I love complimentary styles that allow for a consistent "vibe" at the continental, regional/local area, and city levels.

(I have heard of Joe v. the Volcano but it came out my senior year of college when I didn't have much time to go to movies, and I never got around to seeing it.)

One thing I use layers for is to simultaneously reveal or hide things that because of different sheet effects need to be on different sheets. I once designed a five-level sewer system with each level of the sewers involving multiple sheets on a single layer for each level. Or a mountaintop covering a dungeon that can be hidden or revealed with a single layer.

Here's the other map. Much smaller southern forest. This map has 2,380 trees -- nine more than the map above.

I redid the southern forest for the first map. I deleted the original blocks of mixed forest trees but kept the semi-transparent gray forest background, and then added a few thousand individual trees. Mostly deciduous and pine, with a healthy smattering of different-colored fruit trees along with a handful of barren trees and a surprise or two. There's something very peaceful about placing all of them individually -- though maybe that's easier to say when there's "only" 2,371 trees and not 41,000!

Here's a close-up of a bit of the forest.

On to the other map!

Inspired by Ralf's tutorial a few weeks ago, where he combined the latest Hive symbols to create a sprawling Hive Metropolis, I wanted to also create a big city combining unwalled settlements into one big city. I decided, though, that I wanted to focus on the elven symbols, but as I was mucking about, I then decided to add an antagonist: the Dark Empire.

This was all just for fun, without a specific goal in mind. I find that mapping is a good way to clear my head. Maybe it's because it's simultaneously exercising the left and right sides of my brain, as I am creating a work of art but also having to do some analytical stuff with ordering sheets and working out effects.

Version 1: 4x5 Ratio

This first version uses a 1000x800 map, though symbols get resized so it's really just a 4x5 ratio.

It ended up being a little too zoomed out a little too much, but it did allow me to include some human, dwarven, orc, and magical plant communities. I ended up putting an ocean behind the land (but above the sky, which is the Background) and then using the Color Key Cutout effect to create lakes and rivers. I wanted the lake and river colors to more closely resemble the colors of the water in the waterfall symbols.

I will also put this, and some zooms of it, in my galleries so you can get a closer look.

Version 2: 5x7 Ratio

This one used a 500x700 map in order to get a 5x7 ratio, a good size for printing notecards. Here I tried to make the symbols bigger to have a more close-up look. With the elves, I also used some of Mike Schley's SS6 isometric city symbols.

Maybe I will add in some clouds to add a bit more to the skyline.