Fantasy maps created using Xara Xtreme

[Gamerprinter]

There's a style of map, I've always wanted to try and that is one with a hot lava bed on it. I looked online for sources for lava texture and found a few, but none really intrigued me enough to use verbatim, so I emulated the style and created a texture in XDP9.

First I created a square, gave it a gray color fill. Then I began creating cracks throughout, removing some pieces, trying to make it look random - something that might work as a repeating image. Once that was done, I cut the cracks from the gray square. Then I imported a rock texture, filled the square with that, added a dark gray shade to the image fill. Then I subtracted the cracks from the rock texture. After that I applied a flat bevel to its maximum extent (this took a few minutes to render). Also I applied a halo shadow to the bevels and made the color yellow with lots of blur. Finally I created an orange square, applied a fractal cloud color mix and mixed the orange with dark orange, and moved it beneath the bevels.

After I completed it, I took it into GIMP and did a color shift and turned the texture into one for pack ice.

Finally, I posted a sample map of a fire cave creatively using the lava bed texture...

Enjoy!

Michael

[Boy]

That looks really good, Michael!

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Boy, here's another with a bit more creativity...

Once a demon is summoned, sometimes they won't go back to the Abyss, so a wizard needs another means of binding them. This is the holding cell for the demon, Abyzou - just another use for the lava field.

Michael

[csehz]

Then I subtracted the cracks from the rock texture.

Very good idea, thanks for describing it

[Gamerprinter]

Since I don't do too many B/W or grayscale maps, I thought I'd do a quickee island map. I wouldn't call this a "five minute map" more like "fifteen minutes", but I did it for that purpose (there's a G+ community dedicated to the creation of five minute maps, as a challenge to cartographers). All the linework was done in pencil in about 3 minutes. Most of the time was drawing shapes in XDP9 for the island, hills, mountains, creek, lake and the forests, at about 10 minutes. Spent the last 2 minutes labeling, so 15 minutes total.

Enjoy!

[Gamerprinter]

I will eventually assemble the following in XDP9, but the following is definitely not Xara work yet - 3D and hand-drawn only.

So I'm beginning work on a hand-drawn regional map as part of the tutorial in the Hand-Drawn Map Tutorials Guide book (the third in the series), and I decided to create a unique set of hand-drawn location/city symbols. Instead of stars for capitals and dots for cities, or several icons for castle, city, town, village, interesting site, used repeatedly across the map for all locations. Instead, I'm creating a unique icon that represents an iconic structure at a given community, creating a mini hand-drawn illustration of each, so I should have close to 50 illustrations when complete.

I find photos of examples on Google for reference. Then in order to get the perspective right with every building (so they share the same perspective), I create a rough 3D model of each structure, then render on the same plane with the camera at the same place and point of view. Render the image as grayscale with outlines. Print that out, place a sheet of tracing paper on top. Trace the outlines, then hand detail by eye. Save each as a transparent PNG file, though I still have all the symbols with stain-glass transparency as a Xara file.

So far, I've created: a ruined tower, walled manor, small castle, wizard's tower, wharfage, tavern/inn, medieval lighthouse, small cathedral, a monastery and a towered bridge... moving right along.

[Gamerprinter]

My Undersea Symbol Pack is now available at DrivethruRPG/RPGNow for $4.99 - HERE is the link.



Included in this set:

• 13 different ocean fish from clown fish to shark and stingray.
• 2 sea mammals of dolphin and humpback whale
• 15 invertibrates from blue crab and lobster to sea urchins and octopus
• 14 coral species from fan and layered corals to brain corals and every color.
• 6 sea plants from sea grass to kelp

Note the product is a Zip file containing 50 PNG files with Alpha channel transparency at 100 ppi, each file on average is roughly 4 inches by 4 inches in scale, and can easily be resized using your favorite graphics application. This product is intended for use both in low resolution print or in your favorite virtual tabletop application.

[Fred vanderZee]

Love to see your work! As a (currently somewhat casual) WoW-player I love fantasy-world maps.

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Fred!

Since I'm getting sales on my Undersea Symbol Set, I guess its time for another themed set to join that one. I usually try to create for niches that aren't covered well by other artist/cartographers, so this next set is dedicated to the theme: Gothic Horror. So for the first one, a Gypsy Fortune Teller Vardo wagon - completely done in XPD9. Enjoy!

[Fred vanderZee]

I really mis a Like-button on this forum