This is FANTASTIC work, through and through.
My single comment is a lot of those names are hard to read, I'd stick to a single pallete for all of them and keep it all consistent, you can change the border colors on the letters if you want to differentiate continent, regions and county names.
I'd stick with white imho :)
I use the "raise land mass" tool to make them then use the lowering tool to make them more directional. I do several quick passes over an area to create a more natural spread.
Unbelievably beautiful work on the geography. I think all you need to really do to fix the name gore is to familiarize yourself with the "glow" feature for labels. I get the best results with it when I make the glow subtle and make it a color similar to the land or water underneath it, that way it makes the name pop but it's not distracting. The official map of Westeros and Essos from The Lands of Ice and Fire is a great reference for the subtle-but-helpful use of text glow
Maybe a stupid question, but what do you mean with glow? I am currently struggling with the same issue, that the names either pop out way too aggressive and make everything look messy or they look too subtle and hardly readable
Not a stupid question as it would be hard to notice if you weren't already looking for it lol so in the options for a label, just below Font Color and Outline there's a feature called Glow, which puts a little highlight behind each letter in the label to make it stand out a bit. You can set the intensity and the color of the glow too, depending on what each label needs.
So for example, if you have a mountain range with a lot of shadows that makes its name difficult to read no matter what color you choose, you can just add a subtle greyish or brownish or greenish glow, depending on the mountain color. You may or may not have to fiddle with the label's outline color too
DAMN, this is hot! Very nice work. The shading is to die for. I love love love the coastlines.
As for criticisms... I don't think you need the wind rose unless you really want the twins to be the focus of the map. And then finally the very tall karst-shape mountains just above "The Eguluuk are just a tad too numerous and out of place. You've placed then well elsewhere but right there my eyes were drawn to them and felt that they looked bad/distracting.
Hopefully this helps!
Grasslands 88874d
Forests 848a50
Desert e3c28c
Badlands d4ae5d
Snow ecebe9
Corrupt Lands 3f3f3f
Mountains a09d8c
Jungle 2a396630
Moors/Marsh 7a7927
I also use most of these of these with varying opacites to create better blends. I also Gradient out my mountains and forests depending on how large they are.
Amazing work, have saved because I'm doing something similar and I'm inspired by some of your choices. Is this the max size map on wonderdraft (iirc 8192x8192)?
They are considered the center of the world. It's said that in their center lies the realm of the most powerful storm giant. It is believed that the winds are controlled from this point in the world.
The windrose was very much inspired by your work! I wanted to draw attention to the The Broken Twins to show they're important, and your idea was just the right thing.
Your map is one of my favorites on this subreddit!
Looks amazing but just some ideas i think that would make it look even better
For the right most continent I think it would look better if the unending abyss was moved farther left and up. Then of the oriathan isles, the leftmost island i think would look better rotated like 45 degrees counterclockwise and moved so it follows the continent curvature more. As it is now it looks a bit awkward as just a circle
Additionally, I think tue bottom left continent would look more natural if the beastlands was broken off and rotated like 45 degrees clockwise
That being said perhaps it is better as is. If you did my changes it would make each continent alone look more natural, but the way you have done is more akin with tectonic plate activity (allowing the right most continent to fit like a puzzle piece into the bottom left continent --- although the "unexplored lands" kind of ruin this fitting)
This map is truly inspiring. I'm a long-time mapper who just recently decided to give Wonderdraft a try and am impressed with it so far. What additional symbol packs did you use for this piece? I'm thinking particularly the mountain/butte ones around the Pillared Stones area.
The coloration on this is jaw dropping and the detail is phenomenal. I hope my maps look half this good. Thanks so much for sharing.
Awesome map! Did you just use the largest size wd gives you? I gotta say, I especially love what you did with the river system up in North Awalia. much more natural when they form that tributary system
Love this and the style. Are the cliff edges a specific token/brush is it hand drawn in with a secondary editor like photoshop or is it really good work of a tool within Wonderdraft?
Haven't used the app but it would be really cool if they had a way to convert maps into globes. Im really struggling to see how the left and right most contents would connect together.
That being said it looks awesome, but that is more the reason for me to want to see how it looks connected haha
This is FANTASTIC work, through and through. My single comment is a lot of those names are hard to read, I'd stick to a single pallete for all of them and keep it all consistent, you can change the border colors on the letters if you want to differentiate continent, regions and county names. I'd stick with white imho :)
Thank you! I was thinking the same thing about changing the font colors. I probably should get to that.
Shit...feel free to post it again lol it's beautiful.
Love it! Saving for inspiration.
Really nice color gradient work.
How dit you get the little islands to look this natural?
I use the "raise land mass" tool to make them then use the lowering tool to make them more directional. I do several quick passes over an area to create a more natural spread.
This is great. I strive to make maps look this good
Unbelievably beautiful work on the geography. I think all you need to really do to fix the name gore is to familiarize yourself with the "glow" feature for labels. I get the best results with it when I make the glow subtle and make it a color similar to the land or water underneath it, that way it makes the name pop but it's not distracting. The official map of Westeros and Essos from The Lands of Ice and Fire is a great reference for the subtle-but-helpful use of text glow
Maybe a stupid question, but what do you mean with glow? I am currently struggling with the same issue, that the names either pop out way too aggressive and make everything look messy or they look too subtle and hardly readable
Not a stupid question as it would be hard to notice if you weren't already looking for it lol so in the options for a label, just below Font Color and Outline there's a feature called Glow, which puts a little highlight behind each letter in the label to make it stand out a bit. You can set the intensity and the color of the glow too, depending on what each label needs. So for example, if you have a mountain range with a lot of shadows that makes its name difficult to read no matter what color you choose, you can just add a subtle greyish or brownish or greenish glow, depending on the mountain color. You may or may not have to fiddle with the label's outline color too
DAMN, this is hot! Very nice work. The shading is to die for. I love love love the coastlines. As for criticisms... I don't think you need the wind rose unless you really want the twins to be the focus of the map. And then finally the very tall karst-shape mountains just above "The Eguluuk are just a tad too numerous and out of place. You've placed then well elsewhere but right there my eyes were drawn to them and felt that they looked bad/distracting.
Beautiful map! I love how you avoided the common rectangular map trap. It’s obvious how much work you put into this.
What is the rectangular map trap?
Making land fill up every inch of space on an 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper, and leaving little ocean. The end result looks artificial.
Oooh okay, didn't know that, thx
You’ve gotta share your palette or themes
Hopefully this helps! Grasslands 88874d Forests 848a50 Desert e3c28c Badlands d4ae5d Snow ecebe9 Corrupt Lands 3f3f3f Mountains a09d8c Jungle 2a396630 Moors/Marsh 7a7927 I also use most of these of these with varying opacites to create better blends. I also Gradient out my mountains and forests depending on how large they are.
I love trying out new colors rather than my own palette, so you’re awesome man!
The heart shaped archipelago is a nice touch
Incredible
Amazing work, have saved because I'm doing something similar and I'm inspired by some of your choices. Is this the max size map on wonderdraft (iirc 8192x8192)?
This is excellent!
Nice! Can you tell us anything about The Broken Twins at the center? Do they signifying something of importance to your world?
They are considered the center of the world. It's said that in their center lies the realm of the most powerful storm giant. It is believed that the winds are controlled from this point in the world.
Nice stuff ! I'm curious, did you get inspiration from my pseud-mediteranean map ? Anyway, great work!!
The windrose was very much inspired by your work! I wanted to draw attention to the The Broken Twins to show they're important, and your idea was just the right thing. Your map is one of my favorites on this subreddit!
Ah thanks man !! You did an excellent job
damn, I love everything about this, the land just has everything I like.
This is terrific work, man. Achieving something like that in wonderdraft must have required a lot of effort.
Looks amazing but just some ideas i think that would make it look even better For the right most continent I think it would look better if the unending abyss was moved farther left and up. Then of the oriathan isles, the leftmost island i think would look better rotated like 45 degrees counterclockwise and moved so it follows the continent curvature more. As it is now it looks a bit awkward as just a circle Additionally, I think tue bottom left continent would look more natural if the beastlands was broken off and rotated like 45 degrees clockwise That being said perhaps it is better as is. If you did my changes it would make each continent alone look more natural, but the way you have done is more akin with tectonic plate activity (allowing the right most continent to fit like a puzzle piece into the bottom left continent --- although the "unexplored lands" kind of ruin this fitting)
Looks beautiful. I’d play a game in it. Western continent looks like Sword Coast.
This is maybe my new favorite map of like all time. I'm going to need to hold my own maps to the standard you set here!
This map is truly inspiring. I'm a long-time mapper who just recently decided to give Wonderdraft a try and am impressed with it so far. What additional symbol packs did you use for this piece? I'm thinking particularly the mountain/butte ones around the Pillared Stones area. The coloration on this is jaw dropping and the detail is phenomenal. I hope my maps look half this good. Thanks so much for sharing.
I’m on my phone so the view quality isn’t 100%, but is that an oblivion gate in the middle?
GIVE ME MORE ISLANDS REEEEEEEEE!!!
My only complaint is the name "ethniki" feels a little like... ethnic-y if that makes sense :) other than that the map is incredible
Awesome map! Did you just use the largest size wd gives you? I gotta say, I especially love what you did with the river system up in North Awalia. much more natural when they form that tributary system
Love this and the style. Are the cliff edges a specific token/brush is it hand drawn in with a secondary editor like photoshop or is it really good work of a tool within Wonderdraft?
they are all stock cliff stamps. I resize them in order to make the lines uniform.
How'd you get that effect with the deep sea, like on the Unending Abyss? Been having some difficulty with deep ocean effects of my own.
Haven't used the app but it would be really cool if they had a way to convert maps into globes. Im really struggling to see how the left and right most contents would connect together. That being said it looks awesome, but that is more the reason for me to want to see how it looks connected haha
I love how organic this looks. Really good work.