My experiments in CG mapping...

[Kevlar]

Have thus far failed. I've made some simple black and white maps that serve my purpose, but so far nothing I'd actually consider artful. Anybody have any advice on the subject? I was trying to emulate the Dragon Age style, at least to some degree, but it ended up much less artsy. Anyone know of any good resources for this type of thing: textures, tutorials, GIMP brushes? Anything? Photoshop brushes work in GIMP too.

Unfortunately I don't have a tablet to use, just a mouse. But I'll keep trying, possibly posting the attempts here if there's any interest. I'll even try my hand at your worlds if you want. Anything to help my progression

Attatched is my poorly done attempt. If anyone wants it for something they're fully welcome. It's not like its horrible or anything, It's just not up to the standard I set for myself.

EDIT - Better Pic

 

[Ravana]

May not be up to your standards, but it's pretty damn good compared to anything I've seen come out of CG mapping. Was that even done with a "mapping" soft, or a more generalized CGI program? I've been trying to come up with something I can actually use with a Mac… so far, everything's either unusuable because of my computer, unusuable because I can't figure out how to, or generates crap… or some combination thereof.

I'm quite certain my players would be happy to see the last of my hand-drawn maps, no matter how good they might be relative to the average.…

 

[Telcontar]

A lot better than my attempts, too - though I've only just started working with GIMP. Never been big into creating graphics, myself. I'd probably do more of it if I were a better artist.

Tell you the truth, the only thing I don't like about the above is that the rivers coming out of the center are funny. I can't seem to shape a land contour in my head that would create those flows - I've been doing a lot of reading on geography and land formation lately (for a world-generation program) and I'm noticing a lot of things I never did before about artificial maps.

So, all-in-all, it actually looks pretty damn good. Practice and improve, I suppose!

 

[Kaellpae]

The only river I would take out would be the north flowing middle one. Maybe a few less overall, even if it just had those two long ones it would look even more realistic to me.

This looks awesome! I wish I could do stuff like this. If I try to draw my hand gets restless and cramps up.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Kevlar]

May not be up to your standards, but it's pretty damn good compared to anything I've seen come out of CG mapping. Was that even done with a "mapping" soft, or a more generalized CGI program? I've been trying to come up with something I can actually use with a Mac… so far, everything's either unusuable because of my computer, unusuable because I can't figure out how to, or generates crap… or some combination thereof.

I'm quite certain my players would be happy to see the last of my hand-drawn maps, no matter how good they might be relative to the average.…

Have you tried GIMP? It's the poor man's Photoshop, not an actual mapping software. You can't exactly generate a map in five seconds, but it does provide better control than any mapping software I've ever tried.

As for the rivers being unrealistic, I agree about some of them, especially on the west side of the savannah/steppe in the middle. I was already realizing I didn't like it by the time I put them in though,, I just thoughtt I better smack some on there and didn't bother with sectioning of watersheds for some reason.

Hopefully I'll get back to it today and make another one. I've already got some ideas for improvement.

 

[Shadoe]

Compared to my map of Araith, that one is magical. But then, I did my map in PowerPoint.

 

[Ravana]

Have you tried GIMP? It's the poor man's Photoshop, not an actual mapping software.

Actually, I did download GIMP after I posted the above—at which point I discovered my real problem, which is that my computer won't run it, thanks to an inexplicable bundling decision by Apple. (I need to load the X11 environment—which bloody well ought to have been a standard part of the OS—but I can't, because my computer will only run up to 10.4. Now, if I were running 10.3, or 10.5 or higher, I could download X11… but for 10.4, you need to install it from the system disc that comes with your computer. Which doesn't work all that well if what your computer had in the first place was 10.3, you've upgraded to 10.4 by downloading, and you don't have the freakin' disc.… The same thing prevents me from being able to use Inkscape, or just about anything else that looks like it might be worth using.)

I'm sure I wouldn't be happy with anything I made using a mouse anyway, and I don't have a tablet, so at least for the moment, it's rhetorical.

As for the rivers being unrealistic, I agree about some of them, especially on the west side of the savannah/steppe in the middle. I was already realizing I didn't like it by the time I put them in though,, I just thoughtt I better smack some on there and didn't bother with sectioning of watersheds for some reason.

I didn't see much wrong with them, really. About the only thing I thought might want changing is the number of them that end in two forks… but that's as much an aesthetic thing as a reality thing.