Free Maps/ Map requesting

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LAYF
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by LAYF » Thu Aug 22, 2013 5:48 pm

BadgeAddict wrote:I don't know if the images from this site are free to use, but you could at least look at them and pull ideas about different ways to create the effect of trees, cities, mountains, etc...

http://www.cartographersguild.com
Well... I can answer that.. the map are NOT for free use (except for private, non comercial use)
Many of the cartographers (People who makes maps) on that site are highly professional.. If you search in there you'll among other things find the guy who made the extremely impressive map for Game of Thrones...
The site also have ton of great tutorials on map making both for Photoshop and GIMP... but all be aware of the river police in there :P :lol:
-Best regards LAYF

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fifty
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Wed Aug 28, 2013 4:53 am

Yep Cartographers Guild is an amazing resource for anyone wanting to get into making maps.

Here's one I did after playing around with some of the tutorials on that site:
► Show Spoiler
It's pretty big but if you click it then right-click&view image you'll get it in all its glory!

I created it for a French musketeer style game I was running but any of you feel free to high-jack it for your own purposes (I can provide an unlabelled version if anyone needs it)
Last edited by fifty on Thu Aug 29, 2013 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ThroughTheWell
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by ThroughTheWell » Wed Aug 28, 2013 8:40 am

fifty, THAT is impressive.
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:26 pm

ThroughTheWell wrote:fifty, THAT is impressive.
Thanks ThroughTheWell! It takes a while to do but it's worth it IMO! :D
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LAYF
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by LAYF » Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:29 am

UUUH, new map... how can I have not seen this...

I like it 50. and I even think I recognize the tutorial that you have followed,
only thing that bugs my eye is your march area, looks like you have simply added a layer of black to the area, and the labeling of "fela marais" have not been recolored to keep up with that.
oh, and a bit to "soft" edges between forest and normal planes... but that's just a taste question.

I'm really glad to see someone make map where the coast lines seems natural, the rivers fallows the laws of nature, roads follows water and political borders follows thick forest, water and mountains.

all in all.. great work :D
-Best regards LAYF

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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:34 am

Thanks LooksAtYouFunny, It was my first real effort, and I'm still learning so there's plenty of room for improvement! :)
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:34 am

Here's a city area map in the 'planescape' style - I drew it for a friends free scenario on planewalker.com :Desire and the dead.
► Show Spoiler
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BadgeAddict
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by BadgeAddict » Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:22 am

That's really awesome, how did you get the random effects for the houses? or did you place them at random yourself.

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thinkslogically
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by thinkslogically » Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:00 am

yeah that's very cool, I really like the style.

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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:00 pm

Thanks BadgeAddict and thinkslogically, The style was intended to emulate the "official" sigil map style from the TRS planescape scenarios.

...and yep, I drew out a few little blocks of houses and then placed and layered them all by hand! :shock:
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by LAYF » Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:04 pm

fifty wrote:Thanks BadgeAddict and thinkslogically, The style was intended to emulate the "official" sigil map style from the TRS planescape scenarios.

...and yep, I drew out a few little blocks of houses and then placed and layered them all by hand! :shock:
Damn... Are you using Photoshop or GIMP?

Either way... you could make a random(Animated) brush instead, that is what I use for both trees, houses and mountains...
Just to make your life more simple...
-Best regards LAYF

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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:34 am

LooksAtYouFunny wrote:
Damn... Are you using Photoshop or GIMP?

Either way... you could make a random(Animated) brush instead, that is what I use for both trees, houses and mountains...
Just to make your life more simple...
Photoshop .. and yeah I know how to do brushes and things now, but I drew this map several years ago when tbh I just didn't know how to use PS properly then!
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:50 am

Ok so here's a fairly old one I hand drew and coloured later on PS.

It's a small windmill that's had its mechanism converted to a "planarium" (an Orrery type thing but for predicting the movements of the planes instead of planets)
► Show Spoiler
..the entire top floor pivots with the direction of the prevailing wind...
► Show Spoiler
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by Borys » Mon Sep 30, 2013 6:56 am

Wow, nice.
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by LAYF » Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:04 pm

really lovely, the windmill reminds me of those old once you also see in the Netherlands :)
only thing I can think off that might improve it would be to add some "age" to the graph paper,, but all in all... really cool
I love the idea of having a windmill driven planetarium :)
-Best regards LAYF

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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:55 pm

Thanks both!..

It actually became the base of the PC's with them all bunking in the top bit and using the downstairs for kitchen and living - I love giving groups unusual homes makes the place they live so much more memorable :)
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Thu Oct 03, 2013 3:37 pm

Latest map i've done is a 'pirate' style map of an archipelago.
► Show Spoiler
It was particularly challenging as this is a new style for me and involved lots of hand drawn elements. Still I reckon it looks suitably grubby and used! :D
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by ThroughTheWell » Thu Oct 03, 2013 3:59 pm

Fifty, that looks amazing. I only have 2 minor dings. To the right of Bearing Island you have a "channel" that is way to big for the word channel or passage. You could make it a channel by crowding it more, or just drop that descriptor. The other ding is the upper right title Isles of archipeligo... seems overly redundant to me. Call it the X archipeligo and be done with it. Again, this looks like you studied some actual charts. I'd think this is pro work for a game or something if you did not tell me you made it yourself.

Grr, the image resized on me. I could see it all at first, and now I can only see half of it. You might consider adding the icon for a wreck somewhere, as those tend to be navigation hazards, and they can further crowd a passage.

Okay, zoomed in I see a few more issues. "Hurricane hole" is not placed in a hole; you curve the writing through a passage. Wrong name for that spot. Some of your Rocks are bigger than some of your Islands. I'm not too keen on mixing Isle and Island, but at least show some sizing consistency RE Rocks.
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by BadgeAddict » Fri Oct 04, 2013 7:19 am

Archipelago : A group of islands
isle: an island or peninsula (esp. a small one)

Thus, your title could either be:
The _______ isles
or
The _______ Archipelago

(ex: The British Isles)
or
(The Japanese Archipelago)

This is merely to show an example of TTW's nit-pickiness..

Personally, i don't give a crap about such a small thing, because i think it's amazing.

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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:19 pm

:lol: . I don't mind anyone's nit-picking, all C&C is cool! but thank you BadgeAddict, it's my best effort so far I think, so I'm glad you like it! :)

@TTW actually in reality a 'channel' is just a navigable body of water that connects two others and along with 'passage', 'sound', and 'strait' are all fairly interchangeable.
'Rocks', 'islands', 'points', 'Isle's', 'penninsula's' etc.. are entirely subjective or down to common/local usage too.

I can't speak for the global position, but as a sailor who's spent time on real seas around the British 'isles' and knows the charts a little bit I'd say you don't usually find much consistency.

e.g. the 'isle' of Whithorn on the Scottish coast is actually permanently connected to the mainland, the Channel 'Islands' of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, etc... are tiny in size compared to the 'isle' of skye or 'isle' of lewis. etc... or even the 'isle' of wight which is in the same 'channel'.

..in any case, thanks for your thoughts! :) ...I'll be sure to bring it up with the poorly educated ships navigator that went and named marine features willy-nilly on his chart next time I'm aboard ;) ;D

*Hesitant as i am to quote Wikipedia as a source they sum it up well:
"In a larger nautical context, as a geographical place name, the term channel is another word for strait, which is defined as a relatively narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water. In this nautical context, the terms strait, channel, sound, and passage are synonymous and usually interchangeable. For example, in an archipelago, the water between islands is typically called a channel or passage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_%28geography%29"
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Fri Oct 04, 2013 4:32 pm

So I've been looking at the map after your comments TTW and actually I think your right, in as much as the 'new landing' group of features maybe don't form enough of a "thing" on the one side to make a channel in the eyes of a navigator..

I still don't think I'm gonna change anything cause I think i'm still up with the ides that real world features have sufficient "whatever fits" as your naming them to make sense? ... besides I'm on a new project now so 'use or lose' as whatever you want! :)
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Thu Oct 10, 2013 1:43 am

Next one is a slightly older one, It's supposed to be a duergar town built on huge stalagmites rising up out of a now flooded cave, but I guess with a little imagination it could be turned to other use? :)
► Show Spoiler
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by fifty » Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:13 am

This is the opening level of a 3 level dungeon map that was used as the design for the "Halls of the Mountain King" Open design adventure released back in 2009.

Its an abandoned Dwarven stronghold, partly collapsed and if I remember rightly, now overrun with goblins.
► Show Spoiler
I'll post the other two levels shortly :)
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by Borys » Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:53 am

Hall of the mountain king you say? Sounds familiar, doesn't it Thinks?
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Re: Free Maps/ Map requesting

Post by LAYF » Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:24 am

okay YES :D

So... Since no one answered.. I made a small java program.

what it does is, it takes one PNG image and turns into a map with 5*5 pixel sprites

to show you:
► Show Spoiler
if anyone would like these things, just PM me :)




@fifty:
I really like how that new one looks hand drawn, yet, looking closer, one can see that there is copy paste work in place... really good work on making it "hand drawn"

The pirate map :praise:
There are small things, but they have been said already :)
-Best regards LAYF

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