The Dawn Of Ages - Quenched

[cairnswk]

Discussing Mountains...
1. I prefer the original mountains that you had, although the mountains west of downfalls to me are the best on this map with the the brown texture.
2. there is some inconsistency between your shadowing and the black on the mountains (if that is meant to be shadow also).
All shadow appears to run NE on the ground, but there are some black portions that look as though they shouldn't be black from where the sun is....
3. There is no shadow on the House of Gods
4. Shouldn't there be a little shadow on Skull Peninsula?
5. If the sun is coming from the SE, then the SE areas of cliffs etc would be in bright light, probably not in the dark colour that you've used to indicate terrain on the SE side of H of Gods, Addar, Keramion, Heimdall....and i know you've used that to indicate topography.
I hope this all makes sense.

[Kabanellas]

Woww these mountains are really driving me to madness. I’ve already mentioned to Andrew that you guys will find me sooner or later in a distant sanatorium, running on pills and staring at the landscape with a vacant look in my eyes.



Thank you Cairn for critics:

-the original mountains were in the opinion of many people too pixilated, and I have to agree.
-as for the Sun, its coming from SW, as you can see by the shadows dropping towards NE.
-that’s why the shades in the mountains appear on the faces directed to SE, while the ones facing SW are bright. Of course that this raises an inconsistency well pointed by Benn–the coastline shouldn’t appear painted black for its facing SW (most of it at least) therefore should appear bright as the mountains.
-the thing is that the coastline looks great in black!
-that’s why I’m suggesting painting the coastline in very dark brown to attributing that colour to a characteristic of the cliffs themselves rather than caused by shading.
-also, I do not intend to recreate the exact mechanics of light & physics in this map. I just want it to look good

K

[cairnswk]

Woww these mountains are really driving me to madness. I’ve already mentioned to Andrew that you guys will find me sooner or later in a distant sanatorium, running on pills and staring at the landscape with a vacant look in my eyes.

...
K

You will not be the first one to go bonkers over mountains.
I had the same dilema on my first map Cairns Coral Coast, and the foundry put me through hell with those, and shit they aren't even that good looking back....

[WidowMakers]

How about looking here: http://www.brodt.dk/peter/mount.html
Example

[MrBenn]

Everybody who has drawn mountains on a map has generally had hell with them... I remember gimil getting a tough ride on the British Isles Revamp - Ruben Cassar was lynched a couple of times for the mountains on San Marino... I took a bit of a beating for the mountains on Wales, etc, etc.

I know that you're trying to reconcile the shade on the mountains with the dhadows of the trees, but for me I think it's more important to get your consistency on the physical features (ie Moutains and Cliffs). I could live with the shadows on the tress staying the way they are; it's just that the mountains and cliffs represent the largest solid blocks of colour, and it just harrs a little bit.

Everything else about the map is visually stunning - and I would urge you strongly to go back to the solid black lines, as the brown just looks out of place.

[Raskholnikov]

IMHO Version 15 is your best - except for the mountains. Whatever you do with those, I would keep version 15 as the base and change nothing else.

[Kabanellas]

ok Benn I'll try to switch all those shades in the mountains, the thing that bothers me is that we'll get a huge amount of black in the map....

[Kabanellas]

ok, I've changed the shade vectors in the largest mountain. This gives a fairly good amount of work so I've done the experiment in just one of those mountains.

I don't know what you guys think, but I'm not getting along with it. Also, on a conceptual note, the shadows/shades should be on the Valley of Doom side not on the 'good' side.

Click image to enlarge.

previous version (to keep things on perspective)

Click image to enlarge.

[RjBeals]

dude - this map is awesome. i think the original mountins, before the tweek you just made, were great. People have a tendency to over nit pick things here. Just move on.

[Kabanellas]

Thanks Beals!

Well, I took a look at the first mountains and tried to update them - this could be a way to get us out of this hole

Test 1

Click image to enlarge.

Test 2

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Test 3

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Test 4

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[fumandomuerte]

My pick is test #2.

[danryan]

Test #4 looks wonderful. Really like those mountains.

[natty dread]

I vote #3 or #4.

[cairnswk]

#4 for me

[AndrewB]

#4 for me

[RjBeals]

4 it is.

[The Neon Peon]

#4... however, could we see it with the cliffs by the sea in the same color? (without the texture, just color)

[MrBenn]

Once you've sorted out the mountains, everything should be good to go

It would have been good to see the finished version of the black vector mountains you started - I thought they looked pretty good. Out of those four tests, I preferred #4.

[RedBaron0]

Agreed, #4.

[Kabanellas]

How about looking here: http://www.brodt.dk/peter/mount.html
Example

Sorry for the late reply WM. I can’t change the mountain layout/contour because I’ve messed up and merged the initial mountains with the background artwork. So I’ll have to stick with what I have now. I can only draw some vectors over them respecting that outline and change the fill/pattern as I want.

[Kabanellas]

I'm posting 3 variations on Test 4 solution, to finalize our choice:

Test 4

Click image to enlarge.

Test 4 with shadows

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Test 4 with different cliffs

Click image to enlarge.

P.S. - Sorry Benn, I'd gladly do it but its really time taking, and I wasn't getting happy at all with the results

[danryan]

No shadows, different cliffs (option 3). This is really a beautiful map and a graphical style unlike any other map on cc right now. Well done.

[AndrewB]

I think you got it, mate, option 3.

[natty dread]

Is the Sea dragon related to the one on Doodle earth?

[MrBenn]

I prefer option 1 to option 3, but could live with either (although something halfway between the two would be nice )

Either way, I'd suggest avoiding the extra shadow.