Campaign Cartographer (CC from now on) is my first CAD program I've used. I watched some youtube tutorials, did some reading, and plunged in. My results for the most part have not been the greatest, but they also look a lot better than the stuff I do on my own. As I've practiced, I've gotten better (shocking, right?) but I've also learned that the various art styles you can choose from have a huge impact on how the map looks coming out.
Most recently I spent some time with CC not for a specific project or game or thing in mind - which has been my goal with other projects - but to just play with the program like a sandbox. I've actually been fairly pleased with the results.
Ospreia is one I made a few days ago. I'm fairly pleased with how it came out, though there are some weird shapes used in it. My house mate thinks the main continent looks like a T-Rex wearing a showercap. A friend thinks the desert in the south looks kind of like a butt, or worse. Awkward yeah, but not bad practice. I also like how the north east arctic island looks like a puking ghost.
Thatlmera on the other hand was done yesterday (in about 1/3 the time of Ospreia too) after an update offered a new art style. There is a lot less custom settings going on in Thalmera than Ospreia as the style itself is simply gorgeous as is.
I haven't checked if Thalmera or Ospreia are copyrighted names or already used by the way. They're just sounds my ears find pleasing.
Still, that is what I've been up to of late. I think both have some potential, though Thalmera more so than Ospreia. What about you? Do you make maps? If so, do you do them by hand or use a program? If a program, what program? Any work you'd like to share?
I have a pretty big world map but that one's actually not very good quality ( http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y533/Linda_van_der_Meulen/Tekeningen/Map_Roll20_zps780f292a.png ). It's more of an overview I've created with bright colours so it's easy to see what's where and very, very incomplete. However, I've started making city maps as well and, after a few bad versions, I think I'm starting to improve. Not only that, I've inspired my fellow DM and one of the players to create maps of their own, which is even more awesome.
ReplyDeletehttp://pixiedragon.deviantart.com/art/Catheras-567140156 is the home city of my campaign. It's a fairly large city and as you can see it used to be two different cities: the round part in the southeast used to be an ancient dwarven city that was slowly taken over by the human city to the northwest after the dwarves abandoned it. There's also a huge underground part of the city but I haven't redrawn that yet.
That city map is awesome. The world map is also cool. How long did the city map take? I like how it works together. Have you seen some of Angry GM's maps? He goes into a ridiculous level of detail (http://theangrygm.com/mapping-vancia/).
DeleteI hadn't seen Angry GM's maps before but I do love them. I've also drawn my maps on paper first before I edited them in Photoshop, which I hadn't mentioned before. Except he adds in a whooole lot more detail. XD I might do that when I create another city map... or maybe I'll do a small town first and go nuts with the details.
DeleteI think it took me about 20-25 hours to complete the city map, which includes drawing it on paper but not the first version my cat decided to sit on with dirty paws, then scanning it, improving the linework and adding colours and more details.
I use CC+ also. It is a great tool. I like your second map a lot. Nice job. I like the ruin in the forest!
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to a "very draft" version of the map for my new game: http://epicwords.com/attachments/19206
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool. It's also the quality of map I'm hoping to get to in the near future. The style I used for the second map (which I also prefer) is in the most recent update for CC3+, give it a try. :)
DeleteI want to make the Empire of the Sun style from the annual work for my L5r game, but where the game is set doesn't lend itself to that type of map sadly.
The empire of the sun style is very beautiful. I've made a map with it and like it. The latest free style is too dark for my current campaigns but I like it's hand drawn aspect.
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