I'm working on a personal project and I would like some input into the design. The map I'm posting is just a test map and not the final vision that I have for this project.

For the phase 1 map I'm looking for the following input.

1) Does the background behind the mountains give the overall impression of sky?

(I know it needs more work to really look like a sky but does it give the impression of the sky)

2) Does the scaling in the foreground of the trees give the proper scaling to show the distance from the front to the middle of the image? Also how could I better scale the hills?

3) Does the image give the general overall impression of what you would see looking at a photo or in real life looking at a river valley?

Thank You in advance for your comments and suggestions.

Here is what I think is the final day time version of the project. Higher Resolution in gallery.

comments and suggestions welcome.

The map of the political borders was approved today.

Larger version in Gallery

As side note my first character artist image, nothing special but I did do the city ruler. Waiting on some background information to add to the image so this is still a work in progress.

My weekend project for this week. An encounter map while traveling through a forest. Comments are welcome. Once completed I will break the map up into 8 80' x 100' images for printing.

Well worked on my second city map today. I stayed with the Darklands City theme again. I decided to make the map a little larger and based on current events, I decided that the neighboring town across the river was destroyed by fire. I wanted something beside just a town so I added some farms to give the town a different feel.

Comments are always welcome and let me know what you think and how I can improve it.

OK I added 2 chimneys, put rocks on a separate sheet and adjusted effects. Trees and Bushes are now on 4 different sheet with shadows and glows adjusted for each. Set transparency for smoke and adjusted cart shadow.

@Wyvern

Thank You for your input. The aurora from my location is most of the Green or white coloring with some red when it is really active (65 degrees North) So my representation is based on that. With that said the color and type of background has a huge effect on the color of the lights more than what I expected. I still have a long way to go to get things to look the way I want them to and to get some reflections in the water during the day. Your suggestion are always welcome and helpful. I will continue to work on the project and refine I hope the lighting as that is the biggest issue right now. The other problem I have with the aurora is the upper edge is too soft but I do not know if I can fix that as there is very little control on lighting so to help with that I placed a color band under the upper lights which does help but not with sharpness.

I'm not trying to make a photo realistic image in CC3 but more a map that is more like a photo than a map if that makes sense. I guess that is part of my mapping problem I don't see thing is a fantasy setting I see things in a more realistic setting which is a draw back for mapping in some regards.

Here is an example of how much the background effects the lights.

Ok Almost done. Needs location names (maybe still undecided). Cities and towns added, roads and paths are done. Maybe add a couple of dungeon locations. Thinking of adding some small islands off the coast. Higher resolution image in gallery.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Adjusted the Temple as I thought it was a little out of place.