjusted version below thanks to some great critique!

Link to High Resolution Varaelin

JMunsonII · March 2017

Pretty!

I think you did rather well to give that illusion of tree living.

If there were some way to blur the forest floor a little, to give that bid of added depth perception, I would do that - then it would really pop out, and off, I think...

HadrianVI · March 2017

What a beautiful village. I especially like how you use the shades to emphasize the height of the buildings.

There are, however, some bridges that drop a shadow on the platform they connect to, which negates the effect.
I have no clue how this can be fixed. Maybe it would be easiest to draw the shades manually and then disable (some) of the effect shades?

Lorelei · March 2017

Oh i see!!! Hmmm.....that's because my bridges are above the lowest trees.....hmm.....i think i may have a fix for that.....BRB

Lorelei · March 2017

Okay....i created another sheet below the lowest trees and copied the bridges adding the drop shadow to those rather than the original bridges.....can you notice there are two sets of bridge symbols? I had blurred the ground, but obviously not enough to be noticed

, so I upped that a bit....

High res link

HadrianVI · March 2017

Smart move:)

It really does make a difference:)

Lorelei · March 2017

Thanks....just had to do something about that contrast....it was a bit too high. I toned it down a bit. I think it's good now. I think. I'm still not sold on this map for some reason....

HadrianVI · March 2017

I'm not sure but I think on the platform left of the barter post, the bridge shadow is still on the platform.

Maybe you could increase the length of the shades to further emphasize the height. Also: Do the platforms drop shadows? When looking at the barters post it looks like they don't. Is there a way to offset shadows?

Lorelei · March 2017

I removed a few trees (it seemed too busy to me, distracting from the actual village) and lightened up the ground some...

Tonnichiwa · March 2017

I think I like this one better. Very nice job on this map!

Monsen · March 2017

I think removing those threes was a good idea. While pretty, it was rather busy, which did detract a little

Lorelei · March 2017

Thanks...i think i may try something like this for one of the forests on the other continents if someone creates a regional map with an Elven forest i can map out. Don't want to work on too many towns and villages before the regions are even mapped out yet....

But as usual, i am pretty fast, and getting ahead of myself, and ourselves, lol.

Meanwhile, i think this might be okay to send the file to my players. I've noticed that they ALL have their tablets along with them during game sessions so we began to put my maps up on my TV (using Chromecast) and Roll20 (as printing them all out all the time and using minis can prove expensive to a group of players with varying "fun money" to spare) - so I've been updating my Obsidian portal page for them as we progress and they get a copy of the map once they visit the place to reference at all times in and out of game. It seems to be working out great....and saving me tons of printing ink or time at the local copy shop!

HadrianVI · March 2017

It does look quite a bit better. I think it is because the removed trees no longer obscure the shadows that are dropped by the larger trees.

You did a very nice job with this village!

JMunsonII · March 2017

The improvements made did wondrous things for the map!

Nice work.

Shessar · March 2017

I think removing the trees was the right thing to do. It was a bit busy originally but the changes make it easier on the eyes.

Love it now!!!

I use a 42" TV to display world, regional, and city maps including interiors. I never bother making true dungeon/cave maps because the players never get to see the entire map until after they've explored it and by that time they are ready to move on; so for dungeons I use graph paper for the DM and either Dwarven Forge sets or the Chessex mat for the players to map it out. If it is a battle where area details matter I'll do a battlemap. It took me a while to find a balance between mapping time and real life.

Loopysue · March 2017

I'm very late to the party with this one, Lorelei. It's a beautiful map - I love it, but I do have an alternative suggestion for making the forest floor sit back just a bit more, and that is to make it quite a lot darker than the tops of the trees.

Don't know if it would really work. I just have a hunch...

JMunsonII · March 2017

Good suggestion loopysue! Also, add desaturation to that too...

pixelkitteh · May 2017

I think this might be the best map I've ever seen ;_; just stunning

I absolutely love it!

[Deleted User] · May 2017

I second all the remarks on how lovely this is - again you are proving not just a cartographer, but a wonderful artist. All your work smacks of a painting to me. Just wonderful.

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Varaelin - an Elvian village

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