Nice map. This latest version seems to have the contours of a rearing lion, such as used in family crests and coats of arms. Was it intentional?
Attachment 95186
Printable View
Nice map. This latest version seems to have the contours of a rearing lion, such as used in family crests and coats of arms. Was it intentional?
Attachment 95186
The map is looking really good and in my opinion some of the good look is down to the consistent text orientation.
Where a feature really is on a slant, like the narrow waterways, then names at that slant make sense.
What are the pinkish rectangles containing text that I just cant read ?
PS I can see Boy's rampant lion now that it's been pointed out.
DD
@ DD - attached is a close up of those label boxes. The original map is 60 x 86 inches, so reduced to 400 pixels wide for the thumbnail, I'm not surprised you can't read those boxes. It will be readable at the size intended.
@ Boy - completely unintentional. I've done an undersea city map where a fish head is distinct in the terrain behind the city - that too is unintentional. You're just seeing 'shapes in the clouds' I suppose! ;)
Close up map view below...
Attachment 95192
I was responding to someone on another forum as to what do I do in creating this map? As help to TG members, I thought I'd repeat my response here.
Since I run my own graphics shop, I have access to large format printers and scanners to assist my cartography process, which gives me an advantage for this kind of map design technique.
What I do is a 3 step process.
1. After imagining what I want to create, I use Xara to create the general coastlines, location of the mountains, hills, lakes and rivers. Then I print a large format b/w laser print at whatever scale I plan to create the map, either as a single print up to 36" x 96", usually 24 x 36, but for this map I printed 30" x 60" in five prints to cover the 3 parts of Anshu, 1 for Yonshu, 1 for Genshu (the three main islands of the map).
2. Once printed, I tape the prints, one at a time, onto a glass topped table (4 x 12 feet). I then cut a matching sized sheet of 18# translucent bond paper off a 36" roll (tracing paper). I tape that to the top of the printed map outlines. Now I use a micropoint pen (nothing fancy) and hand draw all the terrain features. Once complete, I scan the hand-drawn sheet at 200 dpi monochrome TIF format. I do this for each printed sheet until the entire map is hand-drawn.
3. From my primary design PC, I import the TIF scans into Xara Xtreme to a preset design area to hold the entire map (in this map's case 60" x 96"). Once in Xara I can apply a 'stain glass' transparency filter - which makes black 100% solid and white 100% transparent. I use a pen/drawing tool in Xara and mouse to trace all my hand-drawn lines. Once the shape is created, I apply a color scheme (usually a soft watercolor palatte), apply that to the shape, then use the bevel tool to create then adjust the shape until I'm happy with the look. Then I move it behind the hand-drawn image, and can now see what you see in the map. I usually feather the edge of the shape so it blends better with the background textured shape (not the coastlines, however). I continue this process until all lined shapes are complete.
In this map's case, I create the forests as separate drawn lines on tracing paper taped on top of the previously hand-drawn terrain. That way I can cover some of the hills, mountain bases, avoid the rivers, lakes and coastlines. Then I scan, import to Xara and finish as the previous pieces.
The salt marsh areas of north eastern Yonshu and marshland in south central Genshu, and the forest 'leaf' textures, are hand-drawn scans made into a repeating texture and applied as a 'stain-glass' transparent layer on top of the forest shapes and marsh areas, respectively.
I apply labels and grid last, along with the title block, and for other maps' cases any borders - that's the whole process.
If anyone was curious as to the details in this design.
I'm starting to work on the specific provincial maps for each main island - for the time being I am working on the provinces of Genshu, the northern island of Kaidan. And for the first province, Atosa, located on the southwest region of Genshu. All the added communities, mountain names, a site of interest and river names came from the gazetteer currently being worked on by Jonathan McAnulty. I'll be doing the same treatment to all the provinces eventually.
Atosa is ruled by Lord Kurashima no Takeshiko, both the last appointed daimyo by the Shogun of Kaidan, and the only one without a noble birthright (in reality he is a necromancer, having achieved a vampiric state from foreign shores.)
Kyobe is the largest city and provincial capital, a port city built in the mouth of the Jakubi river - it is called the Smuggler's City, as many of the surrounding isles in the Kaidan sea serve as pirate (wako) bases of operation, and rely on Kyobe for support.
Mount Hinomoto is currently the most active volcano in the Isles of Kaidan, though several active volcanoes sit on Genshu.
The fortress ruins of Kabutshuchi, sits atop Mount Onikirui, once the stronghold of a mighty oni-king that sought to rule Genshu. Though he was eventually defeated, the castle is now haunted and the mountain beneath honeycombed with dungeons and catacombs from the dark era, when the oni-king ruled here.
Attachment 95287
As if I have the time for secondary or tertiary projects, but soon I'll be looking at my first non-game based map product. I've been searching for ways to utilize my unique Xara based map skills outside of the gaming industry. It comes to mind that creating artistic maps for tourism products like parks and trails seem a likely use for my skills.
I'm looking to create a 60+ page full color, soft cover book called The Illustrated Guide to LaSalle County Parks and Trails. This would feature my hand-drawn, Xara finished maps of Buffalo Rock, Mathiessen and Starved Rock State Parks - 3 canyon and bluff terrain public parks found in the county of Illinois, in which I live. The region features sandstone bluffs left by Ordovician shallow seas, 500 million years ago, and a cataclysmic event - the Kankakee Torrent, where a natural terminal morraine dike left at the end of the Wisconsin glacier, 13,000 years ago broke and emptied a great lake of glacial melt water in a matter of 3 days which carved deep canyons and dells into the sandstone outcropping leaving fantastic vista in the middle of flat-land Illlinois. These are among the most beautiful natural wonders in northern Illinois. There is rich native American and French explorer history here as well.
Anyway, I want to create a guide book with hand-drawn illustrations of local wildlife and flora, maps of prehistoric periods, current maps of the existing parks, even a 3D drawing depicting Fort St. Louis atop Starved Rock built by LaSalle in 1689. I have the archaeological study by Illinois State University for research material. There would be articles on the prehistory, recorded history of the region, local legends and folklore, and facilities to hikers and visitors to the parks.
I plan to run a Kickstarter to fund the project, with a hope of pre-sales of the book. I'm already arranging book orders by State run tourism gift shops - and the book hasn't even been created yet!! I'm hoping for a published release in December, if I can get the Kickstarter by the start of next month.
I will continue to post maps and work for my game projects, but I'll also post material for the Parks and Trails product as well. I'm doing last minute research and marketing prep to ready myself for the project.
Michael
Sounds like a very logical and, I'd imagine, profitable next step in the development and marketing of your specialized skills. Good luck with the new project and I am curious to see what you come up with!
Coming Thursday, the bath house maps presented earlier in this thread will be released as part of Haiku of Horror: Autumn Moon Bath House, the first in a series of iconic Japanese locations as a pre-built adventure site with included complex encounter featuring new monsters, haunts, a curse and a full cast of NPCs. The ghost comes in multiple Challenge Rating (CR) to be a threat to characters from 3rd to 20th level.
Here's the cover illustration, cover art by Mark Hyzer - my go to guy for creating pencil illustration creepiness.
Attachment 95519
This is actually the first Kaidan release with my name as the primary author/designer.
Congratulations on reaching that milestone. :)
Thank you , sir!
It's not that I can't write, but authors for game books are usually game designers as well - and of all the various skills in creating game publications, including: game and setting development, illustration, page layout, editing, cartography, and game design. Game design I have the least experience. So I've been working at it for 2 years now, and am now comfortable enough with my skills to tackle it on my own. One of my goals since the beginning was to entirely produce a product on my own. With the experience I've gotten, I know for sure that having some one else do the editing is necessary and something I cannot get away from - so wearing all the hats is not feasible.
For this product, I wanted some additional content that was still outside my game design skills, so I recruited Justin Sluder, a solid game design freelancer to do the extra bits, but all the basic game mechanics in this release was my work.
It's always been another goal to produce only top quality game material, so what skills I lack or am not the best at, I've found others to fulfill that. I am fairly confident that I've made a sound and interesting product - we'll see what the reviewers and fans have to say...