South Africa 1885

by **The Bison King** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:07 pm

Nice update! I dig!

Nice touch with the shield in the bottom right. The Counter on Kheis (large) could be moved a tad to the right, Amatonga on the small too.
I like the coastlines but I think the western coast juts out a little abruptly, It should hug the side of the map a little longer up to about the mini map.

by **Industrial Helix** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:28 pm

Don't get too concerned about the coordinates just yet, its not XML, just the numbers dropped on the psd file to gie an idea of how they're going to look on the map.

As for the coastline I'll make it a little more drawn out. As for darkening it... I'll see what I can do. Photoshop touch ups on the water color thing tend to be either really good or really bad and unconvincing.

by **Victor Sullivan** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:33 pm

This looks good!...except I can't quite ignore the strange white rectangle in the top-right hand corner... Otherwise it looks great! I think I'd like the blank canvas in the unplayable area more than a darkened area, but a test to see what it'd look like couldn't hurt

-Sullaby

by **the.killing.44** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 2:40 pm

by **natty dread** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:33 pm

I think you could try making the paper look a bit older...

by **Victor Sullivan** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:43 pm

natty_dread wrote:I think you could try making the paper look a bit older...

Oo! Old skool, I like it. Good idea n-n-natty!

-S-S-S-Sully

by **theBastard** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:12 pm

the new look is nice. yes, the old look may helps.

by **Industrial Helix** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:19 pm

As in the white part or the actual paper as a whole?

by **Victor Sullivan** on Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:21 pm

I think just the white part would be fine, but either could be good.

by **theBastard** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:37 am

Industrial Helix wrote:As in the white part or the actual paper as a whole?

hm, maybe just white part and sea?

by **porkenbeans** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:27 am

Here is one of my favorite textures for "old paper". Maybe you might want to play around with it.

Click image to enlarge.

by **natty dread** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:42 am

^ otherwise good but a bit too smudgy imo... I'd like this map to keep the clean look, while still making it look old.

There's tons of good old-paper-textures in deviantart for example.

by **porkenbeans** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:00 am

natty_dread wrote:^ otherwise good but a bit too smudgy imo... I'd like this map to keep the clean look, while still making it look old.

There's tons of good old-paper-textures in deviantart for example.

It can be made to be as "Smudgy" as you like.

by **Industrial Helix** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:46 am

I'll admit, it helped a little to give everything a more unified feel.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

by **porkenbeans** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:01 pm

Here is another one that I like.

Click image to enlarge.

With both-

Click image to enlarge.

To get the border, I just reduced the image to 98%, Put a full size layer behind, and put a stroke on the reduced image.

It is all probably a little too dark for your taste, but the main idea is to "yellow" up the white. It may have started out white, but all old paper "yellow" with age.

by **Industrial Helix** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:31 pm

The border is nice and I'm unsure if I like the fold or not, but the color is too dark and too... brownish. My goal was to grunge things up, which I think I did reasonably well through applying light tones and dry brushing. But I don't want the map to be too old looking.

by **natty dread** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:06 pm

Well if you would do something similar what pork did, but put the paper layer below the bonus area colours, I think it would look fine. But then again I'm not sure you can do that since you used water colour... :-k

by **Industrial Helix** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:30 pm

natty_dread wrote:Well if you would do something similar what pork did, but put the paper layer below the bonus area colours, I think it would look fine. But then again I'm not sure you can do that since you used water colour...

Well, I'm not sure that it is necessary or even desirable. I'm of the opinion that the map is grungy enough and still maintains clarity.

by **Victor Sullivan** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 2:08 pm

Industrial Helix wrote:
natty_dread wrote:Well if you would do something similar what pork did, but put the paper layer below the bonus area colours, I think it would look fine. But then again I'm not sure you can do that since you used water colour...

Well, I'm not sure that it is necessary or even desirable. I'm of the opinion that the map is grungy enough and still maintains clarity.

I'm gonna have to agree with IH on this one. I think it looks fine now (without pork's inserted "old paper" back/foreground). I definitely have some issues with the crease in the center.

-Sully

by **porkenbeans** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:30 pm

Yes, I realize that it is dark and grungy, but I was only trying to show how far you could take it. The main thrust off the suggestion, is that the white on the map needs to be "yellowed" to some extent, to successfully pull off the illusion, of an antique map from this period. How much you decide is just that, What YOU decide.

Also please take into account that I was forced to put these layers "over" everything, including the text. Anything that you can do to sell the illusion of an antique map, will help you out here, as it does have a pristine and modern feel, that is fighting against the illusion.

Creases, folds, tares, moldy discolorations, and especially knocking down the Whiteness, will help on this front. Most maps that are 125 years, old will have some degree of degradation.

by **The Bison King** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:35 pm

Well I kind of like that this looks like an old map, when it was new.

by **porkenbeans** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:49 pm

The Bison King wrote:Well I kind of like that this looks like an old map, when it was new.

Yes, I like that idea in general, and have suggested the same thing on other maps. However, that requires that you have elements that all go directly to the period. In this case, among other things, you would need to do all of the labeling by hand. Which come to think of it, might be a very good idea. Take a look at the old map that was the inspiration for this one. It would really do this map good, if the text was just like that.

by **AndyDufresne** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:57 pm

I really like the water color feel IH has in his latest post. Perhaps if the non-playable land area was not as light as it is---color/intensity wise---and it was darker, it'd give a more cohesive feel. But I like what you've got going on up in this house.

--Andy

by **the.killing.44** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:28 pm

Hey is that 1550 font? Solid choice.

I think your version is bascially done on the graphic s side.pork is too over the top per usual.

by **Industrial Helix** on Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:25 pm

Yeah it is 1550, one of my left over choices from 13 Colonies. I was trying out new fonts for the painted map and this one was one of the first. It works I think.

I also think that the brownish tint to the non-playable map is too orangy. So that is now fixed.

I also think the old logo needs to go in all its lameness. Time to replace it with something a little more in line with the rest of the map.

I also aligned the text in the corners to the corners, as opposed to centered.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

South Africa 1885

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

Re: S Africa 1885 - Another update p. 19 9/23

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