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anonymous-Dragon — Alabaster Map
Published: 2011-06-19 23:22:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 2866; Favourites: 49; Downloads: 59
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Description
This is a map drawn for one Elliot Hare of his custom DnD campaign that's well over four years old by now.This is my first actual paid commision to boot and boy was it a tough one!
The piece took me well over 20, close to 30 hours to complete and is my second map after the Aeradia map using a similar technique, though much tweaked.
This map provided a unique challenge in that it had large swathes of completely new terrain and strange topographic features that I had absolutely no idea how to create or represent. This meant many many hours of experimentation to find ways of achieving these things and in the end I think I did rather well.
Specific challenges were the glacier, the gigonomongous mountain range, the ice fields, massive desert, fiery region of North Gedi and the trenches.
All in all though a very enjoyable project and I think I've made considerable progress since my first tentative foray into mapmaking.
I have to thank Elliot for his inexhaustible patience during my slow progress and for always being ready and willing to answer every little question and give an opinion. It was great working with you man.
There are actually two versions of this map, the DM map and the common map. This here is the DM's version with extra little details and map notes.
Hope you guys enjoy it. Leave your opinions!
Done from scratch in Photoshop!
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Comments: 18
You need to teach me how to do this with Gimp. I hate how flat my maps look.
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This is well done. I've tried my hand at maps and haven't pulled off anything quite so realistic and detailed. Kudos to you.
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this map looks great! if you have not already, you should share it with the folks at www.cartographersguild.com
be well,
phil
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Thanks very much!
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Wow, this is easily the best fantasy world map I've ever seen. I love all the little details, especially the deep sea trenches...that's just taking it to another level (no pun intended)!
I've been struggling with my own maps for ages. Did you use any tutorials for the different terrains or was it done purely with experimenting?
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You can have a look at the tutorial I've directed Ignacio to here: [link]
That there's the basics. The stuff like the glaciers/trenches, North Gedi and deserts and massive mountainrange and so on I had to figure out with experimentation. Mostly I played around with the settings but also ended up adding more layerstyles and trying different patterns and brushes. In some places even using digital painting techniques over layerstyles (which is what these maps are mainly made from).
It took a lot of trial and error and a looot of time which is probably why this thing took me close to 30 hours to complete.
If you want and you use the same technique in that tutorial, I can give you a few tips on how to alter the techniques to gain different results for unique terrain. Just hollar.
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Thanks for the link, that particular tutorial didn't open for me, but I've found some other handy tips on that forum.
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Is Awesome, hope some day i could do something like this. Can you post a tuto?
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I won't be posting my own tutorial but I CAN direct you to the tutorial that I learnt from, the one I followed to make my first map, Aeradia.
It's not very easy to follow in some places and a bit confusing in others but generally it's a very good tutorial and with a bit of trial and error you'll be making great ones in no time, I'm sure.
[link]
That website is in general also an excellent resource for all kinds of map-making goodness!
I hope it helps!
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Oh man, Thanks a Lot. This will help me so much with my fantasy story .
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You're more than welcome.
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Pretty amazing! It looks so realistic...! Very clear, very stylish. ^_^
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