Fantasy maps created using Xara Xtreme

[Egg Bramhill]

Sounds like a Foxtrot Drive to me GP ..... slow. slow, quick, quick, slow

[Gamerprinter]

In Traveller RPG, as both a form of meta-gaming and narrative tool space travel requires overwhelming amounts of fuel and requiring ships to scoop from suns, wait while refining it before jumping again setting up possibilities with encounters to create exciting adventurers, instead of just spending long periods in space flight between destinations. Slower starships have to do the same thing, just not going as fast, nor making as distant of hyperspace jumps. Consider it requires 720 tons of fuel to make a single hyperspace jump/6 (week long period in flight), and 48 tons of fuel to operate the power plant and maneuver drive for 2 weeks - that's 768 tons of fuel for a 1200 ton ship. Still within those parameters, the Peregrine is the "fastest" ship available.

[Gamerprinter]

Just started working on a mining outpost on an alien world in its infancy as a volcanic planet. The station sits atop a pinnacle of rock rising above a lava plain. I have yet to create the floors below located within the rock spire itself. A rare heavy metal is found here in abundance. This is a possible location for a party of interstellar adventurers to make a trade encounter.

[Gamerprinter]

Sorry, for the long absence, just got busy on other things, changed computers, lost favorite links, and new directions. I'm back.

I still do personal maps, commission maps for publishers and individuals, but my publisher side has expanded which has eaten up most of my time. Paizo Publishing came out with a science fantasy tabletop roleplaying game called Starfinder Roleplaying Game, and I've been supporting their system with third party products. I've written and published a free one-shot (one session of play) adventure module called Rude Awakening, and what I call a two shot module (two sessions of play) called Rogue's Run. I have two freelance author/game designers that have their own Starfinder projects, that I do maps, deck plans, illustrations, page layout and cover design (all using Xara Designer Pro x11), though I do some page layout work in Adobe InDesign to meet the specific needs of some printers/sales platforms. T. H. Gulliver wrote a 150 page collection of one-shot space horror modules called Dead in Space, and he is working on a followup collection of one-shots based on a garbage/prison planet called Chains of Purgatory. While the first has been out since November 2018, "chains" won't be published until sometime this summer. Edward Moyer has been writing both one-shot modules and optional rules supplements including Starships, Stations, and Salvage Guide (my best seller so far), Ultimate Vehicles and The Complete Mecha Factory - bringing mecha rules for Starfinder.

I'm also considering starting a Patreon where I'll be offering podcasts mostly covering Map Tutorials, Map Symbol Tutorials, both hand-drawn/digital hybrid style using Xara, or purely digital maps combining Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 365, Wings 3D for 3D modeling for some map symbol needs. I'll also offer free map downloads, as well as creating custom maps for higher paying tier patrons. I'm just now looking at doing this - I need software to best capture live Xara sessions creating maps, a better camera, lighting, a set up to film me for podcasts. So that will be a few months away before I actually begin doing that.

I've got a 20 map commission for Legendary Games coming soon, and those will be purely digital all created in Xara Designer Pro. And though I've got lots of content created for it already, I've had to shelve a project while I finished some older ones, I'll be getting back to work updating my Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game) to the science fantasy flavor of Stafinder Roleplaying Game - that's a big project.

I've setup an Artstation gallery of my work if you'd like to check that out.

Anyway a few recent maps of mine. The first image is the planet of Kaidan created in Xara with heavy use of bevels as in most of my maps - it's 2:1 width to height for easy conversion to globe wrapping tools for planetary globe views. The second image is the Aradia star system map, all in vector with overlapping NASA photos in the background. The last one is the Cyberian a huge pirate heavy destroyer starship, while all the interior deck plans were created using Xara, the hull was created in 3D using Wings 3D, rendered as a white model in Poser 11, then imported to Xara and given textures with the merge layer transparency applied.

Michael

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[gwpriester]

Good to see you back. This thread has been viewed over 200,000 times. I pretty sure no other thread has been viewed that many times.

[Gamerprinter]

I can remember when it crossed 100,000 views - yes, I agree there is no other such thread in talkgraphics.

[Gamerprinter]

For some reason those images didn't show up, let me do this again...

[Boy]

Good to see you're back, Michael. Sounds like all your hard work has been paying off. Congrats!

Great new work. Thanks for sharing.

[RKissane]

Michael,

Are you using Artstation in your work now or just using the site to host your portfolio of your work? I know you use to use google Plus heavily are you still active on Google Plus and has that platform still given you much exposure anymore or have you had to move on to other areas for exposure?

Ray

[Gamerprinter]

I've used Google + less and less, relying more on Facebook. I use Artstation to host my work, I only use Xara to create my art.