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vorropohaiah β Atlas Elyden Style Guide (tutorial)
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Published: 2016-08-20 14:30:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 52531; Favourites: 253; Downloads: 0
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For more on Elyden, including high-res maps, lore and art, don't forget to check out my Patreon and website.
If you've been thinking of becoming a patron there's been no better time - I've just made the Shaper and Demiurge tiers cheaper! For as little as just $5 per month you can help support the project as well as get access to over 50 high-res and textless maps for personal use, as well tonnes of lore, short stories and commissioned art.
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By popular demand, a guide to how I create my Atlas Elyden maps. Β
This isn't a full-out tutorial, though more of a guide to how I create the maps, so a working knowledge of how Photoshop and projected maps work is assumed. I don;t go into details like which exact colours are used and so on as I expect anyone wanting to emulate the style to use their own colours. It's no fun copying things word-for-word
Hope you enjoy 
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Comments: 46
Hey Vorropahaiah! I've returned to this post a few times to check out your tutorial. Just wondering if you've since made a tutorial for "Flexify 2 which is very useful for making stereographic projections and gores used in making globes" (you hinted that you might make a tutorial for that eventually in this post. If not, no worries. I was just curious if I could find such a tutorial anywhere
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Cool, thanks a ton! That helps a lot. It seems like a lot of back-and-forth between programs to do a world map this way, so I wanted to be sure there wasn't some faster trick I didn't know about
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no. to be honest i use it very rarely at the moment.
as the black and white equirectangular base is now pretty much finished and is only referenced when i need to do graticules in more detail. So what i do is:
1) I crop the continent map to zoom in on the region i will be working on and rotate it to get the best orientation.
2) I flatten the continent map and export in and start a new image.
3) I then upload the black/white map to G. Projector to get a 1 degree graticule that i paste as a new layer onto the map file and trace over it to make the graticules and the chequer patterns on the page border.
the 3rd step can be done on flexify 2 but i find G. projector is quicker (though the exported image is not very detailed at all), though as ill be tracing over it anyway the quality isn't that important
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I think i am a bit late at this, but since i've come to really adore your cartography skills and maps, I am really thankful that you shared some of your knowlegde. I really appreciate it, as i consider your work one of my inspirations. Great Work!
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thanks for the kind words
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You're welcome, they are very well deserved
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Wow! I'm impressed. I've never seen fantasy maps that look that professional. There is so much work and study behind each map, I'm astonished. Congratulations on your fantastic job!
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thanks
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Awesome!Β Your reddit posting brought me here.Β Just incredible work; the layers are where you can really begin to appreciate the epic amount of work you've put into this.Β It looks completely professional and believable.
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Thanks
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jeeeez.... how do you organize your lore sheets? or just ave enough inspiration to write so much lore for such a large world?
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I just have a big word doc organised alphabetically like an encyclopaedia, and everything goes in there. I have other documents, which i organise into what i like to call the Encyclopaedia Elyden:
- Vol 1 is the traditional encyclopaedia (think Encyclopaedia Britannica). Currently 450,00 words - this is the most comprehensive volume so far.
- Vol 2 is the natural encyclopaedia, detailing things like physical characteristics (astronomy, geology, continents, climate, flora and fauna, and various miscellania. Currently 80,000 words - certain parts are finished whilst others are little more than place-holders so far.
- Vol 3 is the travelogue, detailing both extant and extinct nations, city-states and major cities. I imagine this to be like the regional portion of an RPG campaign setting. Currently 250,000 words. Many regions are fully-fleshed out, though most are still just a title and little else.
- Vol 4 is the mystical book, detailing religions, mythologies, creation stories, and magic. currently 40,000 words - apart from the creation myths and generic magical info, this book needs the most fleshing out by far, though it would be the smallest book once completed, anyway.
- Vol 5 is the Atlas, containing all sorts of maps in the style of the atlas maps ive been doing so far, including different scale maps, so it will eventually feature cities, continents, world maps, featuring different things, like climate, trade, politics, etc. I've barely scratched the surface of this book so far, and only really have these 10-maps finished, out of possibly hundreds...
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Wow, that's amazing.Β
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Wow, 10 years? And I thought my friend spent a long time on his world (8 1/2 years now).
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not much difference really. I know people whove spent half as long on their worlds but have put a lot more work into them. I;ve written a few unpublished novels (im editing one im hoping to release), a bunch of short stories, and 1,000,000+ words of lore
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I don't know...that's quite a bit. but, i guess i can't stay focused on the stuff i do on DA...
Well, let's hope you don't grow weary at the wrong time!Β Β Β
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Very great overview, are those extra pograms beside PS for free?
might enjoy this tut as well.
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I know this DArtist and watching him. I already knew about this tut ^^
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No u donΒ΄t I showed u sth super cool and new and u r totally impressed!
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G. Projector is free and available from NASA though you need Java installed and updated for it to work.
Flexify 2 is $54 but the free trial is good too
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This is amazing. Your maps are really good. I had a small question regarding the mountains, how do you decide where to place them and how they should look like? I'm trying to come up with a realistic mountain range and a massif but I don't know where to start. So any recommendations would be awesome !
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I look at real world maps and atlases, at regions I imagine to look like the area I'm working on at the time and extrapolate from them, trying to make them a bit more extreme to look more fantasy-like, which is difficult with topographical maps
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How did you manage to to so precise coastlines?
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It's just freehand using either the lasso and then filling it, or the pen tool
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Did you really made every single little island on the map yourself?
Some are barely visible. That's incredible.
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Yep
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thanks for the comments
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so this is how you design maps for fantasy shows and games right??? owo
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well I cant speak for other people, but this is how i make these particular style of maps
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Thanks for adding this. It's nice to get an idea of the design processes that contribute to maps you produce.
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thanks
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I also have to thank you fot creating this!
I always admired the style of your maps. They are by far the best and most beautiful one in my opinion.
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