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Fantasy Maps

Started by pictsy, 25 January, 2021, 01:03:06 PM

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pictsy

Was talking about making fantasy maps in another thread and thought I'd create somewhere to post them.  Here is what I have recently been working on:




The Legendary Shark


Ooh, I like those.

Something I tried recently was converting NASA photos of bits of Mars (e.g. and etc.) from orbit to greyscale and then to black and white and using the result as a base. Next time I can get my lappy near a wi-fi connection I'll upload a few.

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Barrington Boots

I really like these too. There's something incredibly satisfying about a map, especially a fantasy world one.
You're a dark horse, Boots.

pictsy

Thanks.  I'm happy with the overall results and learnt a few lessons doing these.  Smaller canvas sizes and vector graphics are my big take away for the topographical maps.  There are some other styles I want to try and I have a bunch of older maps I can post at some point.

Colin YNWA

They are very cool. Do you plan to add place names and the like? Is that even possible with the software you are using?

pictsy

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 25 January, 2021, 08:01:51 PM
They are very cool. Do you plan to add place names and the like? Is that even possible with the software you are using?

I'm not adding anything additional to these maps.  I did plan to for the last map, but the original file was far too large for it to be practical.  When I make my next attempt I hope to have figured the process out better to allow for some naming, locations, roads, shipping lanes etc.

I'm using an old version of Illustrator for the topographical maps and I think I've found out how to do text nicely with it.

Hopefully it won't be too long until I can return to doing some test maps.

Andrew_J

I love these. Are you handcrafting them or generating them somehow?
Either way the results are gorgeous.

TordelBack

Those are fantastic! I was doing some work on continental-scale maps* for an RPG campaign back before Christmas, with an oddly similar general layout, and I am in complete awe of how much better those look.


*I already had local areas done, but scope of travels was due to increase.

pictsy

Quote from: Andrew_J on 26 January, 2021, 05:41:46 PM
I love these. Are you handcrafting them or generating them somehow?
Either way the results are gorgeous.

Thanks :)

The first two were drawn in Photoshop using my graphics tablet.

The last one is hand drawn in Illustrator again using my graphic tablet.

Quote from: TordelBack on 26 January, 2021, 05:54:04 PM
Those are fantastic! I was doing some work on continental-scale maps* for an RPG campaign back before Christmas, with an oddly similar general layout, and I am in complete awe of how much better those look.

*I already had local areas done, but scope of travels was due to increase.

Thanks.  They took a while to do but I think I can do better in the future.  The challenging style will be the more modern illustrative style fantasy map I've seen knocking about.  It's really just fun exploring ideas in maps.  I'd love to be able to do this full time but I don't know how realistic that prospect is.